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Eli Whitney invented cotton gin
Greatly sped up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. -
The Louisiana Purchase
A land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million dollars. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Explorers of the West. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict between the United States and Great Britain. -
Daniel Boone
Born in 1734 an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, which was then part of Virginia but on the other side of the mountains from the settled areas. -
Indian Removal/Trail of Tears
Gave the federal government the power to relocate any Native Americans in the east to territory that was west of the Mississippi River. -
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Texas Revolution
Military conflict between the government of Mexico and Texas colonists -
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
Started a mission to the Cayuse in what is now southeastern Washington state. -
John Fremont
During the 1840s, when he led four expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder. -
Manifest Destiny
Attitude prevalent. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. -
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The Mexican War
Armed conflict between the United States and the Centralist Republic of Mexico. -
The Dooner Party
A group of American pioneers who set out for California in a wagon train. -
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The California Gold Rush
Gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. -
The Oregon Trail
2,200-mile historic east-west large wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon