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Period: to
Westward Expansion
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Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The Second Continental Congress, chartered a government for the Northwest Territory, provided a method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory. It happened near the Ohio River. It relates to the westward expansion so they could have more land. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the buying of the territory by the United States from France in 1803. They paid 50 million for the land which was 4 cents per acre. New Orleans was already important for shipping. France did not have a strong enough navy to maintain control of lands so far away from home, separated by the Atlantic ocean. This ended in April of 1803. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States, departing in May 1804, from near St. Louis making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific coast. This relates to the westward expansion because they found land in the west coast. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fouhjt between America and Great Britain. The republic's expansion to the west and renewed military conflict with Indian nations and Great Britain each posed a fundamental challenge to the fragile new republic. The debt was big after the war too. -
Eerie Canal
The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that originally ran about 363 miles from Albany, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, at Lake Erie. It was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. It was made for transportaion and to make it easier. -
Missouri Compromise
Was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. The Missouri territory gained more population. An amendment was introduced that would forbid the importation of slaves. The slaves started to spread westward. -
Purchase of Florida from Spain
Was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. Spain had long rejected repeated American efforts to purchase Florida. But by 1818, Spain was facing a troubling colonial situation where the cession of Florida made sense. It expanded more territory. -
Indian Removal Act
The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. A few of the tribes went peacefully but some resisted. This happened in Mississippi. This relates to the westward expansion because it created new land for the indians. -
Trail of Tears
As part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. They wanted more land so they settled west. -
Annexation of Texas
It was the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States. The leadership of both major American political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, strenuously objected to introducing Texas, a vast slave-holding region, into the volatile political climate of the pro- and anti-slavery. Westward Expansion related because it expanded trade. -
Mormon Movement
The Mormons started their movement into the West in 1846 due to their persecutions in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, for their strong religious beliefs. The Mormons had numerous reasons for moving there, the West was mostly unsettled and free from those who opposed polygamy. This relates to westward expansion because when they migrates to the west they could believe how they wanted. -
California Gold Rush
The gold rush was a period in which gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in California. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. Roads and new towns were built throughout the state. This relates to expansion because it gave America more money to buy land. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic. The treaty called for the US to pay $15 million to Mexico and to pay off the claims of American citizens against Mexico up to $3.25 million. This happened in Mexico and it relates to the westward expansion because it provided more land. -
Oregon Territory
The territory became a focus of those who believed that it was the United States’ obligation and right to extend its rule and liberties across the North American continent. Originally Spain, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States claimed the territory. This relates to westward expansion because it provided new states. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was a argument between the United States and Mexico. In which the United States agreed to pay 10 million to Mexico. That later became part of New Mexico and Arizona. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. It was the most significant event leading to the Civil War. The person behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. It relates to the westward expansion because it caused migration. -
Homestead Act
This encouraged western migration by providing settlers 160 acreas of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. Abraham Lincoln signed this into law and it relates to the westward expansion because it gave immigrants more land. -
Transcontinental Railroad
It was a 1,907 mile long railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 across the western United States to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing Eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River. It happened on the pacific coast. It relates to westward expansion because they wanted to expand trade. -
The Dawes Act
Federal Indian policy during the period from 1870 to 1900 marked a departure from earlier policies that were dominated by removal, treaties, reservations, and even war. It authorized the president to survey indian tribal land. It happened in Oklahoma, and it relates to the westward expansion so they could have more land. -
Spanish-American War
A conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The United States gained land of Cuba, and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine islands.
