Westward Expansion

America’s “Manifest Destiny”

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Manifest Destiny• “Manifest Destiny” was a phrase created in the

1840s by an American journalist.

• It was used to justify American westward expansion into areas such as Texas, Oregon, and California.

• Manifest destiny refers to the widely held belief that

– the United States system is better than any other (best government, best economy, etc.)

– Therefore, the United States had both a right and a duty to spread out across the entire continent.

– American expansion was inevitable, necessary, and had been ordained by God!

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Manifest Destiny• Fulfilling this manifest destiny, many argued, would

benefit everyone involved:

– American settlers would gain access to much needed land (the population of the United States was growing very quickly at this time)

– Through farming and construction, those settlers would improve the land, making it more productive – which would benefit society as a whole (Many Americans believed that native people who did not build permanent homes and who might not farm wasted the land)

– Non-Europeans (especially Indians) would have the opportunity to learn the American way of life

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Manifest Destiny• Although the phrase was

new, the idea was not.

• Even as British colonists, settlers pushed their geographic boundaries farther and farther west, always looking for new land and a better way of life.

• Thousands of Americans ignored the Proclamation of 1763, which forbid settlement of the Ohio River Valley.

Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland GapDaniel Boone was a famous American

frontiersman. The stories of his adventures have become legendary. Boone is

considered one of America’s first folk heroes.

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Examples of American Expansion• Northwest Ordinance (1787) reverses the terms of the

Proclamation of 1763• Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubles the size of U.S. territory• War of 1812 – designs on Canada and Florida• Monroe Doctrine (1823) Hands off the Western Hemisphere• Indian Removal Act (1830) Trail of Tears, 1838• Texas Revolution (1836) Annexation of Texas, 1847• Mexican War (1846) Polk uses border dispute to justify

expansion• Mexican Session (1848) California, Nevada, New Mexico,

Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona• Gadsden Purchase (1853) from Mexico — $10 million• Purchase of Alaska (1867) from Russia — $7.2 million• Spanish American War (1898) Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines

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How does this painting explain the attitude of Americans in the mid-1800s?

Spirit of the Frontier/American Progress, 1872 by John Gast

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Why did early settlers flood across the country during the mid-1800s?

• The California Gold Rush

• Fertile land for farming, especially in the Oregon Territory.

• Ranchers could raise cattle descended from Spanish herds in areas buffalo previously inhabited by buffalo

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How did they get there?

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Conestoga Wagon“Prairie Schooner”

• The wagons were named for the Pennsylvania town where many were built.

• Oxen or mules usually pulled these wagons in traveling groups called wagon trains.

• They got the nickname “prairie schooner” because of their ship-like appearance moving across the grassy plains.

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The Train Wagon•Shorter, lighter, and easier to navigate than the Conestoga •Water-tight bonnet and slanted side rails helped to keep rain out

Why might pioneers travel in large groups as shown in this 19th century painting?

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The Stagecoach

• Passenger coaches were a popular form of public transportation in the early 1800s

• They got their name because the coach driver changed horses every fifteen miles, or stage.

• The person who rode next to the driver usually carried a shotgun to guard against hostile American Indians or bandits, thus the phrase “riding shotgun.”

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Steam Locomotive“Iron Horse”

• The first locomotive built in the United States was the Best Friend of Charleston. It began service in 1830.

• July 1, 1862 – President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act, which called for building the Transcontinental Railroad.

• The tracks were completed in Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869

The ceremony for the driving of the “golden spike” at Promontory Summit

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Steamboat

• Robert Fulton built the first successful steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807.

• Settlers who traveled west by ship faced an arduous journey of 18,000 miles around South America or sailed to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed overland to the Pacific Ocean, and sailed to California.

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• To encourage settlement, Congress passed the Homestead Act (1862)

• Any adult citizen – including freed slaves – who had never taken up arms against the Union could claim160 acres of “public” land, but in order to get the title, they had to – Make “improvements” (build a

house and cultivate the land)

– Live there for five years

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“Go West Young Man!”Horace Greeley-1845

Only 40% of Homestead applicants fulfilled the requirements to receive the

deed to the property.

Significance of the Frontier

• As the 1800s ended, the United States occupied the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

• In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner proposed his Frontier Thesis– the frontier experience had shaped the

character of the America and its people– The frontier was the source of America’s

economic and political power

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Significance of the Frontier

• Now that the frontier was closed, Turner’s thesis made some Americans nervous.

• Others saw the close of the western frontier as the beginning of a new era in American history.

• For some, overseas expansion represented the next frontier and proponents would again use the idea of manifest destiny to justify American claims in the South Pacific.

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