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TEACHER’S RESOURCE GUIDE for
A video from
Knowledge Unlimited ®
Creative Director
Liza DiPrima
Script Written by
Dave Schreiner and Paul Synnes
Produced by
Knowledge Unlimited , Inc.
Directed and Edited by
Dan Hildebrand
Photo Research
Bobson Wong
Teacher’s Resource Guide by
Paul Synnes and Bobson Wong
Copyright © 1996 by Knowledge Unlimited ®
Student activity sheets may be duplicated for classroom use.

INTRODUCTION
The story of how our nation grew from 13 coastal colonies to 48 continental states running 3,000 miles from coast to coast is a compelling tale. It is the story of men, women, and children who left the safety and relative comforts of their life back in the “settled” East and proceeded to travel west, braving the mysterious, forbidding wilds of the frontier to begin new lives. It is also the story of the decimation of proud indigenous peoples unable to withstand the onslaught of these pioneers making their way westward.
America’s Westward Expansion puts this amazing story into context. The video is divided into six main sections. It begins in 1783 as the United States basked in the glow of its independence from
Great Britain. It then looks at the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the young nation’s size overnight, and the two men who set out to explore this vast new territory — Lewis and Clark.
The third main section takes an in-depth look at the displacement of the Indians, a subject that appears throughout the video. The fourth section of the video focuses on the settlement of Texas, its war of independence, and how this laid the foundations of the Mexican War. The video then turns to the Oregon Trail and the settlement of the Northwest. Finally, the video examines the
Mexican War itself. The video closes with brief hints of things to come — the gold rush, which began in 1848, and the Civil War, which would be fought over the question of slavery and states’ sovereignty.
This video is designed to be used in grades four through twelve. At the lower grade levels, teachers can use the video as a brief lesson on how our young country was explored and how its boundaries came to look much as they do today. In higher grade levels, the video provides useful introductory information to a unit on American history.
This fact-filled video gives students a better understanding and appreciation of why the pioneers set out on their journey west, why the Indians reacted as they did, and why our government instituted certain policies and actions with regard to the Indians and the Mexicans. And with this increased awareness, students will be able to make more informed judgments about America’s westward expansion.
Paul Synnes
Managing Editor
Knowledge Unlimited

A MERICA ’ S W ESTWARD E XPANSION
The Teacher’s Resource Guide
The guide consists of the following:
1) Abrief introduction, describing the video and stating goals and objectives.
2) A Readiness Activity to be completed before viewing the video.
3) Four follow-up lessons to be completed after viewing the video. A reproducible activity sheet accompanies each lesson.
4) The complete script of America’s Westward Expansion .
5) A brief list of suggested readings.
Learning Objectives
After viewing the video and completing the activities in this guide, students should:
1) Have more background for understanding how the continental United
States grew in size and scope during the first half of the 19th century.
2) Better understand the history of the conflict between Native Americans and European settlers and be better able to debate and make judgments about many of the issues having to do with this conflict.
3) Be able to cite and describe in some detail several of the more important individuals, wars, and treaties that are fundamental in understanding the period of history addressed in the video.
4) Become more comfortable doing follow-up reading and research into early United States history.
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A Readiness Activity
(Do this activity before viewing the video.)
Objective: Students will be better able to appreciate the video as a result of having identified key personalities, terms, and events described in it.
Use the Readiness Activity Sheet (opposite page).
1. Split your class into four or five smaller groups.
2. Reproduce copies of the Readiness Activity Sheet and hand them out. This sheet contains a list of names and vocabulary terms.
3. Tell the class they will be viewing a video on America’s westward expansion during the first half of the 19th century. Explain why it is important for all U.S.
citizens to know and fully understand this unique period in our nation’s history. Also, indicate that the video will make use of and expand on the terms on their lists.
4. Assign each group three of the names, terms, or events on the sheet. Give each group about 10 minutes to discuss their three items and agree on definitions for them. Ask one person in each group to record the group’s definitions for each term in one or two sentences.
5. Have each group read its definitions to the whole class. Discuss the names and other terms, and try to supply more complete information where necessary.
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Readiness Activity Sheet
In a small group, discuss the names, terms, or events you have been assigned from the list below. Have one member of the group record an agreed-upon definition or description of each name or term.
