WESTWARD EXPANSIONISM

Manifest Destiny

Do Now: Image Analysis

The Frontier Draws Settlers

American Mission: “Empire for Liberty” Manifest Destiny

1840’s expansion fever gripped the country Americans believed that expansion westward and

southward was destined and ordained by God US was destined to spread from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean

and that it was “manifest” or obvious

The Frontier Draws Settlers

Attitudes Toward the Frontier: Panic of 1837 forced many to leave their lives to try

and start new in the west Land was plentiful and hopes of a fresh started lured

thousands of Americans to move west Transportation Revolution expanded trade with China

and Japan Several ports opened up in the Oregon Territory

Settlers and Native Americans

The Black Hawk War: Early 1830s settlers in western Illinois and eastern

Iowa urged Native American people living there to relocated west of the Mississippi River.

Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe after being told of a vision of him leading the Native American people to regaining their rightful lands he lead a rebellion against the US

The Black Hawk war spread into the Wisconsin Territory Ended in 1832 when Illinois militia slaughtered 200 Sauk

and Fox people. Result the Sauk and Fox tribes were forcibly moved west

of the Mississippi River

Settlers and Native Americans

Middle Ground: Neither settlers or Native Americans dominated

Settlers needed Natives to trade with and use as guides heading west

Mutually beneficial relationship between the Native Americans and settlers

Trails West

The Santa Fe Trail One of the busiest and most well-known route 780 miles from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe,

NM Traders would load up wagons with cloth, knives, and

guns to head to Santa Fe Wagons would travel in packs of up to 100 to provide

protection from Native American attacks When close to Santa Fe wagons go separate ways to

load up with silver, gold, and furs to bring back to the US

Trails West

Oregon Trail Independence, Missouri to Portland, Oregon Fertile soil and abundant rain fall attracted settlers

by the hundreds to the Oregon Trail Trip took months to complete Wagons traveled in groups for protection and

companionship

Mormon Migration

Mormons were a religious community that began in Western NY in 1827 by Joseph Smith.

They moved to Illinois in 1839 and grew to 20,000 members.

Polygamy caused neighboring townspeople to print protests, but Smith was arrested from destroying their printing press.

His successor, Brigham Young, made the long journey to the Great Salt Lakes of Utah in 1847.

“Down Winders”

Following World War II, the United States exploded atomic weapons at the Pacific islands of Bikini and Eniwetok; and in December 1950, President Truman authorized the Atomic Energy Commission (“AEC”) to conduct tests within the continental United States. The AEC selected the Nevada Test Site in southeastern Nevada because the federal government owned hundreds of square miles of surrounding desert land, and because it contained, in the contemptuous words of one bureaucrat, “a low-use segment of the population” – the Mormon citizens of St. George, Cedar City and other sacrificial cities of southwestern Utah.

“Fifty-Four or Fight!”

The Oregon Territory was still disputed between the U.S. and Britain. In 1844, James K. Polk’s platform

called for annexation of the entire Oregon Territory.

Newspapers adopted the slogan “Fifty-Four or Fight!” in reference to latitude of contention.

Due to a decline in the fur trade and bad agriculture, America and Britain settled on extending the 49th parallel to the Pacific.

Conclusions

HW: SpNotes 9.3

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