WESTWARD TO OREGON
• People looking for good farmland went west
• Mild temperatures, good rainfall for crops, lots of
trees for building, good soil
• More “real” part of America
• “Europe stretches to the Alleghenies; American lies
beyond” (R.W. Emerson)
TRAILS WEST
• People followed routes first started by mountain
men and explorers into the west
• MOST IMPORTANT ROUTES
Santa Fe Trail: Southwest from Independence,
Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico
Oregon Trail: Northwest from Independence,
Missouri to Portland, Oregon (Willamette Valley
area)
Mormon Migration / Trail: Used Oregon Trail and
then Southwest into Utah (Great Salt Lake area)
EFFECTS OF WESTWARD MOVEMENT
• Cultural / Social
– Belief in the idea of being self-reliant
– “Rugged Individualism”
– At same time, assist neighbors as needed
• Changes to physical environment
– Lands cleared for farming then overused
– Rivers set with traps to catch animals for fur,
leading to overuse / extinction
– Destruction of the bison herds of the plans
EFFECTS OF WESTWARD MOVEMENT
• Concept of “natural beauty” of country
– Even as lands changed, growing pride in
natural beauty of the land
– National “mystique” towards the wilderness
– Inspiration for growing national literature and
arts movements
• Growth of population + increased
immigration
– Increase in native population
– Thousands of new European immigrants
coming to country for different reasons
IRELAND AND THE GREAT FAMINE (1845 - 1848)
• By the 1800s, the poor Irish had grown dependent
on the potato as their main food source because it
was filling and grew easily in the poor land
• In 1845, fungus developed on over ½ of the
country’s potato crop
• Irish started to emigrate to other countries to escape
famine
• By 1849, over one million had died from the famine
and over one million more had left Ireland
• Many came poor so stayed in slums of Eastern cities
• As populations increased, growth in power
happened through the growing Catholic Church and
involvement in politics
James Cagney (1899 - 1986)
One of Hollywood's pre-eminent male stars of all
time and the quintessential "tough guy."
Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)
President of the United States Actor, Governor of
California,
FAMOUS IRISH-AMERICANS
John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison)
(1899 - 1979)
Son of Irish parents who became of one the icons
of Hollywood, most remembered for westerns
John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
First Irish Catholic President of the United States,
WWII hero, Congressman,
George M. Cohan (1878 - 1942)
Father of American musical comedy, theater
legend and author of songs “Over There” and
“Yankee Doodle Dandy”
John Hancock (1737 - 1793)
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947 )
Pioneer automotive manufacturer and founder of
Ford Motor Company
Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845)
General who defeated England at Battle of New
Orleans, 7th President of the United States
Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996)
Actor, singer, dancer who changed format
of modern American musicals with An
American in Paris and Singing in the Rain
Sandra Day O’Connor
(1930 -)
First female Supreme Court justice
GERMAN EMIGRATION
• Europe in the 1800s faced both land issues and
political changes
• German farmers left lands usually due to repeated
crop failures or local political issues
• Failed political revolutions also forced liberal
reformers to leave the country
• Most Germans came to the Americas with money,
so could move further west and buy farms and
businesses
• Social activism led to changes in areas such as
education and involvement in social issues such as
abolition
John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)
Investor who at his death was worth an estimated
$25M (today about $116B)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Allied
supreme commander in WWII, President of the U.S.
Levi Strauss (1829-1902) Inventor of the blue jeans
Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938) Founder of
Firestone tire and rubber company
Milton Hershey (1857-1945) Earned his fortune by
appealing to people's sweet tooth and love of chocolate.
FAMOUS GERMANAMERICANS
Adolphus Busch (1839-1913) Formed
Anheuser-Busch and produced the Budweiser (1876), Michelob
(1896), and Faust beer brands
Lou Gehrig (1903-1941) Baseball Hall of Famer
William Edward Boeing (1881-1956)
Founded Pacific Aero Products in Seattle in 1916, later called
Boeing Corp
John Augustus Roebling (1806-69)
Designer of the Brooklyn Bridge
Fred Astaire (1899-1988) Dancer, actor, singer whose
real name was Frederick Austerlitz
Thomas Nast (1840-1902)
Cartoonist and caricaturist
GROWTH OF NATIVIST MOVEMENT
• Problems grew as the newer immigrants filled the
cities in the Northeast
– Immigrants took jobs for lower pay
– Used as strike-break workers
– Growth of urban crime / poverty
– Brought more “liberal” ideas for reform
• Nativists = people who believed “Americans must
rule America”
– Native-born, preferably of English descent
– White
– Protestant
REASONS FOR DISTRUST
• Differences in religion and language:
• Many Irish had little formal schooling, spoke poor
English or no English, and very poor
• Germans had more schooling, but not in English,
more middle class so can invest in property
• Most Irish and many German immigrants were
Catholic, not Protestant
• Fear the control of the Catholic Church
U.S. GROWTH TO 1840
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1840.jpg
US GROWTH TO 1850
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1850.jpg
US GROWTH TO 1860
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1860.jpg