Northwest Ordinance
Sacajawea
Oregon Trail
War of 1812
Lewis and Clark
Andrew Jackson
“Manifest destiny”
The Mexican War
Stephen Austin
Slavery
Erie Canal
“Texians”
Indian Removal Act
Louisiana Purchase
The Civil War
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LESSON 1
Objective: Students will learn more about a key figure in our nation’s history.
As they do, they will develop a better appreciation of the impact an individual can have on history and the limits of that impact.
Use Activity Sheet for Lesson 1 (opposite page).
1. Reproduce copies of Activity Sheet for Lesson 1 and hand them out. Ask students to read the instructions on the activity sheet carefully. Then answer any questions they might have.
2. Briefly discuss the figures listed on the activity sheet.
3. Have students choose one of these figures to research. Using a variety of sources for their research, students should answer the questions on Activity
Sheet for Lesson 1 .
4. Once students have completed the activity sheets, they should use them in giving the oral reports called for at the bottom of the activity sheet itself.
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Activity Sheet for Lesson 1
Listed below are eight individuals who had a role in the events of our nation’s history in the early to mid-19th century. All are mentioned in the video America’s
Westward Expansion . Use encyclopedias, books, and other library sources to learn more about one of these figures. Your teacher or librarian should be able to help you locate sources. Then answer the questions listed below. As a group, share the answers to these questions.
Thomas Jefferson
Stephen Austin
Meriwether Lewis
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Tecumseh
Andrew Jackson
Sacajawea
James K. Polk
1. Who is the person you have chosen?
2. What did he or she do, and what role did he or she play in our nation’s history — that is, why is this person historically important?
3. From your research, what interesting events happened in his or her life? Did these events contribute in any way to the role he or she played in history?
4. Evaluate the person’s contribution to U.S. history. Were the things he or she did mainly good, mainly harmful, or a mixture? Explain your answers.
Use your answers to the questions to prepare a three- or four-minute oral report on this person.
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LESSON 2
Objective: Students will learn more about differences in the cultural assumptions of whites and Native Americans. Students will also see how these different cultural assumptions created conflict.
Use Activity Sheet for Lesson 2 (opposite page).
1. Reproduce copies of Activity Sheet for Lesson 2 and hand them out. Ask students to read the instructions on the activity sheet carefully. Then answer any questions they have.
2. Discuss some of the ideas listed on the activity sheet. Give students suggestions on how to learn more about them.
3. Have students choose an event to research and answer the questions in
Activity Sheet for Lesson 2 . Have the students write an essay explaining the significance of each event.
4. Make sure that students understand that this exercise is not designed for them to blame whites or Native Americans for wartime atrocities. Instead, this exercise is designed to help students understand why each group acted as it did.
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Activity Sheet for Lesson 2
In order to understand why Native Americans and whites fought, you must first learn about what they were thinking at the time. Listed below are five ideas that
Native Americans and whites understood differently. Use encyclopedias, books, and other library sources to learn more about how Native Americans and whites understood these ideas. Pick one of the five ideas and, using your research, answer the questions below.
trade war government property land use and the environment
1. Which one of these ideas did you choose?
2. How did Native Americans understand this idea? How did whites understand it? How were the ways the two groups looked at this idea different?
3. How did each group’s understanding of this idea change as Native
Americans and whites interacted with each other?
4. Pick an event, such as a treaty or battle, that involved whites and Native
Americans during the 1700s or 1800s. Explain how their different understandings of this idea helped cause the event.
5. How did relations between Native Americans and whites change after the event?
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LESSON 3
Objective: To give students practice in note taking and test their overall comprehension of the video.
Use Activity Sheet for Lesson 3 (opposite page).
1. Review some of the basics of good note taking skills with the class. Discuss why taking good notes is important.
2. Reproduce copies of Activity Sheet for Lesson 3 . You may choose to hand the activity sheet out before viewing the video, so students know what points to look for. Or you may choose to hand out the activity sheet after you have shown the video, to encourage them to take detailed notes and help them determine how complete their notes are.
3. Show the video and ask students to take good notes. Tell them they will be answering questions on the activity sheet based on their notes.
4. After viewing the video, have students write their responses to the questions on Activity Sheet for Lesson 3 . They may want to use an extra sheet of paper if they need the room.
5. Use these responses to help them evaluate their note taking skills, and as the basis for a class discussion about the important concepts of the video.
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Activity Sheet for Lesson 3
As you watch America’s Westward Expansion , take good notes about the events, people, places, and ideas that are mentioned in the video. When the video is over, use these notes to write out answers to the following questions. You may want to use an extra sheet of paper if you need the room.
1. After the Revolutionary War, many settlers began to move into the
Northwest Territory. Name at least three present-day states that were part of the Northwest Territory.
2. Indians and whites had very different ideas about land ownership. These differing ideas were among the main reasons for conflict between the two groups. Briefly describe the different beliefs whites and Indians had about the land.
3. In 1803, the United States nearly doubled in size when our government purchased from France a vast area of land west of the Mississippi River. What was this purchase of land called, and how much did the U.S. pay for it?
4. The explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent by the U.S.
president in 1804 to map out and describe this vast new area of land. Who was the U.S. president that sent Lewis and Clark on their mission?
5. In 1830, the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. Briefly describe what happened as a result of this act.
6. During the early to mid-1800s, one main belief guided Americans as they moved west and settled the country. This popular belief held that the
United States had a duty to spread its lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
What special term is often used to describe this belief?
7. In the 1830s, American settlers and Mexicans in Texas joined together and started a move for independence from Mexico. What did these people call themselves?
8. What was the Alamo and why was it important?
9. In 1848, something was discovered in California that led more than 100,000 people to travel there in hopes of making a fortune. What was discovered?
10.
The Compromise of 1850 temporarily quieted a growing debate over a particularly controversial issue. But just 11 years later, this issue would rear its ugly head again, this time resulting in the Civil War. What was this issue?
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LESSON 4
Objective: By researching and looking at the way the West is portrayed and
“imagined” in today’s popular culture, students will be better able to debate and make judgments about myths and symbols and their importance in how we, as a nation, view ourselves and our history.
Use Activity Sheet for Lesson 4 (opposite page).
1. Ask your students what comes to mind when they think of the West. Have a class discussion about the diff e rent ways the West is portrayed in today’s society.
2. Reproduce copies of Activity Sheet for Lesson 4 and hand them out. Have students read the instructions on the activity sheet carefully. Then answer any questions they have.
3. Tell the class they will be doing a research project on how the West is portrayed in popular culture — that is, on television, in the movies, in art, in advertisements, and so on. Instruct your students to follow the directions and questions on the activity sheet in preparing their research paper.
Note: This activity is intended for more advanced students. An excellent overview of the idea of how the West is viewed in popular culture is discussed in
Chapter 21 of Richard White, “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A
History of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
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Activity Sheet for Lesson 4
The ideas of pioneers and the frontier have helped establish the American West as a central symbol in our culture, and have helped Americans create many myths about it. This activity will help you gain a better understanding of how the West is viewed today in terms of myths and symbols, and what purposes those myths and symbols serve. Spend a week looking for popular images of the
West in television, art, newspapers, books, magazines, advertisements, and the world around you. Then answer the following questions. Use these answers to write a research paper on the mythology and symbols of the Old West.
1. What are some of the images of the West in popular culture that you found in the past week? What are some common themes in those images? For example, what place and time period do they cover? Who appears in these images? Attach examples if appropriate.
2. What ideas about the West are the images trying to convey?
3. Do you think these images accurately or fairly portray the West? Why or why not? Give specific reasons for your answers.
4. How are these images or symbols important in our culture? Do you think many people accept them to be true, even if the symbols are exaggerated or false? Explain your answers.
5. Do you think myths are crucial to understanding history? If so, how?
Explain your answers.
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Script
INTRODUCTION
The continental United States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, spanning 48 states and four time zones.
But did you know the United States once looked like this?
...Then, only a few years later, it looked like this?
...And then like this?
Amazingly, in just 65 years the United States grew from a small cluster of 13 states to the huge nation we know today.
But this rapid growth was very costly. Many people died in battles and from disease as they blazed new trails into the west. The battles, and even wars, were between the people who braved this dangerous new land and the hundreds of Native American tribes already living there. The lives of the Indians were changed forever when whites came into their land.
And this rapid growth led to the bloodiest war our country ever fought. Expansion helped feed a great conflict that tore the country apart — the conflict over slavery.
A NEW NATION
Let’s begin in the year 1783. Americans had just won the right to govern themselves.
Before then, they were colonists, subjects of Great Britain’s King George III.
But after the American Revolution, they were citizens of a new country — the United
States of America.
The peace with the British brought the new Americans a vast amount of land. This land was bounded by the Mississippi River to the west...
...By Canada to the north...
...And down to Florida, which belonged to Spain, on the south.
At the end of the Revolutionary War, there were a few outposts deep within this territory. Daniel Boone and other pioneers had established settlements along the edge between settled areas and the wilderness frontier. Boone had also mapped an important trail through the Appalachian Mountains, called the “Wilderness Road.”
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No longer ruled by Great Britain, settlers began moving to the land west of the
Appalachians. This migration took place in two main stages. The first took people as far west as the Mississippi Valley, and settlers moved into parts of Kentucky and Tennessee.
They also pushed into the territory called the Old Northwest, or the Northwest
Territory. This area included parts of what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Pioneers were spurred on by a new law called the
Northwest Ordinance. This law gave them great freedom in setting up their own governments. Eventually, these territorial governments would be accepted by Congress into the United States. The ordinance also prohibited slavery, which was common in the southern states and territories.
The first settlers were explorers and fur traders. But the prospect of cheap land lured more and more families who were not content with the life they had in the East.
The settlers wanted to be self-reliant — that is, they wanted to take care of themselves and their families. Owning and farming property was the surest way for many families to achieve self-reliance.
But much of this early movement west was held in check by the Indians who lived in these regions.
When the first Europeans arrived in North America, they were met by Indians. Most experts agree that these first Americans crossed a land bridge between Asia and North
America over what is now the Bering Strait about 20,000 years ago.
No one knows how many Indians were in North America when the first Europeans showed up. Estimates range from two million to 18 million, split into hundreds of tribes.
These tribes lived in all parts of the land, from East to West, North to South.
From the first, Indians and whites had different ideas about land ownership.
The Indians believed that no person owned the land — it was merely held temporarily by the people living on it. This differed from the ideas of the white settlers, who regarded the land as something to own or sell.
Many whites felt that the Indians had no real claim to the land. The whites felt it was their right — even their duty — to take it. Because of this, the Indians felt that the whites were thieves.
Contact with the Europeans caused the Indians much misery. It’s estimated that millions died from illnesses such as smallpox and diphtheria that they caught from the whites.
Thousands more were killed in wars, or when they were forced from their lands.
At the same time, Indians often allied themselves with whites in the wars of colonization. Various Indian tribes fought with Spanish, English, and French soldiers against other Indians or Europeans.
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Indians were also the foundation for the fur business that flourished throughout North
America in Colonial times. They traded the fur from animals they trapped to whites in exchange for metal tools, knives, guns, or other goods they needed.
But always, Indians were pushed off the land as white settlers moved west. After the
Revolutionary War, the new government of the United States tried to protect them. A treaty with the Indians signed in 1787 said, “The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent.”
But this and hundreds of other agreements between whites and Indians would be broken in the years to come.
Because the Indians resisted the new white settlers, the United States began an organized campaign against them.
The Battle of Fallen Timbers, which took place in 1794 near what is now Toledo, Ohio, was one of the first important conflicts between Indians and the U.S. Army.
In this battle, Major General Anthony Wayne defeated a large group of Indians. This group had beaten back two invasions into the Ohio territory by the U.S. Army before
Wayne defeated them.
The defeated Indians were forced to sign an agreement called the Treaty of Greenville.
The Indians gave up their claim to most of the land that today makes up Ohio and
Indiana. In return, the government set aside certain land for the Indians.
But even this new treaty was ignored by white settlers, who moved into the land left for the Indians.
A Shawnee Indian chief named Tecumseh tried to organize an alliance of Indian tribes to fight the settlers swarming into the Northwest Territory.
But Tecumseh’s plans failed when his forces were defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe in the Indiana Territory in 1811.
The War of 1812, fought between the United States and Great Britain, briefly interrupted the movement of settlers into the Northwest Territory.
During this war, many Indian tribes sided with the British.
When the Americans won the war, these tribes were forced to surrender most of their lands east of the Mississippi to the rising flood of settlers.
Improved transportation also helped spur the movement of settlers to the West. In 1825, the Erie Canal opened. This important canal connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson
River, which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Because of the Erie Canal, goods could be shipped back and forth between the East Coast and the western frontier.
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THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The second main wave of movement west found pioneers traveling all the way to the
Pacific Ocean. In 1800, an immense area of land west of the Mississippi River, called the
Louisiana Territory, belonged to France.
President Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy the city of New Orleans from the French.
New Orleans is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of
Mexico. It was a very important trading center, and the United States wanted it.
P resident Jefferson sent several officials to Paris to work out the details for buying the city.
France’s leader, Napoleon, had other plans. He knew that war was about to break out between France and Great Britain. In order to help pay for the war, Napoleon wanted to sell all the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.
Secretary of State James Madison arrived in Paris in April of 1803 with an offer of ten million dollars for New Orleans.
Madison was stunned when Napoleon offered the U.S. the entire territory. For $15 million — just five million dollars more than they were going to pay for New Orleans alone
— the Americans were offered an area of about 828,000 square miles. They had no time to consult with Jefferson. Within weeks, they had a deal.
Jefferson was shocked when he learned that instead of simply adding New Orleans, the country itself had doubled in size. While he was delighted with the purchase, there were a few problems. For one thing, no one knew much about this new territory. President
Jefferson, a surveyor, wanted the unknown territory mapped.
But who could he send on such a dangerous mission? Jefferson turned to Meriwether
Lewis, an Army captain and Jefferson’s private secretary, and William Clark, a former officer who had served under Lewis in the Army. Both men felt at home in the wilderness and were skilled mapmakers.
Lewis and Clark had two main assignments. The first was to try and find the Northwest
Passage — a mysterious navigable waterway that many thought ran through North
America, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The second was to map and describe the vast new territory. Jefferson also wanted the expedition to make contact with the Indians they met along the way and establish friendly relations with them.
The expedition — 50 men strong — set out from St. Louis, Missouri, in May of 1804.
They spent their first winter among the Mandan Indians in present-day North Dakota.
Here they met a young Shoshone Indian woman named Sacajawea. She had been stolen from her tribe several years before, and was now the wife of a Canadian trader.
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Sacajawea and her husband joined the expedition, and she served as an interpreter for the Indian tribes the expedition found.
For the most part, Lewis and Clark’s encounters with the various Indian tribes were peaceful.
Many of these Indians helped the expedition, often providing food and describing the way ahead.
Just as they reached the imposing Bitterroot Mountain Range along the border of what is now Idaho and Montana, the expedition chanced upon the very Shoshone tribe that
Sacajawea had been kidnapped from years before. And the chief of this tribe was none other than Sacajawea’s brother!
A member of the tribe joined the expedition and safely guided its members through the rugged mountain range — the most dangerous part of their journey.
In November of 1805, Lewis and Clark finally reached the Pacific Ocean. They built a fort and stayed the winter near what is now Astoria, Oregon.
The expedition returned to St. Louis in September of 1806 with a mass of new information about an unknown land.
Lewis and Clark wrote about the cultures of more than 50 Indian tribes, some of which had never seen a white man. The explorers also catalogued more than 4,000 miles of landscape and identified hundreds of plants and animals. They also found out that the elusive Northwest Passage did not exist on American land.
DISPLACING THE INDIANS
As the reports of the riches of this new land reached the East, interest in the area grew.
Soon, thousands of pioneers set out for the territory.
This relentless movement west once again proved devastating to the Indians.
As the 19th century advanced, more and more immigrants made their way to America, the land of promise. As these settlers left the crowded East for the open West, the government decided the Indians would have to make room for them. This became the official government plan in 1830.
Congress passed a law called the Indian Removal Act. It said that all Indians living east of the Mississippi River had to move to a land set aside for them in present-day
Oklahoma. In all, more than 100,000 Indians were forced from their homes because of the Indian Removal Act.
The Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson, who first gained national fame as an
Indian fighter. President Jackson, like many others, believed that to be strong, the
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United States had to keep expanding west. Indians in the way faced two choices. They could become like white citizens, or they would be forced off their lands.
The Indian Removal Act had an impact mostly on the tribes living in the southeastern part of the United States: the Seminoles in Florida, and the Creeks, Choctaw, and
Cherokees in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
The Cherokees were treated especially unfairly. The Cherokee nation had a written language and a Constitution based on that of the United States, and they tried to use the laws of the United States to keep their lands. But none of this helped them.
The tribe sued, and the Supreme Court actually ruled in their favor. But President
Jackson refused to enforce the decision, and the Cherokees were soon forced off their legal property.
