Westward Expansion
We will "know" the causes for Westward
Expansion
and "understand" the effects on Native American
culture. We will"be able to" devise a map with
illustrations and explanations of things that
caused Westward Expansion while
understanding the disintegration of the Native
American culture.
Westward Expansion
How do you kill an Native American with a
railroad?
Why do people move? (To a new home, city, state,
country..etc)
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
What about when you moved? How was it, how
were you treated in you new school or
neighborhood?
Were you worried about anything?
Why do people typically move to a new
home, another city, state, or country?
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
What is happening to the natives & why?
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
Analyzing this painting from Gast’s perspective:
Was the West truly the land of opportunity or oppression?
Did various ethnic groups have similar experiences?
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
How did the transcontinental railroad influence different
groups of people?
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
Do different ethic groups experience similar experiences
in America today?
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
Westward Expansion
People, events, and things that caused
expansion to the Western part of the United
States.
The reason for migration was to try to create a
better life for American Settlers.
More farmland to grow cash crops and to make
profit. This resulted in the denial of land rights
natives already had.
Manifest Destiny
The belief that the United States had the God
given right to own all of the lands from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed in 1869
Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were
joined to create a single line from Omaha
Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean.
Transcontinental Railroad
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Trains led to growth and development of
railway stations that led to towns, cities, and
commercial industry. They not only
transported people but manufactured goods
and raw materials.
Klondike/Yukon Gold Rush
Drew people from all over
the world to the Klondike
region of northwestern
Canada after gold was
discovered there in 1896.
The gold rush lasted only
a few years.
California Gold Rush
Thousands migrated to
California to seek their
fortune in 1849. Miners
came to seek their fortune
in hopes to make it rich.
This started the
expansion of saloons,
hotels, and cities, like
San Francisco.
Settlement of the West was encouraged by lure of cheap
land
mineral discoveries, farming and ranching
Open range ranching and later farmers = plains area was expanded with the
Transcontinental railroad, miners, ranchers, and later farmers.
Mining towns developed, ranchers got lands who were interested in open range ranching,
and farmers got land to farm so that they could feed the country.
All of these actions began to break up reservations into individual pieces of land.
Why was it beneficial for the U.S to expand,
why did we need to expand beyond the 13
colonies?
Westward Expansion: Impact on Native Americans
The Dawes Act
(Also known as the Dawes General
Allotment Act of 1887)
Required that Indian lands be surveyed and
that American Indian families receive an
allotment of 160 acres of reservation land for
farming. Any land that remained would be
sold.
This had a great impact on Navajo. They
didn’t like farming and led to the decline of
their people.
This opened the Plains to white settlements.
The Homestead Act
Permitted any citizen or
intended citizen to select any
surveyed land up to 160 acres
and to gain title to it after 5
years residence if the person
cultivated the land.
These sales resulted from
lands that were confiscated
from the Native Americans.
How did government actions encourage
settlers to move westward?
What other factors encouraged settlers to
move westward?
Pull out your study guides.
I have divided the class into groups to focus on factors that
caused or stood in the way of the expansion of our nation.
We will also analyze how we dealt with these factors in
order to expand.
Look at your table, these questions correlate with your study
guide.
You will split up the questions for your table and prepare a
presentation. You can have one speaker or everyone can
present the information to the rest of the class.
You have ten minutes to work on the questions with your group
using your book and study guide.
Group One-Under what President was the
Louisiana purchase made, how many
future states did we get from this
purchase? page 77-What is nativism?
page 82-How did the United States try to
assimilate Native Americans? page 168169
Group Two-Describe the Texas
Revolution. page 86-What is the Mexican
Cession, what was gained? page 87
Group Three
-What does BIA stand for, what
do they do? page 162-How did
the United States respond after
the Battle of the Little Bighorn?
page 165
-Which battle marked the end of
wars between the government and
the plains tribes? page 166-167Where were the Nez Percè forced to
move? page 167
How did the U.S government handle non-citizen claims to land
and what other foreign affairs issues were tackled in order to
expand the country?
Group Four
-What did the Missouri
Compromise order? page 80How should popular sovereignty
be used in addressing slavery
according to senator’s
suggestions in 1848? page 89What did the Great
Compromise/Compromise of
1850 establish? page 89
How did the issue of slavery affect the addition of
new territories as states?
Using different materials you will work by yourself or with a
partner to complete a project of your choice.
You will use your study guide to help you with each project.
Flip the back of your table’s handout for instructions
Work with a partner to: Create a brochure for a settler guiding the
settler on the governmental benefits available for moving
westward.
Also tell the settler what to expect as far as environmental
conditions go in the Great Plains and provide settler with
instructions on how to live and build settlements appropriately in
the Great Plains.
Work with a partner to: create a job advertisement with labor union
warnings for positions working on the Transcontinental Railroad or
in the Klondike Gold mines.
Students must provide a location of the job, description of the job,
how the job can benefit the individual or society, and then detail
the working conditions workers are expected to endure.
Create a two page magazine article with graphics on governmental
actions with foreign nations and the native tribes in expanding the
U.S.
The title should be “-American Life- How the Government
Expanded the Nation”
The article should include at least two events that helped advance
the U.S position in dealing with foreign countries and two events
that advanced the U.S position in dealing with native Americans.