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Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The ordinance ctreated the first organized territory, the Northwest Territory. It established agovernment for the territory and outlined how to admit a new state into the Union, making it easier for new lands to be added for settlement. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was bought by the United States from France. It was 828,000 square miles of land; each acre was bought for 3 cents an acre. This is an extremely cheap, for in modern times, the purchase would've been 42 cents per acre, which is still a huge steal. This provided an enormous amount of land for westward expansion. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
This expedition was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. This happened shortly after the Louisiana Purchase to explore and map the new territory. They started the expedition at the Missouri River. They explored the west helping settlers learn more about the unkown; this also helepd peopel learn about what was out there, so that they knew if they wanted to setlle there or not. -
War of 1812
Westward Expansion by the United States actually helepd cause the War of 1812. We were trying to take all of the land around us. People like Tecumseh were obstructing our expansion into the Northwest Territory, and Tecumseh was fueled by his ally, Great Britain. Once the war was over, however, our boundaries were secured, and we could continue settling and acquiring new land. -
Purchase of Florida from Spain
This was also known as the Transcontinental Treaty and obviously bought Florida from Spain. American immigrants were already moving into Florida, but settlers started moving into the area more often after the territory was purchased. -
Missouri Compromise
It was a compromsie over slavery. The number of slave states and anti-slave sates were even until Missouri tried to join the Union as a slave state. Therefore, they made Maine a new anti-slave state, so Missouri could become a slave state. It also drew a line creating a boundary for slave and non-slave states. -
Eerie Canal
The Eerie Canal runs from the Hudson River to Lake Eerie. It connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. It really boosted transportation and trade, which helped population expand along the canal. -
Indian Removal Act
This act gave President Andrew Jackson the right to negotiate with Indian tribes about their land. They would take the indians land in the southern states and send them west of the Mississippi. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was a deal between the United States and Mexico. It purchased land the eventually became apart of Arizona and New Mexico. It was bought to provisde more land for the Transcontinental Railroad, which helped travel into the west immensely. Moving quicker on a railroad means more people moving in to settle. -
Trail of Tears
Native Americans were relocated from their original homes in the south, all the way to Oklahoma. It happened so that settlers had more land to work with. It was named the Trail of Tears because it was an emotional move. Many indians died from starvation and exhaustion. -
Annexation of Texas
After Texas won its indpendence from Mexico, Texas was annexed by the United States. A lot of the citizens of Texas were from the U.S. frontier, so they supported joining the Union. This obviously helped expansion immensely, for it is the biggest mainland state in the United States. -
Mormon Movement
This movement is a bunch of independent churhc groups that connects themselves to the Christian reilgion. They mvoed into the Utah valley. The Mormons moved over religious discrimination and helped them find somewhere new to start out west. -
California Gold Rush
James Wilson Marshall found gold near modern day Sacramento and the gold craze began. The craving for gold caused hundreds of people to come to California searching for this pricey mineral. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treaty was signed in a Mexican village and marked the end of the Mexican-American War. It set boudnaries that added ladn for more expansion for the United States as far south as the Rio Grande River. Mexico ended the war because its army was defeated and its capital had fallen. -
Oregon Territory
This was a territory in the United States that existed for about 11 years. It included several northwestern states such as Oregon, Montana and Idaho and stretched from the Pacific to the Rockies. It settled a boundary dispute with the U.S. and Great Britain and provided more land to settle in. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the United States territories of Kansas and Nebraska, giving new land for settlement. It repealed the Missouri Compromsie, letting white people decide by popular sovereignty if slavery is allowed or not in that state. It's one of the mso timportant events leading into the Civil War. -
Homestead Act
This act provided land to settlers for little to no cost. Cheap land affected settlers to move west. It freed up 160 acres of land for settler to settle in. -
Transcontinental Railroad
This was a railroad that linked the eastern United States to the west. It revolutionized the economy by moving things back and forth faster. It took place all over the United States, but the golden spike, which finalized the completion of the railroad, was driven into the ground in Utah. -
The Dawes Act
This act was passed by congress to provisde land to certain individual indians. The indians who accepted the allotted land would become a U.S. citizen. Congress was hoping this would make indians move into personal homes, freeing up their tribal land. -
Spanish-American War
The land the United States gained from the Spanish-American War were not attached to the main land part of the country. They were little areas in Central America. The territories were Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. They aren't states now or anything, but they are American controlled territories. These areas provided Americans a new, different type of area to go to.
