Western Expansion (1800-1898)

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At the beginning of 1800, the United States was formally comprised of sixteen states: the original thirteen colonies having been recognized as independent by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the states of Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee having been added to the union by 1796. But American trappers and settlers were busily expanding to other areas, and the country was growing rapidly. Americans did not question their right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country's borders. By the mid-1840s, United States expansionism was expressed in terms of "manifest destiny," and by the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had aquired all of its current territory through a series of wars and peaceful acquisitions:

  • In 1803, the United States made the the Lousiana Purchase, aquiring a huge tract of land (530 million acres!) from Napoleon Bonaparte. This land makes up approximately 22 percent of the current United States and contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, and Louisiana. Not all of this land was kept, later being ceded to Great Britain and Spain in exchange for other territory.
  • West Florida was made a U.S. possession in 1810 by President James Madison.
  • The Red River Basin, part of current-day Minnesota and North Dakota, was acquired in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, a treaty with Great Britain which resolved boundry issues, set the US/Canadian boundary along the 49th parallel, and allowed for joint control of the Oregon Country.
  • East Florida was acquired in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 with Spain. The treaty that gained East Florida also included Spain's surrender of any claims to the Oregon Country.
  • The Oregon Country was jointly controlled by the U.S. and Great Britain until 1846 when the Oregon Treaty divided that territory also at the 49th parallel. This created the Oregon Territory, which includes present-day Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.
  • The Republic of Texas, which had gained its independence from Mexico in 1836, voted that year to be annexed by the United States. However it was nearly 10 years before the annexation of Texas took place. President John Tyler signed a treaty of annexation with Texas in 1844; congress approved it in 1845 and Texas became the 28th state later that year.
  • Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna warned that the annexation of Texas would be "equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican Republic." Mexico had never formally acknowledged Texas independence and considered it a matter of national pride to fight for what it considered a rebel province. Thus started the Mexican-American war. The United States defeated Mexico and in the subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded to the United States parts of what are Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming, and the whole of California, Nevada and Utah. They also recognized the Rio Grande as Texas' Southern border.
  • Less than five years after the Mexican Cession, the United States made the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, aquiring a strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border, now in New Mexico and Arizona. This territory was later used for the southern transcontinental railroad.
  • In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia.
  • Hawaii was annexed in 1898 upon the request of a government made up primarily of American and European businessmen who had overthrown the Kingdom of Hawaii.
  • Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba were ceded by Spain to the United States after the Spanish-American War in 1898. All four of these areas were under United States Military Government for extended periods. Cuba became an independent nation in 1902. The Philippines became an independent nation in 1946.
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Abraham Lincoln
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Amazing Impossible Erie Canal
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America in the Time of Lewis and Clark
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American History for Young Students II
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American History Stories Volume 3
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Black Courage
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Buffalo Bill
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Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
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By the Great Horn Spoon!
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Little House Series #5
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Calamity Jane
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Captive Treasure
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Carolina's Courage
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Children of the Covered Wagon
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2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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Cowboy Sam and the Indians
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Cowboys of the Old West - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
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Crazy Horse: The Story of an American Indian
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Second Printing 1975 from Dillon Press
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Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
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Davy Crockett
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Down the Big River
Purple House Living History Library
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Farmer Boy
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First Four Years
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by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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First Four Years
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First Four Years - Audio CD
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Flag of the Dreadful Bear
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Flatboats and Wagon Wheels
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Food and Recipes of Westward Expansion
Cooking Throughout American History
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1st edition from PowerKids Press
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Frontier Fort
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Frontiersman
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George Rogers Clark: War in the West
Events of the Revolution
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Going West
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Going West
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Great Railroad Race
Dear America
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Here Rolled the Covered Wagons
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Home Crafts (Historic Communities)
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Horses of the Old West - Coloring Book
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How and Why Wonder Book of Winning of the West
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If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
If You Were There
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If You Were Me and Lived in... the American West (Volume 7)
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Jed Smith, Young Western Explorer
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Jedediah Smith
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Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express
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Johnny Appleseed
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Josefina Story Quilt
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Joshua's Westward Journal
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Journal of One Davey Wyatt
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Journey West on the Oregon Trail
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Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
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Kidnapped Circus
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Kirsten's Cook Book
American Girl
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Kit Carson
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Kit Carson
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Land of the Buffalo Bones
Dear America
by Marion Dane Bauer
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Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
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Last River
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Legendary Outlaws and Lawmen of the Old West - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
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Legends of the Wild West
by James A. Crutchfield, Bill O'Neal, Dale L. Walker
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Lewis and Clark and Me
by Laurie Myers
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Little House - Full Color Trade Paper Set
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Little House - Hardcover Set
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Little House in the Big Woods
Little House Series #1
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Little House on Rocky Ridge
Rocky Ridge Years Book 1
by Roger Lea MacBride
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Little House on the Prairie
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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Little House on the Prairie
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Little House on the Prairie (pictorial hardcover)
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$8.99
Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$19.99
Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$9.99
Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Town on the Prairie (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Town on the Prairie - Audio CD
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$25.99
Long Way Westward
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Joan Sandin
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Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
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Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
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Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1941 Newbery Honor Book
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Long Winter (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from Harper & Row
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Long Winter - Audio CD
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
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Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi
by Cheryl Harness
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
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Mark Twain: Young Writer
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Mariam E. Mason
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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$7.99
Mary and the Trail of Tears
from Stone Arch Books
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$7.95
Meet Thomas Jefferson
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
by Marvin Barrett
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Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West (pictorial hardcover)
by Marguerite Henry; illustrated by Robert Lougheed
from Rand McNally
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My Face to the Wind
Dear America
by Jim Murphy
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
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Neeluk
by Frances Kittredge
from Alaska Northwest Books
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Ol' Paul the Mighty Logger
by Glen Rounds
from Holiday House
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On the Banks of Plum Creek
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1938 Newbery Honor Book
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$9.99
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1938 Newbery Honor Book
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$18.99
On the Banks of Plum Creek - Audio CD
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1938 Newbery Honor Book
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Paul Bunyan
by Steven Kellogg
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for
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Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox
by Wallace Wadsworth, illustrated by Will Crawford
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Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox
by Wallace Wadsworth, illustrated by Enrico Arno
from Doubleday & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
Paul Buyan
by Esther Shephard
Reissue from Odyssey Press
for 3rd-7th grade
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