In 1838, Army troops began imprisoning the Cherokee people. During the harshest months of winter, 10,000 Cherokees were forced to move west under armed guard. They were allowed to take few possessions and had little food. Around 4,000 of them froze or starved to death on the journey, which is known today as “The Trail of Tears.”
“GONE TO TEXAS”
Most Americans saw nothing wrong with pushing Indians aside. The Indians were seen as just an obstacle to the progress of a young, strong nation. The popular view was that
America had a duty to spread its lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This concept was called “manifest destiny.”
Manifest destiny led settlers to Texas in the 1820s. The main leader of the Texas movement was Stephen Austin, who worked hard to attract settlers to the rich farmlands of eastern Texas and the open range beyond. Soon, “Texas Fever” struck the southern
United States. Many people posted signs on their homes, “GTT,” or “Gone to Texas,” and left for the new territory.
At the time of this land fever, the territory belonged to Mexico, which had gained its own independence from Spain in 1821. The new government of Mexico feared that
American settlers would take control of the territory. So in 1830, Mexico passed a law that forbade U.S. citizens from settling there.
But in 1835, the American settlers joined with Mexicans already living in Texas to start a move for Texas independence. Led by Sam Houston, the “Texians,” as they called themselves, set up their own government.
Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna reacted with rage. He led an army of
5,000 soldiers into Texas, occupying San Antonio. Defenders of the town numbered less than 200. They took refuge behind the walls of a mission called the Alamo. Davy
Crockett, Jim Bowie, and the other defenders held off the Mexican force for days. But
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f i n a l l y, on March 6, 1836, they were overwhelmed. All of the Alamo’s defenders were killed.
The cry “Remember the Alamo!” brought hundreds of volunteers to fight for Texas independence. In April of 1836, a force led by Houston met Santa Anna’s soldiers at San
Jacinto. The Mexicans were defeated, and Santa Anna was captured. He was released on his promise to urge the Mexican Congress to accept Texas’s independence.
Santa Anna didn’t keep his promise; Mexico still claimed the territory. But it was too weak to take it back.
Texas became a republic — a country of its own between Mexico and the United States.
Sam Houston was its first president.
Texas wanted to join the United States, but its request was rejected by Congress. Some of those who opposed Texas statehood feared that the new territory would become open to slavery, an issue of increasing controversy as the United States got more and more territory. Others feared war with Mexico if Texas was made a state.
As it turned out, both fears were justified. But Texas could not be denied. For nearly ten years, many people in Texas and in the United States argued for statehood.
As one of his last acts as president in 1844, John Tyler argued for Texas becoming a state, and Congress agreed with him. This made Mexico very angry, and tensions between the two nations got worse.
At the same time, the United States was having an argument with another country over another piece of territory. The rival in this case was England, and the territory was
Oregon.
THE OREGON TRAIL
The Oregon Trail was the most widely used route to the fertile valleys of the Pacific
Northwest during the mid-1800s.
The Oregon Trail was mapped by the 1830s. But it wasn’t until the early 1840s that travel became widespread. The first real wagon train set out in 1841. The so-called “Great
Migration,” which involved thousands of settlers, began in 1843.
Settlers going to the Pacific Northwest began their journey in Independence, Missouri.
Fifteen hundred miles and six tedious months later, the lucky ones reached the lush
Willamette Valley in present-day Oregon.
The Oregon Trail passed over the lands of numerous Indian tribes.
The Sioux on the Great Plains, for instance, often met the wagons and traded blankets, clothes, knives, rifles, and other goods with the whites.
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The westward tide took a heavy toll on the Plains Indians’ way of life. As the settlers hunted for food along the way, they scared off or killed many of the animals that the
Indians depended on for food and clothing.
For this and other reasons, there were many conflicts between Indians and whites. But the “Indian menace” reported in newspapers back East was nearly always exaggerated.
Some experts say that less than 4 percent of the deaths along the Oregon Trail were caused by Indians.
Most agree that the biggest killer along the Trail was disease. Cholera and dysentery, diseases caused by contaminated water, were the most common.
Once the settlers got to the fruitful Oregon Territory, they faced more problems. The trouble was, both the U.S. and Great Britain claimed it, and up until then, both had agreed to control it jointly. Citizens of both nations were allowed to trade and settle in the region.
But soon after President James K. Polk took office in 1845, the U.S. told Britain it wanted control of the territory. The U.S. said it should have the territory because there were many more Americans than British in the region.
