Transcript manifest destiny and westward expansion

Westward Expansion
Westward Expansion
Early Growth of the United States
In 1780, 2.7 million people
lived in the original 13 states
By 1830, 12 million people
lived in 24 states
– The average family had five children !!
1790
What were the two most
compelling reasons for
Americans to go west?
A belief in the philosophy of
Manifest Destiny, which
stated that …..
A belief in the Frontier
Theory, which stated
that……
Manifest Destiny stated that …
“…. God, they said, clearly wanted
hard–working American republicans to
occupy North America. It was
inevitable and good that the United
States occupy the continent “from sea
to shining sea.” It demanded that
Americans settle the whole of the
continent with the principles of
democracy and rooted in the word of
God.”
John L. O’Sullivan gave these ideas a
name: Manifest Destiny. It is, he wrote,
“our manifest destiny to overspread the
continent allotted by Providence for
the free development of our yearly
multiplying millions…and for the
development of the great experiment of
liberty and federated self-government
entrusted to us. ”
Summarize
The belief or doctrine, held chiefly in
the middle and latter part of the 19th
century, that it was obvious (manifest)
and certain (destiny) of the U.S. to
expand its territory over the whole of
North America and to extend and
enhance its political, social, and
economic influences.
It justified expansion by
emphasizing…
the virtue of the American people and
their institutions;
the mission to spread these institutions,
thereby redeeming and remaking the
world in the image of the U.S.; and
the destiny under God to accomplish
this work.
The Frontier Theory stated that …
Frederick Jackson Turner
Thesis stating that the on-going
conquering of the frontier provided
Americans a continual opportunity to
re-assert their will, their perseverance,
their pioneering spirit, their
independence, their creative nature,
their free-will, their strengths, and their
domination.
What would happen to America,
and the American spirit if the
frontier were to close?
Why Go West?
Besides “Manifest Destiny”
and the “Frontier Theory”,
what other reasons could
people have had to go into
the West?
Adventure
Mining Gold and other precious metals
Farming
Natural Resources
Land Ownership
New Religious Opportunities
Escape and Freedom
Overpopulation in the East Coast
New Business Opportunities
Expanding freedom to new areas
Spreading the American ethic of hard work
and economic progress
Pacific ports that could open Asian markets
Or maybe to
find love ??
Were there any incentives for specific
groups of people to travel west?
Incentives to go west included:
The Pacific Railways Act
–granted railroad company’s 10
square miles of land on either
side of each track laid west
Beginning in 1863, the Union Pacific
Railroad Company built west from Omaha,
NE, while the Central Pacific Railroad
Company built eastward from Sacramento,
CA.
The “transcontinental railroad” was
completed on May 10, 1869, in a ceremony
at Promontory Summit, UT.
Incentives to go west included:
Morrill Act
– land grants from states to educational
facilities with curriculum tied to
agriculture and mechanical arts
– ie. University of Nebraska, Washington
State, Clemson, Cornell
Incentives to go west included:
Homestead Act – for approximately
$10, settlers could have 160 acres of
western land, if they met certain
criteria:
• American citizens who were 21 years or
older, or the head of a household
• Built a home on their lot, and lived in it at
least 6 mos. of the year
• Farmed the land for 5 years or more
Before long, many were imagining
a North America without what they
considered the savagery of Native
Americans, the laziness and
political instability of Mexicans, or
the corrupt and dying monarchism
of the British.
What were some of the issues
preventing western expansion?
Financially Expensive
Long Journey
Uncharted Territory
Fear of the Unknown
Climate and Geography
Native Americans
Foreign Claims to the Land
If we wanted the land, how could we
acquire it?
War
Purchase
Theft
Trade
Land Grants
Once we’ve decided to go west, how
did we get there?
on steam powered boats
along government and
privately built roads
on railroads
as part of wagon trains
horseback
walking