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Westward Expansion
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Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was a 363 mile long canal completed in 1825, which connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, so that more items could be transported west via boats on the Great Lakes from Europe and other places east of the US. It connects Albany, New York, to Buffalo, New York. It was the longest artificial waterway at the time. It was known as the “Mother of Cities” because it helped the economy in many cities greatly. -
The Indian Removal Act of 1830
The Indian Removal Act was a law signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, making land grants authorized by the president west of the Mississippi River for native Americans to live. Jackson wanted native Americans to move off their land east of the Mississippi River so that the states that they inhibited could grow in wealth and population due to white settlers. This act forced thousands of native Americans out of their homes and into unclaimed territory in the west. -
The Platte Purchase
The Platte Purchase was a purchase of land made by the US government in 1836. The government purchased 3,149 square miles of land from Native American tribes for $7,500. The tribes agreed to move to reservations that were west of the Missouri River in order to let white settlers have their old land. The new land added onto Missouri and was called Platte County. This purchased challenged the Missouri Compromise because the land given to Missouri was north of the southern border of Arkansas. -
The Oregon Trail (With Use of Wagons)
The Oregon Trail was a huge trial that encouraged mass migration of 400,000 people to move west to places in Oregon, Washington, and California. The trail was initially only passable on foot or horseback, but by 1836, wagons could go on the trail. Hundreds of thousands of people went on the Oregon trail and faced harsh conditions such as disease and famine in order to find homes, land, civilization, and gold. -
Mexican American War
The Mexican American War was a war between the US and Mexico, started in April 1846. It stemmed from the annexation of Texas in 1845. Americans believed that the US had a right to expand to the Pacific Ocean, so the US annexed the Republic of Texas. The US government and Mexican Government could not decide on a border, so the war started. The US won the war, resulting in more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican land from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean given to the US. -
Mormons in Utah
In 1847, many Mormons fled violence and religious prosecution in the east, and kept going west until they found free land to practice Mormonism in Utah. Brigham Young led them more than 1,300 miles west into Utah. They traveled under harsh conditions—through mountains and rough wilderness. By the end of 1847, more than 2,000 Mormons settled in Utah, specifically the Great Salt Lake Valley, where Salt Lake City is now. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was a mass migration of people to California in 1848-1850. In the beginning of 1848, workers who were building a mill dam in California came across flakes of gold. The workers tried to hide the discovery, but many Americans and people of other nationalities found out and flooded into California. More than 80,000 people, called “forty-miners”, lived in crowded and chaotic towns in California in hopes of finding gold. Many people chose to stay in California permanently. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was an agreement between the US and Mexico in which the US agreed to pay Mexico $10,000,000 for a 29,670 square mile patch of land that became part of Arizona and New Mexico. The purchase was necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad. It helped western expansion because it made a lot more land available in the south west for Americans to settle on and use. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act was an act signed by President Abraham Lincoln which provided citizens up to 160 acres of land to use if they lived on it, improved it, and payed a small fee to be registered. While the Homestead Act was in effect, the US government granted more than 270,000,000 acres of land to people. The land that the government gave to people was in the west, which encouraged more people to settle west. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1869 and was 1,776 miles along so that the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the US could be connected via railroad for the first time. The Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company used government bonds in order to build the railroad. The railroad passed mainly through desert and plains. Many of the workers involved in building the railroad were Civil War veterans and immigrants from Ireland.