In 1846, the British agreed, and gave up its claims to what are now the states of Oregon,
Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The agreement set the northern boundary of the continental United States — the boundary that still exists today.
THE MEXICAN WAR
With the Oregon dispute settled through negotiations, the Polk Administration turned its full attention to Mexico. In April of 1846, a Mexican force had killed 16 American soldiers in a battle near the Rio Grande River in Texas. The area where the battle took place was claimed by both the United States and Mexico, but the president sensed that the country would support a war. He fed this feeling when he told Congress that the
Mexicans had crossed the U.S. border and “shed American blood upon American soil.”
Congress went along with the president, and war was declared.
It took 18 months for the United States military to defeat Mexico’s army. In that time, the army captured a huge territory extending from Texas to the Pacific Ocean. And another force marched through Mexico itself and captured Mexico City.
The war added almost two million square miles of territory to the United States. That territory included all the present states of Texas, Utah, Nevada, and California, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. As part of the settlement formally ending the war, the United States gave Mexico $15 million — the same price it had paid for the Louisiana Territory.
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As if to affirm America’s great fortune, gold was discovered in the newly-won area of
California. By 1849, a huge gold rush was taking place. More than 100,000 people dropped everything so they could get to California to make a fortune or “go bust.”
Most Americans rejoiced at all this new territory. But others feared the consequences of this rapid growth. As the U.S. gained more and more territory, Americans kept asking one overriding question:
Would these new areas be allowed to have slaves, or would they be free?
The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. The Missouri
Compromise of 1820 dealt with the Louisiana Territory. Missouri and all the territory south of it would allow slavery. All the territory north of Missouri would be free.
The Mexican territory renewed harsh debates about slavery. To end these debates, a new compromise was formed. To satisfy the South, the Compromise of 1850 established a harsher runaway slave law. It allowed slaveowners to enter free states to hunt for runaway slaves. In return, slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia and the new state of California.
This and other compromises would preserve an uneasy peace in the United States for another ten years. But the slavery question would not go away.
The territory the United States gained from Mexico completed America’s westward expansion. The country now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
But the United States would pay a huge price for this expansion. In 1861, a great bloodletting would begin that took the lives of about 620,000 soldiers — more American lives than any war in history. The Civil War would settle the question that had haunted the acquisition of every piece of new American territory. Once and for all, the slavery question would be answered.
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For Further Reading ...
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the
American West.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Ballantine, Betty and Ian Ballantine, eds. The Native Americans: An Illustrated
History.
Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Bial, Raymond. Frontier Home . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Billington, Ray Allen and Martin Ridge. America’s Frontier Story: A Documentary
History of Westward Expansion . New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston: 1969.
Billington, Ray Allen and Martin Ridge. Westward Expansion: A History of the
American Frontier.
5th ed. New York: Collier Macmillan, 1982.
Calvert, Robert A. and Arnoldo De Leon. The History of Texas . Arlington Heights,
Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1990.
Erickson, Paul. Daily Life in a Covered Wagon . Washington, D.C.: Preservation
Press, 1994.
Folsom, Franklin. Famous Pioneers . Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Harvey House,
1963.
Fradin, Dennis B. Pioneers . Chicago: Children’s Press, 1984.
Freedman, Russell. Children of the Wild West . New York: Clarion, 1983.
Goetzmann, William H. Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the
Winning of the American West.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.
Goetzmann, William H. and William N. Goetzmann. The West of the Imagination .
New York: W. W. Norton, 1986.
Jakes, John. Susanna of the Alamo: A True Story . San Diego: Gulliver Books, 1986.
21

Lamar, Howard R., ed. The Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West . 2nd ed.
New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Lavender, David. The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent .
New York: Harper and Row, 1988.
Levenson, Dorothy. Women of the West . New York: Watts, 1973.
Miller, Helen Markley. Westering Women . Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961.
Milner, Clyde A. II, Carol A. O’Connor, and Martha A. Sandweiss, eds. The
Oxford History of the American West.
New York: Oxford University Press,
1994.
Morgan, Ted. A Shovel of Stars: The Making of the American West, 1800 to the
Present.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Ronda, James P. Lewis and Clark among the Indians . Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1984.
Sabin, Francene. Pioneers . Mahwah, N.J.: Troll Associates, 1985.
22

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