Motivations for Westward Expansion

What is "Westward Expansion"?

• The US moving across the Mississippi River toward the Pacific ocean into lands already held by other cultures.

• The US moving across the Mississippi River toward the Pacific ocean into unclaimed lands with very few people living there.

• The US making allies with Mexico and Native Americans groups who lived across the Mississippi River.

Which of the following was NOT a motivation for Westward expansion?

• alliances

• land

• manifest destiny

• slavery

How was land a motivation for Westward expansion?

CHOOSE TWO

• All the Native Americans had died from disease leaving a completely empty wilderness for Americans to settle.

• Thomas Jefferson's vision that America would be a country of independent farmers who owned their own property.

• Owning property (land) allows people to rise in social status and vote.

• The United States was too crowded.

What is the name given to the belief that the United States had the god-given right and duty to expand across the North American continent?

• Westward Expansion

• Great Awakening

• Louisiana Purchase

• Manifest Destiny

How is Manifest Destiny a motivation for Westward expansion?

• Americans believed they were culturally superior to Native Americans and Mexicans in the West resulting in a sense of entitlement to the land.

• Native Americans had signed lawful treaties and peacefully gave the land to the United States.

• Americans had inherited the land from their ancestors.

• All Americans believed slavery was wrong and wanted to abolish it across the entire continent.

How was slavery a motivation for Westward expansion?

• Americans wanted to end slavery in Mexico.

• Adding new states as either slave states or free states would tip the balance in Congress.

• All Americans wanted the new territories in the West to be slave states.

• All Americans wanted the new territories in the West to be free states.

The United States acquired land in all of these ways except

• War

• Treaties

• Settlement

• Inheritance

Before the early 1800s, which country claimed the Louisiana Territory?

• France

• Russia

• Mexico

• Great Britain

How did the Louisiana Purchase affect the United States?

• It led to war.

• It doubled the nation's size.

• It limited trade opportunities.

• It led to the discovery of a water route across the country.

What was one reason the United States wanted to acquire Florida?

• To increase the population

• To end raids on Georgia farms

• To control the Mississippi River

• TO provide a short route to Europe