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Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which set up a system for surveying and dividing western lands. Congress also passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The ordinance established the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The ordinance established the Northwest Territory, which included areas that are now in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The Northwest ordinance created a system for bringing new states into the union

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Thomas Jefferson tried to buy back just New Orleans from French minister Charles Talleyrand, when Jefferson made the offer, Charles said he could have all of Louisiana. Jefferson quickly accepted to buy all of Louisiana for $15 Million. Although Jefferson thought it was a great deal, many argued that it was unconstitutional. The constitution had not said whether a president could buy land or not. Nevertheless Jefferson bought it for the better of the country. On October 20, 1803, the senate approved the purchase of land, which roughly doubled the size of the United States.

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In 1803, the president asked congress to fund and expedition to explore the west. To lead it he chose former army captain Meriwether Lewis. Lewis then chose his friend lieutenant William Clark to be the co-leader.In May 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition began its journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark used the Mississippi River as their highway through the unknown lands.While on their venture, they met Sacagawea, a Shoshone from the Rocky Mountains. They met many other Indians groups along the way as well. Lewis and Clark were the first to reach the Pacific Ocean on foot. In March 1806, the began the long journey back home to report their findings.

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A treaty with Britain gave the United States fishing rights off parts of the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. This treaty known as the convention of 1818, also set the border between the Unites States and Canada at 49’N latitude as far west as the Rocky Mountains. Interest in the valuable fur trade in the Oregon Country was another issue resolved by this treaty. Both countries agreed to occupy the Pacific Northwest together, an agreement that would be tested in the years to come.

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Conflicts between the United States and the Seminole Indians of Florida. The Seminole often helped runaway slaves and sometimes raided the U.S. settlements. In April 1818 Jacksons troops invaded Florida to capture Seminole raiders. This act began the First Seminole War. During the war Jackson took over most of Spains important military posts. Then he overthrew the governor of Florida. He carried out these acts against Spain without receiving direct orders from President Monroe. Jacksons actions upset Spanish leaders. Most Americans, however, supported Jackson. Jacksons presence in Florida convinced Spanish leaders to negotiate. In 1819 the two countries signed the Adams-Onis Treaty, which settled all border disputes between Spain and the United States. Under this treaty, Spain gave East Florida to the United States. In return, the U.S. gave up its claims to what is now Texas. U.S. leaders also agreed go pay up to $5 Million of U.S. citizens’ claims against Spain.

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The Santa Fe Trail is another path west. It led from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It followed an ancient trading route first used by Native Americans. American trader loaded their wagon trains with cloth and other manufactured goods to exchange for horses, mules, and silver from Mexican trader in Santa Fe.

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Many settlers moving to Oregon Country and other western areas followed the 2,000 mile long Oregon Trail, which stretched from places such as Independence, Missouri, or Council Bluffs, Iowa, west into Oregon Country. The trail followed the Platte and Sweet-water Rivers over the Plains. After it crossed the Rocky Mountains, the trail forked. The northern brand led to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The other branch went to California and became known as the California Trail.

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James Knox Polk was the 11th presidents of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was Speaker of the House of Representatives and Governor of Tennessee. He was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy.

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Large numbers of immigrants crossed the Atlantic OCean to begin new lives in the Unites States. More than 4 million of the settled in the Unites States between 1840 and 1860, most from Europe. Many of them were fleeing economic or political troubles in their native countries.

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Mexicans had always believed that could build a new, better society founded on democratic principles. In 1839 writer John O’Sullivan noted, “We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march?”  Actually, there was one limit: land. From the beginnings of the colonies, Americans had been moving west in search of land and economic opportunity. At the end of the Revolution, the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the method for dividing and governing new territories. By the 1840’s the United States had a booming economy and population.Barley 70 years old, the nation needed even more room for farms, ranches, businesses, and ever-growing families. Americans looked West to hat they saw as a vast wilderness, ready to be taken. The regions of Oregon, New Mexico, and Texas were being settled by Americans, and the national government worked to annex tos lands to the United States.Some people believed it was America’s manifest destiny, or obvious fate, to settle land all the way to the Pacific Ocean in order to spread democracy. One problem, slavery. If America expanded, would slavery be allowed in the new Territories? Several presidents became involved in the difficult issue. Among them was President John Tyler. A pro-slavery Whig. Tyler wanted to increase the power of the southern slave states by annexing Texas. His fellow Whigs disagreed.

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On March 2, 1836, Texans declared their independence from Mexico and adopted a constitution. The new Republic of Texas was born. Both the declaration and the constitution were modeled after the U.S. documents. The Texas constitution, however, made slavery legal. Delegates to the new Texas government chose politician David burnet as president and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice President. Another revolutionary, Sam Houston, was named to head the Texas Army. Austin went to the United States to seek money and troops.

