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Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance established the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States. This encouraged people to move beyond the Appalachians and out of the states because they could have more land and still be in the U.S. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. This was a rapid expansion of the States towards the west. There was now more room for people to move out west. -
Cumberland Road
The Cumberland Road, or National Road, was the first major highway built by the federal government. It became a main path for settlers moving out West. -
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal linked lake Erie to the Atlantic ocean in New York. It opened up a path to the lands west of the Appalachians for settlers. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. It allowed the U.S. to acquire nearly 190 million acres of land in the Northwest. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century belief that the United States and its settlers were destined to expand across North America. Many people really believed the United States had the right to take whatever land in North America that they wanted, which led to several big decisions to expand their territory westward. -
Texas Annexation
The annexation of Texas made the Republic of Texas a part of the United States. It was another large chunk of land in the West added onto the United States for settlers to go live in. -
Mormons in Utah
In 1846, there was a mass exodus of Mormons moving out West to escape religious persecution. They settled in what would be the Utah Territory. The huge amount of Mormon settlers greatly increased the number of people living in the Western United States. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Even more than the Mormon Exodus, the Gold Rush brought a great amount of settlers to the West. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670 mile chunk of land in the Southwest that the United States purchased via a treaty signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico at that time. This increased the size of the U.S., expanding it westward and South. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,912 mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The speed of the railway made it much easier for settlers to move out West, and for goods to be transported across the continent.