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Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The ordinance created the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States, from lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between British Canada and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The purpose was to create new states out of the land ceded by the original states to the federal government. The Ordinances meant that the United States would hold no colonies but create states on an equal footing with the original 13. -
Lousianna Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in 1803 for $15 million. On April 30, 1803 the nation of France sold 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River to the young United States of America in a treaty commonly known as the Louisiana Purchase. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was made, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West. Traveled from near St. Louis on the Mississippi River, making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict, lasting for two-and-a-half years, fought by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, its North American colonies, and its American Indian allies. The immediate causes of the War of 1812 were a series of economic sanctions taken by the British and French against the US as part of the Napoleonic Wars and American outrage at the British practice of impressment. -
Purchase of Florida from Spain
The colonies of East and West Florida had remained loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War for American independence, but by the 1783 Treaty of Paris the Florida colonies returned to Spanish control.
The lands belonged to Spain and they became a refuge for runaway slaves, fugitive Native American Indians, smugglers, and criminals of all kinds. Once in Florida, fugitives were generally safe and many joined the Seminole Indian tribe. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri. Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north, except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. The Missouri Compromise was effectively repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, submitted to Congress by Stephen A. Douglas in January 1854. -
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was North America's most successful and influential public works project. His 363-mile long canal was the first all-water link between the Atlantic Seaboard and Great Lakes From Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. It made it easier to trade and that brought more people in. -
Indian Removal Act
Indian Removal Act gave the federal government the power to relocate any Native Americans in the East to territory. That was West of the Mississippi River. -
Trail of Tears
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears." The Cherokee Trail of Tears resulted from the enforcement of the Treaty of New Echota Took place near the Mississippi River. New plantations were opened in Georgia which increased slave population. -
Annexation of Texas
The Texas annexation was the 1845 incorporation into the United States of America of the Republic of Texas. This expansion established a Spanish claim which made up the southwestern part of the United States and California. It’s related to the westward expansion because we gained independence from Mexico. -
Mormon Movement
The collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian primitivist movement. Took place from Illinois to Utah. This relates to the westward expansion because The Mormons are a group of people that made Utah the state it is today. They also used resources as their source of travel; they thought of later generations while traveling. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The war officially ended with the February 2, 1848, signing in Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and ended the U.S.-Mexican War. Happened in Mexico. -
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. It happened because James.W. marshal discovered gold in coloma California and everybody wanted the wealth. This took place in Sacramento. Thousands of people decided to go west to mine gold. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty. It was an agreement between the United States and Mexico. Took place in Arizona and New Mexico. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. It happen because of the slave states and the free states could't decide on the compromise. Acted in Kansas and Nebraska. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government they fought. -
Transcontinental Railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. To make it easier to communicate between east and west Union Pacific Route Route of the first American transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Use was to transport people faster and more efficient to the west. -
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859. The southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. -
The Dawes Act
Authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Also set up under an Indian Office. It provided for the distribution of 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land to any Indian who accepted the act's terms. The act was intended to help the Indians to integrate into white society, but in reality helped to create a class of federally dependent Indians. -
Spanish- American War
America went to war against Spain to free Cuba from Spanish domination. Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. Took place in Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam