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This is a great overview video to start with.

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Schoolhouse Rock - Elbow Room- Manifest Destiny

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Kids learn about the California Gold Rush from the Old West. Thousands of people move to the west to search for gold and strike it rich.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Table of Contents

1. Manifest Destiny

2. Westward Expansion and Slavery

3. Westward Expansion and the Mexican War

4. Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850

5. Bleeding Kansas

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation's health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. ("Those who labor in the earth," he wrote, "are the chosen people of God.") In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand. The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson's expanding "empire of liberty." On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion "very nearly destroy[ed] the republic."

Manifest Destiny

By 1840, nearly 7 million Americans-40 percent of the nation's population-lived in the trans-Appalachian West. Following a trail blazed by Lewis and Clark, most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic opportunity. Like Thomas Jefferson, many of these pioneers associated westward migration, land ownership and farming with freedom. In Europe, large numbers of factory workers formed a dependent and seemingly permanent working class; by contrast, in the United States, the western frontier offered the possibility of independence and upward mobility for all. In 1843, one thousand pioneers took to the Oregon Trail as part of the " Great Emigration."

Did you know? In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States and fixed the boundaries of the "lower 48" where they are today.

In 1845, a journalist named John O'Sullivan put a name to the idea that helped pull many pioneers toward the western frontier. Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project, he argued, and it was Americans' " manifest destiny " to carry the "great experiment of liberty" to the edge of the continent: to "overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us," O'Sullivan wrote. The survival of American freedom depended on it.

Westward Expansion and Slavery

Meanwhile, the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states shadowed every conversation about the frontier. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had attempted to resolve this question: It had admitted Missouri to the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving the fragile balance in Congress. More important, it had stipulated that in the future, slavery would be prohibited north of the southern boundary of Missouri (the 36º30' parallel) in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase.

However, the Missouri Compromise did not apply to new territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, and so the issue of slavery continued to fester as the nation expanded. The Southern economy grew increasingly dependent on "King Cotton" and the system of forced labor that sustained it. Meanwhile, more and more Northerners came to believed that the expansion of slavery impinged upon their own liberty, both as citizens-the pro-slavery majority in Congress did not seem to represent their interests-and as yeoman farmers. They did not necessarily object to slavery itself, but they resented the way its expansion seemed to interfere with their own economic opportunity.

Westward Expansion and the Mexican War

Despite this sectional conflict, Americans kept on migrating West in the years after the Missouri Compromise was adopted. Thousands of people crossed the Rockies to the Oregon Territory, which belonged to Great Britain, and thousands more moved into the Mexican territories of California, New Mexico and Texas. In 1837, American settlers in Texas joined with their Tejano neighbors (Texans of Spanish origin) and won independence from Mexico. They petitioned to join the United States as a slave state.

This promised to upset the careful balance that the Missouri Compromise had achieved, and the annexation of Texas and other Mexican territories did not become a political priority until the enthusiastically expansionist cotton planter James K. Polk was elected to the presidency in 1844. Thanks to the maneuvering of Polk and his allies, Texas joined the union as a slave state in February 1846; in June, after negotiations with Great Britain, Oregon joined as a free state.

That same month, Polk declared war against Mexico, claiming (falsely) that the Mexican army had "invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil." The Mexican-American War proved to be relatively unpopular, in part because many Northerners objected to what they saw as a war to expand the "slaveocracy." In 1846, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot attached a proviso to a war-appropriations bill declaring that slavery should not be permitted in any part of the Mexican territory that the U.S. might acquire. Wilmot's measure failed to pass, but it made explicit once again the sectional conflict that haunted the process of westward expansion.

Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and added more than 1 million square miles, an area larger than the Louisiana Purchase, to the United States. The acquisition of this land re-opened the question that the Missouri Compromise had ostensibly settled: What would be the status of slavery in new American territories? After two years of increasingly volatile debate over the issue, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise. It had four parts: first, California would enter the Union as a free state; second, the status of slavery in the rest of the Mexican territory would be decided by the people who lived there; third, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be abolished in Washington, D.C.; and fourth, a new Fugitive Slave Act would enable Southerners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states where slavery was not allowed.

Bleeding Kansas

But the larger question remained unanswered. In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed that two new states, Kansas and Nebraska, be established in the Louisiana Purchase west of Iowa and Missouri. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, both new states would prohibit slavery because both were north of the 36º30' parallel. However, since no Southern legislator would approve a plan that would give more power to "free-soil" Northerners, Douglas came up with a middle ground that he called "popular sovereignty": letting the settlers of the territories decide for themselves whether their states would be slave or free.

Northerners were outraged: Douglas, in their view, had caved to the demands of the "slaveocracy" at their expense. The battle for Kansas and Nebraska became a battle for the soul of the nation. Emigrants from Northern and Southern states tried to influence the vote. For example, thousands of Missourians flooded into Kansas in 1854 and 1855 to vote (fraudulently) in favor of slavery. "Free-soil" settlers established a rival government, and soon Kansas spiraled into civil war. Hundreds of people died in the fighting that ensued, known as " Bleeding Kansas."

A decade later, the civil war in Kansas over the expansion of slavery was followed by a national civil war over the same issue. As Thomas Jefferson had predicted, it was the question of slavery in the West-a place that seemed to be the emblem of American freedom-that proved to be "the knell of the union."
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Westward Expansion - Timeline, Events & Facts

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Westward expansion, the 19th-century movement of settlers into the American West, began with the Louisiana Purchase and was fueled by the Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail and a belief in "manifest destiny."

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SchoolTube - Safe video sharing and management for K12

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Pioneer life has a special meaning in America. In less than 300 years, settlers spread across a vast wilderness that covered the western United States. From the first landings in Virginia and Massachusetts in the early 1600s, American settlers kept pushing westward against an ever moving frontier. Into wild country went hunters, trappers, fur traders, miners, soldiers, surveyors, and farmers. Every part of America had its pioneers.

In the 1840s and 1850s the western frontier began at the Mississippi River. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers made the long trek west to new frontiers in Oregon and California. For months they lived in covered wagons stuffed with all their possessions. These adventurers traveled in caravans, with 30 or more wagons rocking westward on the overland trails. On fine days a wagon train could cover 20 miles (32 kilometers); when the rains brought mud, the pioneers would be satisfied to cover half that distance. To learn more about the journey west, read Joshua's Oregon Trail diary.

Once pioneers arrived at their destination, their journey had only just begun. With few resources, settlers had to rely on themselves and the land. Hunting wild animals provided some food and leather for clothing. New settlers also gathered wild fruits, nuts, and berries until they could plant their own crops. Pioneer women learned to supply their own household goods. Gourds served as pails and dippers. Wood ash was made into soap. Tallow, sheep and cattle fat was molded into candles. Every cabin had two spinning wheels - a big wheel for wool and a smaller wheel for flax, the fiber from which linen was made.

Pioneer families tended to be large. Most cabins had a cradle, hollowed from a log, and the cradle was rarely empty. Children were helpful in new lands. Girls soon learned important household tasks - gardening, cooking, spinning, weaving, mending, sewing, making soap and candles. Boys worked in the woods and fields with their fathers. They learned to chop wood, to clear out brush, to split rails, and to build fences. Pioneer children were also in charge of keeping animals away from the fields. A rail fence would keep hogs and sheep out of the corn, but deer could leap that barrier. It was the children's job to chase the deer away and to keep squirrels from devouring the growing crop. Sometimes children also pounded dried corn to make cornmeal.

Of course, pioneers had more to worry about than just everyday household duties. The arrival of so many Americans on the western frontier sparked a war with Mexico over land. Americans who had settled in Texas had revolted against Mexico, formed an independent republic, and asked that Texas become part of the United States. America went to war with Mexico in order to incorporate Texas into the Union.

Many Americans also wanted to obtain more than just Texas. They sought to acquire, by purchase or conquest, other Mexican territories, including California. They believed that it was the destiny of the United States to span the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian border south to the Rio Grande, the river that is now the boundary between the United States and Mexico.

As pioneers demanded more land, problems with Native American tribes also increased. Between 1850 and 1880, numerous treaties were negotiated between whites and Indians in all parts of the West, from Nebraska to California. The original reason for these treaties was to separate the two groups and reduce the risk of war. But as the size of the settler population increased, the agreements gained a new purpose: to get good land for white settlers.

Indian tribes were restricted to reservations where their lives were controlled by unsympathetic government agents and many of their cultural traditions were forbidden. Many tribes resisted and fought back against the American government and settlers, but all of the tribes were defeated. In the 1860s and 1870s, this process of "clearing" the West for white settlement led to conflicts with the Navajos, Kiowas, Blackfeet, Comanches, Sioux, and Cheyennes.

