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President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. It doubled the size of the United States and provided a large area to the west of the country for expansion.
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Explorers Lewis and Clark map out areas of the Louisiana Purchase and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean.
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Congress passed a law to moved Native Americans from the Southeast to the west of the Mississippi River.
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People began to travel west on wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. Around 300,000 people took the trail over the next 20 years.
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Journalist John O'Sullivan first uses the term "Manifest Destiny" to describe the westward expansion of the United States.
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The United States officially claims Texas as a state, eventually leading to the Mexican-American War.