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One Large group of settlers traveled to the West in search of religious freedom. In 1830 a young man named Jospeh Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in western New York. The members of Smith’s church became known as Mormons. Smith told his followers that he had found and translated a set of golden tablets containing religious teachings. The writings were called the Book of Mormon.Church membership grew rapidly, but certain beliefs and practiced caused Mormons to be persecuted. In the early 1830’s Smith and his growing number of converts left New York. They formed one communities, first in Ohio, then in Missouri, and finally in Illinois. All three communities eventually failed, and an anti-Mormon mob murdered Smith in 1844.

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In 1818, Great Britain and the United States had agreed to joint control of the Oregon Territory, which reached as far north as the latitude 54 40’. In the 1840’s, large numbers of pioneers began moving along the Oregon Trail to the fertile Willamette Valley in Oregon. Thousands caught “Oregon Fever”. Groups crossed the 2,000-mile trail in covered wagons. After crossing the Rocky Mountains, most of these pioneers moved to Oregon, but some moved southwest to California, then still a part of Mexico. The trail was often treacherous-over deserts, rivers, and mountains - and more than 20,000 people died along the route.

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Mexico had long insisted that its northern border lay along the Nueces River and refused to accept the U.S. annexation of Texas. the United States said the border was farther south, along the Rio Grande. In June 1845 President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead an army into the disputed region. Polk sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico City to try to settle the border dispute. Slidell came with an offer to buy New Mexico and California for $30 Million. Mexican officials refused to speak to him. In March 1846, General Taylor led his troops to the Rio Grande. He camped across from Mexican forces stationed near the town of Matamoros, Mexico. In April, the Mexican commander told Taylor to withdraw from Mexican territory. Taylor refused. The two sides clashed, and several U.S. soldiers were killed. Two days later, congress declared war on Mexico. General Taylor’s soldiers won battles south of the Nueces River. Taylor then crossed the Rio Grande and occupied Matamoros, Mexico. While Taylor waited for more men, Polk ordered General Stephen Kearney to attack New Mexico. On August 18, 1846, Kearny took Santa Fe, the capital city, without a fight. In Mexico General Taylor finally got the reinforcements he needed. He drove his forced deep into enemy territory. Santa Anna, thrown from office after losing Texas, returned to power in Mexico in September 1846. He quickly came after Taylor. After a close battle with heavy casualties on both sides, the Mexican army retreated. The next morning the cry went up “The enemy has fled! The field is ours!”

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In 1448, just as peace with Mexico was being signed, gold was discovered in California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Word of the discovery quickly spread, and thousands of “Forty-Niners” arrived in California the following year. By 1850, San Francisco had grown to a population of 100,000. Those who participated in the Gold Rush came from many backgrounds, but few were women. Saloons spend up in mining towns and San Francisco, while the prices of household goods soared. The trails the miners used to get to the gold became known as the California Trail, and was a route for future settlers and pioneers heading to California. The Gold Rush lasted only a few years before mining companies took over, but California became a new destination for settlers moving westward.

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Shortly after Texas as annexed, a dispute broke out between the United States and Mexico over the Southern border of Texas. was the border to be the Rio Grande or the Nueces River? President Polk ordered troops into the contested area. Hoping to use the incident to extend America’s borders, Polk declared war on Mexico. Americans living in California also rebelled and declared their independence. U.S. troops landed in Mexico and marched to Mexico City. Mexico was defeated and forced to give up California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for these areas, known as the the Mexican Cession.

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Shortly after Texas as annexed, a dispute broke out between the United States and Mexico over the Southern border of Texas. was the border to be the Rio Grande or the Nueces River? President Polk ordered troops into the contested area. Hoping to use the incident to extend America’s borders, Polk declared war on Mexico. Americans living in California also rebelled and declared their independence. U.S. troops landed in Mexico and marched to Mexico City. Mexico was defeated and forced to give up California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for these areas, known as the the Mexican Cession. The United States also won the area claimed by Texas north of the Rio Grande. The Mexican Cession totaled more than 500,000 square miles and increased the size of the United States by almost 25 percent.

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Before the Mexican-American War, California’s population consisted mostly of Mexicans and Native Americans. When Mexico controlled California, Mexican officials did not want many Americans to settle there. How ever, in 1839 they did give Swiss immigrant John Sutter permission to start a colony. Sutter’s Fort, located near the Sacramento River, soon became a popular rest stop for many American emigrants. These new arrivals praised Sutter’s hospitality and helpfulness. By the mid-1840’s some Anglo Californians were publishing newspaper advertisements and guidebooks encouraging other settlers to move West. In January 1848, Sutter sent a carpenter named James Marshall to build a sawmill beside a nearby river. While working near Sutter’s Mill, Marshall glanced at the ground. “I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold.” Sutter and Marshall agreed to keep the discovery a secret. However, when they examined the work site the next day, they met a Spanish-speaking Native American worker holding a nugget and shouting. "Oro (gold)! Oro! Oro!" Sutter's workers soon quilt to search for gold. Stories of the discovery rapidly spread across the country. President Polk added to the national excitement by confirming the California gold strike in his farewell message to Congress in December 1848. In 1849 about 80,000 gold-seekers came to California, hoping to strike it rich. These gold-seeking migrants to California were called forty-nines

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The lure of gold in California attracted miners form around the world. Many were from countries that had seen few immigrants to the United States in the past, They were drawn to California by the lure of wealth. For example, famine and economic hardship in south eastern China caused many Chinese men to leave China for America. Most hoped to find great wealth, and then return home to China. These immigrants were known in Chinese as gam saan haak, or “travelers to Gold Mountain.” Between 1849 and 1853 about 24,000 Chinese men move to California. “From far and near we came and were pleased,” wrote merchant Lai Chun-chuen in 1885. Chinese immigrants soon discovered that many Americans did not welcome them, however. In 1852, California placed a high monthly tax on all foreign miners. Chinese miners had no choice but to pay this tax if they wanted to prospect for gold in California. Some Chinese workers were the targets of violent attacks. If the Chinese miners dared to protest the attacks, the legal systems favorite Americans over immigrants. Despite such treatment, many Chinese immigrants still worked in the Gold mines. Some look for other jobs, others open their own businesses. A newspaper reported Chinese working as “ploughmen, laundry men, placer miners, woolen spinners and Weavers, domestic servants, cigar makers, and shoemakers.” In 1849 alone, about 20,000 immigrants arrived in California not only from China but also from Europe, Mexico, and South America. Like most Americans who sought gold, these new arrivals intended to return home after they made their fortunes. However, many decided to stay. Some big businesses, for example, Levi Strauss, a German Jewish immigrant, made a fortune by making tough denim pants for miners.

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Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had helped to settle in Missouri crisis of 1819–20 and the notification crisis of 1832–33 by promising compromises. He now had another plan to help the nation maintain peace. His ideas were designed give both sides things they wanted: 1-California will enter the union as a free state. 2-the rest of the Mexican cession would be federal land. In this territory, popular sovereignty would decide on slavery. 3- Texas will give up land east of the upper Rio Grande. In return, the government would pay Texas’s debts from when it was an independent republic. 4-the slave trade – but not slavery – will end in the nations capital. 5- A more effective feature of slave law will be passed.
Clays plan drew attack, especially regarding California. Senator William Seward of New York defended anti-slavery views and wanted California admitted “directly, without conditions, without qualifications, and without compromise.” However, sinner John C.Calhoun of South Carolina argued that letting California enter as a free state would destroy the nations balance. He warned people of issues that would later start the Civil War. Calhoun asked the slave states be allowed to secede – formally withdraw- from the union. In contrast, senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts favorited Clay’s plan. Webster criticized northern abolitionists and southerners who talked of secession. The compromise was enacted that Here and seem to settle most disputes between free and slave states. It archived majority of clays proposals. With the compromise of 1850, California was able to enter the union as a free state. The rest of the Mexican cession was divided into two territories-Utah and New Mexico-where the question of whether to allow slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Texas agreed to give up its land claims in New Mexico for financial aid from the federal government. The compromise outlawed the slave trade in the district of Columbia and establish the new fugitive slave law.

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In 1853, the United States completed its Expansion in the Southwest with the Gadsden Purchase. This small slice of territory was purchased from Mexico for $10 Million. President Franklin Pierce was anxious to insure U.S. possession of the area. As the railroad age progressed, business-oriented Southerners saw that a rail-road linking the South with the Pacific Coast would greatly expand trade opportunities. The area was seen as the most practicable route for a southern railroad to the Pacific. James Gadsden, U.S. minister to Mexico, was responsible for negotiating the deal.

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United States purchased Alaska from Russia on March 29, 1867. The U.S. purchased it for the price of $7.2 million dollars, which amounted to about two cents per acre.

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One way  they are similar is they both annexed from Mexico to gain their independence and join the U.S..
Another way they are similar is they both had many immigrants from many different places such as Mexico.