Through their labors and accomplishments, pioneers helped define the character of America. Looking for opportunity and happiness, families risked their lives to build new communities far from the settled east coast. However, in the quest for a bigger America, Native American communities were destroyed and a war was fought with Mexico.

To learn more about the struggles and successes of pioneer life, read the journals of Augustus Pelletier, who explored with Lewis and Clark and Sarah Nita, a Navajo girl, as well as Susanna Fairchild, who participated in the Gold Rush.

Westward Expansion Timeline

1836: In the Texas War of Independence, Texans defeated at the Battle of the Alamo, but later defeat Mexicans at Battle of San Jacinto. 1838: Cherokees, forced to leave Georgia, set out for Oklahoma on "Trail of Tears." 1842: Settlers move west along the Oregon Trail. 1845: Texas admitted to the Union. 1846: War declared against Mexico; Zachary Taylor defeats Mexicans at the Rio Grande. 1847: Winfield Scott's troops take Mexico City. Mormons settle in Utah. 1848: Gold discovered in California. 1853: Gadsden Purchase establishes final U.S. boundaries in Southwest. 1860: Pony Express begins carrying mail. 1867: U.S. buys Alaska from Russia. 1869: Transcontinental Railroad completed. Wyoming becomes first state to allow women to vote. 1889: Oklahoma land rush. 1890: Battle of Wounded Knee kills over 300 Sioux Indians and ends the Indian Wars. 1897: Klondike Gold Rush begins.

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Pioneer life has a special meaning in America. In less than 300 years, settlers spread across a vast wilderness that covered the western United States. From the first landings in Virginia and Massachusetts in the early 1600s, American settlers kept pushing westward against an ever moving frontier.

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Newsela: An Overview of Westward Expansion

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Newsela: An Overview of Westward Expansion

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Newsela | An Overview of U.S. Westward Expansion

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Millions of Americans and new immigrants heeded the 19th century call to "Go West!"

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Life on the Oregon Trail Podcast (45 minutes)

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Life on the Oregon Trail Podcast (45 minutes)

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/077_Buck.mp3

Do you have what it takes to be a pioneer?

If offered the opportunity, would you undertake a journey across the Oregon Trail in a mule-pulled covered wagon?

Today, we explore the Oregon Trail past and present with Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey.

About the Show

Ben Franklin's World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Episode Summary

In this episode, we explore the history of the Oregon Trail with Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey.

During our exploration, Rinker reveals how he and his brother Nick Buck came up with the idea to travel the Trail in a mule-pulled covered wagon; Why thousands of men and women traveled west; And, what daily life was like on the Trail for both Rinker in the twenty-first century and Trail migrants in the nineteenth century.

What You'll Discover

How Rinker and Nick Buck found the idea to travel the Oregon Trail in a mule-pulled covered wagon

Why thousands of men and women traveled west

The Panic of 1837

The Second Great Awakening

Mormon influence on the Oregon Trail

Debris on the Trail

How merchants took advantage of Trail migrants

Rinker's 21st-century experience on the Trail

The Oregon Trail today

Why Rinker chose mules to pull his covered wagon

What Rinker and Nick's days and nights were like

Daily life and experiences of 19th-century Trail migrants

How overcrowding on the Trail affected migrants' journeys

Connections between the Mormons' westward migration and the Oregon Trail

The roles Narcissa and Marcus Whitman played in opening the Trail

The Whitman Massacre

The most difficult part of crossing the Oregon Trail in the 21st century

Links to People, Places, and Publications

Time Warp Question
In your opinion what might have happened if gold had not been discovered in California and the young United States had experienced fewer economic panics? How would the history of the Oregon Trail be different?
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Episode 077: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail

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http://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/077_Buck.mp3 Do you have what it takes to be a pioneer? If offered the opportunity, would you undertake a journey across the Oregon Trail in a mule-pulled covered wagon? Today, we explore the Oregon Trail past and present with Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey .

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.

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"Manifest Destiny" Educational Rap by MC LaLa

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Ducksters: Timeline of Westward Expansion

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Ducksters: Timeline of Westward Expansion

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Kids learn the timeline of Westward Expansion of the United States. Pioneers and settlers moved west of the Mississippi all the way to California.

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Kids learn about the Glossary and Terms of the Westward Expansion. Definitions for Old West terms like frontier, pioneer, and homestead.