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The Northwest Oridance sets guidlines for settlement on the american frontier,including the prohibition of slavery and a requirement to deal fairly with indians.
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Alexander Mackenzie, a fur trader with the North West Company, becomes the first white man to cross the North American continent. From his trading post, Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca in what is now Alberta, Canada, Mackenzie crosses the Rocky Mountains and travels through British Columbia, eventually canoeing down the Bella Coola River to the Pacific.
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Daniel Boone leaves Kentucky for "elbow room" in the Spanish territories west of the Mississippi, settling near St. Charles on the Missouri River.
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The secret Treaty of San Ildefonso transfers the Louisiana Territory from Spain back to France, on the condition that France never yield it to an English-speaking government.
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By April, Napoleon has agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million, although the transfer will violate the terms under which he had received the territory from Spain. Congress approves the deal in October. Thus, as Jefferson no doubt foresaw, his proposed expedition will also serve to secure America's hold on its newest possession and to reinforce American claims in the Pacific northwest.
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THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION (1803-1806)
Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh aboard a specially designed keelboat, the Discovery, on the first leg of his transcontinental expedition. At Louisville he is joined by Captain William Clark, an experienced frontier soldier who is the youngest brother of William Rogers Clark, the hero of the Revolutionary War in the West. Together Lewis and Clark proceed up the Mississippi to Wood River, Illinois, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, where they -
Crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Zebulon Pike comes to the Rio Grande, which he mistakes for the Red River. Here he builds an outpost and is discovered by a Spanish patrol, which takes him first to Santa Fe, then into Mexico, and finally to the Tejas border near Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he re-enters the United States in June. After reporting on Spanish forces and settlements in the Southwest, Pike publishes an account of his expedition which makes him a national celebrity.
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The Missouri Compromise brings Missouri and Maine into the union and slavery to the American West.
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The Cherokees of Arkansas agree to give up their land and settle in the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi.
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The Indian Removal Act, passed with strong support from President Andrew Jackson, authorizes the federal government to negotiate treaties with eastern tribes exchanging their lands for land in the West. All costs of migration and financial aid to assist resettlement are provided by the government. Jackson forces through a treaty for removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi within the year.
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The Florida Seminoles reject forced removal to the West and begin a seven-year war of resistance under Chief Osceola.
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Mexican President Santa Anna proclaims himself dictator. When the Americans resist at an engagement near Gonzales on the Guadalupe River, the Texas War for Independence begins.
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General Winfield Scott oversees the forced removal of the Cherokee from Georgia to the Indian Territory of the West along the "Trail of Tears.
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John Bidwell organizes the Western Emigration Society and leads the first wagon train of pioneers across the Rockies
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One thousand pioneers head west from Missouri on the oregon trail.
