Westward Expansion

And American Diversity

Lewis and Clark

• 1804-1806• 1st Overland Expedition• Meriwether Lewis and William Clark • The Goal was to gain an accurate sense of the

resources being exchanged in the Louisiana Purchase.

What was Achieved?

• Better sense of terrain West of Mississippi• Natural Resources• Established Native American Relations

Manifest Destiny 1812-1860

• 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.

Effects of Manifest Destiny

• Continentalism• All of Oregon– The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 had provided

for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country, and thousands of Americans migrated there in the 1840s over the Oregon Trail

• Mexico and Texas– In 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence

from Mexico and, after the Texas Revolution, sought to join the United States as a new state.

Oregon Trail 1841-1869

• Main overland migration routes leading from locations on the Missouri River to the Oregon Country

• Great Migration of 1843• Mormon Migration

Santa Fe Trail

• 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• A vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880

• At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it was the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/1845_trailmap.gif

California Gold Rush-1849

• Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill• 300,000 people from the U.S. and abroad

Effects

• Created Government and Commerce• Native Americans became victims of

starvation and disease• Anti-Foreigner laws were passed• World wide economic stimulation

Mexico-U.S. War 1846

• The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas