-
President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. This purchase doubles the size of the United States and provides a large area to the West of the country for expansion -
Mexico wins independence from Spain and takes control of the territories of New Mexico and California. -
Congress passes a law to move Native Americans from the Southeast to the West of the Mississippi River. -
Mexico abolished slavery, Texan leaders want to declare independence from Mexico. -
People began to travel West in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. Around 300,000 people would take the trail over the next 20 years. -
The United States officially claims Texas as a state eventually leading to the Mexican-American war. Texas became the 28th state after being admitted to the union. -
The Mexican American War was fought over the rights to Texas. After the war, the United States paid Mexico $15 million for land that would later become California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, and parts of several other states. -
A carpenter found gold at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains which sparked a gold rush that brought tens of thousands of new settlers to California. They established towns and cities so they could strike it big. -
Under the Compromise of 1850, engineered by Henry Clay, California is admitted to the Union as a free state. -
The transcontinental railroad was completed and the Pony Express was shut down. The railroad rapidly affects the ease of Western Settlement shortening the journey from coast to coast which took six to eight months by wagon.