CH. 9-1 MANIFEST DESTINY
American History
AMERICANS HEAD WEST
 Hundreds of Americans headed west in the 1840s & 1850s
 They went for different reasons and settled in different
areas
 They all shared a dream of new opportunities and a better
life
 “MULTIPLYING MILLIONS”
 1840-USA population 6 times larger than during the
American Revolution
 The country’s geographic area had doubled
 MANIFEST DESTINY—the idea that the nation had a God-
given right to all of North America
 REASONS FOR WESTWARD MIGRATION
 Mountain men—trap and trade
 Missionaries—convert Native Americans to Christianity
 Lumberjacks & miners—capitalize on the region’s natural
resources
 Most pioneers were farmers
 Farmers moved west to farm the vast, rich lands
 ENTREPRENEURS—people willing to invest money in
something to make a profit
 Shopkeepers, carpenters, and others knew if they were
among the first to practice their trade, they stood to
have the most success and make the most money
MAJOR WESTERN TRAILS
 Americans that headed west had the adventure of their
lives but some lost their lives in the process
 No train tracks or smooth highways





THE SANTA FE TRAIL
First major western trail
Independence, MO to Santa Fe, NM
Began as a commercial route or trade route
1821—war veteran William Becknell and a small band of
traders left Arrow Rock, MO for Santa Fe.
 It took 2 months to cover the 800 miles but the sold their
good for a huge profit









THE OREGON TRAIL
Longest and most famous trail
Independence, MO to Willamette Valley, OR—2,000 miles
Native Americans, Lewis & Clark, fur traders, mountain
men all used all or part of the trail
Migrants first used the trail in the 1840s
Danger was everywhere
Treacherous geography, conflict with Native Americans,
disease took the lives of some 20,000 by 1859
Tens of thousands made it to OR
Oregon Territory (1848) & Statehood (1859—33rd)
 THE MORMON TRAIL
 1830—Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of






Latter-day Saints in NY
By 1835 there were 8,000 followers
The Mormon policy of men taking multiple wives went
against other Protestant Church beliefs
It caused hostility
Violent mobs forced the Mormons out of New York to Ohio
to Missouri to Illinois
They built a community in Nauvoo, IL
A mob killed Joseph Smith and his brother
 Brigham Young became the new leader
 He decided to vacate Nauvoo and move farther west
 1847-1853—16,000 Mormons migrated to an area
around the Great Salt Lake in Utah
 1,300 mile route became known as the Mormon Trail
THE GOLD RUSH
 The largest migration west resulted from a hunger for
gold
 GOLD FEVER
 1848—carpenter found gold at John Sutter’s sawmill in
northern CA
 Sutter tried to keep it a secret
 People from Asia, South America, and Europe heard
about gold from American sailors
 Many headed to CA dreaming of striking it rich
 Dec. 5, 1848—President James K. Polk announced in his
State of the Union speech that the gold mines in CA “are
more extensive and valuable than was anticipated…”
 Polk’s speech promoted “gold fever”
 RUSH TO CALIFORNIA
 Mass migration to CA called “gold rush”
 The migrants who left for CA in 1849 were called forty-
niners
 Their numbers approached 80,000
 80% of the people that came to CA were Americans
 To reach CA, most people traveled along the CALIFORNIA
TRAIL
 Others booked passage on ships that sailed around the
southern tip of South America





BOOMING CITIES
Many miners settled into mining camps and cities
San Francisco had a population of 800 in 1848
1849—25,000; 1860—60,000
CA became the 31st state in 1850 with Sacramento its capital
MAJOR EFFECTS OF WESTWARD
MIGRATION
 Use of western trails declined sharply after 1869 when
railroad tracks finally ran unbroken from east to west
 More than 350,000 migrants had followed the overland
trails (about 1.5% of the American population)
 THE OREGON TREATY
 Presidential candidate James K. Polk promised in 1844
to secure the region for the USA
 Since 1818 the USA and Britain had jointly controlled
Oregon
 Polk’s slogan was Fifty-four Forty or Fight!
 He was referring to the north latitude line the marked
the border of Oregon Country
 His statement pledged war against Great Britain if it
refused to give all of Oregon to the USA
 Polk won the presidency but retreated from his pledge
 He concluded a treaty with Britain that set the
boundary between the USA and British Canada at the
49th parallel. This boundary still exists today.
 COMMUNICATION LINKS
 Businesses and government needed a way to stay in contact





between east and west
First type of communication was mail service
BUTTERFIELD TRAIL—major southern route that a
private stage coach ran on
1858-1860—passengers and mail ran on this trail between
St. Louis and San Francisco
1861—telegraph linked east and west
It made Pony Express obsolete because it was much faster
 The greatest effect of the westward migration would be
on the original inhabitants of the West: Native
Americans.
 Their lives would be forever changed.
 The End