ARCH12.1

THEAMERICAN REPUBLIC

Chapter 12:
Westward Expansion

▪ Read pages 231-234
▪ Add the items in blue to your notes
▪ Complete Activity 12.1 in your SAB
▪ Study your notes
▪ Prepare for your Battlefield Project

INSTRUCTIONS

▪ Moving Westward
▪ Acquiring Texas
▪ Settling Oregon, Utah, and California
▪ Fighting for the Southwest
▪ Increasing Sectional Rivalry

WESTWARD EXPANSION

MOVING WESTWARD

▪ Reasons for Going West

▪ The Nation’s Mood
▪ The Lure of the Land
▪ The Desire for Wealth
▪ The Search for Adventure and a New Start
▪ The Gospel and Religious Freedom

MOVING WESTWARD - OUTLINE

▪ Early Trails Through the West

▪ Trailblazers
▪ The Santa Fe Trail
▪ Growth of Towns
▪ The Indian Presence

MOVING WESTWARD - OUTLINE

▪ “Manifest Destiny.”
▪ The idea that that God intended

America to have all the western
lands to the shores of the Pacific.

▪ Newspaperman John L. O’Sullivan

INTRODUCTION

▪ The general mood of the nation encouraged people to go west.
▪ Americans believed they could make their country greater.

THE NATION’S MOOD

▪ The West had a nearly irresistible

attraction for American farmers.

▪ Western land also became a refuge for

thousands of immigrants seeking to
escape the troubles of other countries.

THE LUREOFTHE LAND

▪ Riches were available in the West in many forms.
▪ This motivated men to move west.
▪ Gold - California

▪ Gold was discovered in NC and GA long before this.

▪ Silver - Colorado
▪ Other businesses made profits from these ventures.

▪ railroads
▪ supply companies

THE DESIREFOR WEALTH

An Advertisement for a Lecture on the Gold in California

▪ Other reasons to move west
▪ To seek adventure
▪ a chance to put the past behind them

THE SEARCHFOR ADVENTUREANDA NEW START

▪ Some easterners headed west with a desire to

spread the gospel among both Indians and new
settlers.

▪ The Mormons saw the West as a refuge from

the persecution they were experiencing in the
East.

THE GOSPELAND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

▪ mountain men
▪ Trappers and traders who lived in

the Rockies and trapped animals

▪ They were usually the first whites

to arrive in a new western area.

TRAILBLAZERS

▪ Mountain men marked the best routes, explored the rivers, and found

passes through the mountains.

▪ Jedediah Smith located the most useful pass, South Pass.
▪ two of the most notable guides for wagon trains
▪ Joe Meek

▪ led missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman

▪ Kit Carson
▪ Pioneers eventually developed several major westward routes, the

earliest being the Santa Fe Trail.

TRAILBLAZERS

Map

Resources

Jedediah Smith crossed the Mojave Desert

in his 1826 journey to California.

▪ the first American route west of the Missouri River
▪ primarily a trade route
▪ To ensure safety on the trail and to discourage Indian attacks, the

traders gathered at one spot, usually Independence, Missouri, and
formed a single annual caravan.

▪ 1827

▪ Fort Leavenworth in Kansas was established.
▪ That allowed the military to patrol the Santa Fe Trail and then the

Oregon Trail.

THE SANTA FE TRAIL

A Wagon Train

▪ Settlers brought a degree of civilization to the wilderness.
▪ They built homes; established county governments; started stores,

forges, mills, and other businesses; and built churches.

GROWTHOF TOWNS

▪ The Indians usually left the settlers along the trails alone, but conflict

quickly arose as more and more people poured in to mine or farm the
land.

▪ The Indians of the Great Plains fought the hardest to keep their land,

and the Indian conflict continued to grow as whites began to fill the
Great Plains.

THE INDIAN PRESENCE

Open Ended

What is Manifest Destiny?

Evaluate its claim in light of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.

Open Ended

Discuss reasons for westward expansion.

Open Ended

Who were the first whites to arrive in western areas?

Open Ended

Identify the first American route west of the Missouri.

Open Ended

Two of America’s core values are individualism and growth.

How did Americans of this period exemplify these values?

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGSTO REMEMBER

▪ Manifest Destiny
▪ mountain men
▪ Jedidiah Smith
▪ Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
▪ Santa Fe Trail
▪ Stephen Austin
▪ Antonio López de Santa Anna
▪ Jim Bowie
▪ Sam Houston

▪ the Alamo
▪ Battle of San Jacinto
▪ Lone Star Republic
▪ annexation
▪ James K. Polk
▪ Oregon Trail
▪ Mormons
▪ Joseph Smith
▪ Brigham Young

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGSTO REMEMBER

▪ Deseret
▪ California Trail
▪ John Sutter
▪ James W. Marshall
▪ California gold rush
▪ forty-niners
▪ Zachary Taylor
▪ Mexican War
▪ John Charles Frémont

▪ Bear Flag Revolution
▪ Winfield Scott
▪ Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
▪ Mexican Cession
▪ Gadsden Purchase
▪ Wilmot Proviso
▪ Compromise of 1850
▪ popular sovereignty
▪ Millard Fillmore

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGSTO REMEMBER

▪ Stephen Douglas
▪ doughfaces
▪ Franklin Pierce