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The TEKS: 5th Grade Social Studies

(4) History. The student understands political, economic, and social changes that occurred in the United States during the 19th century. The student is expected to:

(C) identify significant events and concepts associated with U.S. territorial expansion, including the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition of Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny.

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(4) History. The student understands political, economic, and social changes that occurred in the United States during the 19th century. The student is expected to:

(C) identify significant events and concepts associated with U.S. territorial expansion, including the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition of Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny.

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I can identify significant events and concepts about U.S. territorial expansion by creating a PowerPoint with a group.

Language "I Can" Statement
I can compose a PowerPoint about territorial expansion by teaming up with a group.

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

History.com Editors. (2009, November 9). Lewis and Clark Expedition. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/lewis-and-clark.

This article talks in length about Lewis and Clark, touching on their earlier lives, the Louisiana purchase, and their exploration out west.

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Lewis and Clark: Expedition, Purpose & Facts - HISTORY

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition began in 1804 when Thomas Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the lands of the Louisiana Purchase.

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What is Manifest Destiny? The Controversial History of Westward Expansion

Morris, S. (2020, July 7). What is Manifest Destiny? The controversial history of Westward Expansion. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/manifest-destiny-history-westward-expansion-us-1515999.

This article talks about the history of Manifest Destiny and the controversial history surrounding it.

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The White House Twitter page quoted President Trump's Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore in a tweet that said: "Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars."

Manifest Destiny is a philosophy that originated in the 19th century. It is the idea that the U.S. is destined to expand its territories and ideals across the North American continent, and that the country has the God-given right to do so.

"Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars." pic.twitter.com/AYCgAC5oN0
- The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 7, 2020

The term "Manifest Destiny" was coined in 1845 by magazine editor John L. O'Sullivan, who wrote about the annexing of Texas and the supposed inevitability of American expansion.

Manifest Destiny was used to validate the Westward Expansion and the acquisition of Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and California before the Civil War and was used to justify the removal of Native American people from their land.

However, the concept of Manifest Destiny existed before it had a name, which can be seen in the history of Westward Expansion. The Westward Expansion began with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which nearly doubled the size of the U.S., and was continued with the Florida Purchase Treaty in 1819.

President James Monroe used the concept of Manifest Destiny to warn European countries against interfering in the Westward Expansion of the U.S., declaring that any attempt by Europe to colonize America would be seen as an act of war.

In 1846, James K. Polk's administration negotiated the Oregon Treaty with Great Britain, which divided the territory between the U.S. and Canada.

In 1848, the Mexican-American war ended and the U.S. acquired 525,000 square miles of territory, including all or parts of what is now California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within this new territory.

The acquisition of more land exacerbated tensions between slaveowners and abolitionists, as the North and South states had to decide whether the newly-acquired territories would be slave states or free states-this conflict eventually resulted in the American Civil War.

The idea of Manifest Destiny was revived with the purchase of Alaska in 1867 and gained popularity again in U.S. foreign policy in the 1890s. The Spanish-American War occurred in 1898, with the U.S. acquiring Puerto Rico as a territory, as well as the Philippines, which was a Spanish colony at the time.

The Westward Expansion worsened the conflict between the white settlers and Native Americans, Hispanic people, and other non-European occupants of the territories.

A little after Trump mentioned Manifest Destiny in his speech, he said: "We are the culture that put up the Hoover Dam, laid down the highways, and sculpted the skyline of Manhattan.

"We are the people who dreamed a spectacular dream-it was called: Las Vegas, in the Nevada desert; who built up Miami from the Florida marsh; and who carved our heroes into the face of Mount Rushmore."

Trump's speech taking place at Mount Rushmore was controversial, with leaders of two tribes of the Sioux Nation speaking out against it, but using the term Manifest Destiny at Mount Rushmore made it even more so considering how the concept was used to justify the removal of Native Americans.

The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were carved into the Black Hills -an area considered sacred by the Sioux people-by Gutzon Borglum, a Ku Klux Klan-linked artist, in 1941.

The president of the Oglala Sioux tribal council, Julian Bear Runner, said that Trump's Fourth of July celebration will cause an "uproar." Bear Runner cited an increase in coronavirus cases and a lack of resources as reasons why Trump's Fourth of July event should not take place at Mount Rushmore.

But Bear Runner also said: "The lands on which that mountain is carved and the lands he's about to visit belong to the Great Sioux Nation under a treaty signed in 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and I have to tell him he doesn't have permission from its original sovereign owners to enter the territory at this time."

The land was given to Native Americans after the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was signed, but following the discovery of gold, the federal government reclaimed the land in 1874.

The chair of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, Harold Frazier, called for the removal of the Mount Rushmore monument and even offered to remove it himself, saying in a statement: "Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise or treaty than the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore.

"This brand on our flesh needs to be removed and I am willing to do it free of charge to the United States by myself if I must."

But the Manifest Destiny philosophy still seems to be favored by Trump, as later in his speech, the president said: "Americans harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet.

"We settled the Wild West, won two World Wars, landed American astronauts on the Moon-and one day very soon, we will plant our flag on Mars."

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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What is Manifest Destiny? The Controversial History of Westward Expansion

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In his Fourth of July speech, President Donald Trump said: "Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars."

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The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion, 1803-1898

Levinson, S., & Sparrow, B. H. (Eds.). (2005). The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion, 1803-1898. Rowman & Littlefield.

This book is a collection of articles that discuss the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, and the social, political and constitutional questions that arose because of it.

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The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion

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YouTube Video: The Louisiana Purchase – History Channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gC5-8qGC5I

This video explain how President Thomas Jefferson was able to buy the Louisiana territory and what it meant for the fledgling United States as a whole.

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Book: Everything you need to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook (p. 156-216)

This book specifically talks about Thomas Jefferson and western expansion, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the wars that lead to France and England leaving the Americas, and various repercussions due to the Americans moving westward (The Trail of Tears and war with Mexico)

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Everything you need to Ace Social Studies

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Article: America Heads West – Kids National Geographic

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lewis-and-clark

This article talks mostly about the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the valuable information the duo, with the help of Sacagawea, brought back with them.

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Website: U.S. History

https://www.ushistory.org/US/index.asp

This is website that focuses solely on U.S. History. While the articles are short, they offer enough information for a student to get started on further research.

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Field Trip: The Alamo (San Antonio)

https://www.thealamo.org/

The Alamo is a great place to take students to continuing exploring the pursuit of Manifest Destiny. People settled in Texas to take advantage of the free land and minimal taxation but did not want to become Mexican citizens or convert to Catholicism. This led people to fight in the Texas Revolution, and the Battle of the Alamo was those important battles.

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Each year, we honor the 13-day siege leading up to the famous Alamo battle with corresponding days of special events and programming. Tuesday, February 23 through Saturday, March 6.

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Each year, we honor the 13-day siege leading up to the famous Alamo battle with corresponding days of special events and programming. Tuesday, February 23 through Saturday, March 6.

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Image: U.S. Territorial Acquisitions

https://www.ilibrarian.net/history/westward_expansion_map_lg.jpg

This can be used to show students the different periods of expansion. Another idea is to put students into groups and have them do a discussion about the different acquisitions and what happened during that particular moment that led to it.

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Free Choice Resource: Guest Speaker

Have a professor of American History from a local college come to the classroom to explain in more detail about the Louisiana purchase and the meaning behind Manifest destiny. See if they would be willing to come dressed in clothing from that period or be a person such as Lewis and Clark.