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Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition began in 1804, when President Thomas Jefferson tasked Meriwether Lewis with exploring lands west of the Mississippi River that comprised the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition introduced Americans and Europeans to hundreds of varieties of plants and animals, met with dozens of native tribes and produced an accurately mapped route to the Pacific Ocean; also opened up new territory for the fur and lumber trade. -
Election of 1824
John Quincy Adams defeated Andrew Jackson in 1824 by garnering more electoral votes through the House of Representatives, even though Jackson originally received more popular and electoral votes. The 1824 presidential election marked the final collapse of the Republican-Federalist political framework. The presidential election of 1824 also represents a watershed in American politics. It was the first election in which the winner did not achieve at least a plurality of the national popular vote. -
Indian Removal Act of 1830
This law required that Native American tribes that were living east of the Mississippi River be relocated to land west of the Mississippi River. This began a series of policies that negatively impacted the Native Americans. The law led to the journey in 1838, known as the Trail of Tears, during which one third lost their lives moving from their homelands in the Deep South to reservations in Oklahoma. -
The Mexican-American War
The Mexican-American War, waged between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. The war helped establish the United States as a trans-continental nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and a rising superpower. The war also accelerated political tensions between the pro-slavery states in the South and the abolitionist North. -
The Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women’s rights convention in the United States-- the meeting launched the women’s suffrage movement. The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was a major turning point in the Women's Rights Movement. It was the first of many conventions in the Movement. The Convention set the Women's Rights Movement in motion. It influenced more women and some men to start working for equal rights.
