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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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Across America
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Across America on an Emigrant Train
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Adventures with the Santa Fe Trail
by Dave Webb, illustrated by Phillip R. Buntin
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Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #6
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Alamo!
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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 Stories Volume 3
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Annie Oakley: Young Marksman
Childhood of Famous Americans
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Bad News for Outlaws
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Ballad of Lucy Whipple
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Battle of the Little Bighorn
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Bears of Blue River
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Big Book of the Old West to Color
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Big Golden Book of the Wild West
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Bite of the Gold Bug
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Black Courage
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Blazing West: The Journal of Augustus Pelletier
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Bold Journey
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Bold Journey
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Bound for Oregon
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Boy in the Alamo
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Boy in the Alamo
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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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By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little House Series #5
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Little House Series #5
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Little House Series #5
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California Gold Days
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California Gold Rush
Adventures in Frontier America
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Captain's Dog
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Captive Treasure
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Carolina's Courage
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
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Children of the Covered Wagon
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Children of the Wild West
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Children of the Wild West
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Children's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
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Christmas on the Prairie
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Cobblestone "Laura Ingalls Wilder: Growing Up on the Prairie"
Volume Seven: Number Two
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Colter's Run
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Coolies
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Cowboy Boots
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Cowboys
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Cowboys - Coloring Book
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Cowboys and Cattle Ranching
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Cowboys of the Wild West
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Cowboys on the Western Trail
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Cowgirls - Coloring Book
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Cut & Assemble a Western Frontier Town
by Edmund V. Gillon Jr.
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Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
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Daniel Boone
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Dark and Bloody Ground
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Davy Crockett
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Davy Crockett
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Davy Crockett, Young Pioneer
by Laurence Santrey
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Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Aileen Wells Parks
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Dear Levi
by Elvira Woodruff
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Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
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Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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Do's and Don'ts of Yesteryear
by Eric Sloane
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Down the Big River
Purple House Living History Library
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Draw 50 Boats, Ships, Trucks, and Trains
by Lee Ames
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Early American History for Intermediate Grades (really old)
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Early American History for Intermediate Grades - Guide
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3rd edition from Beautiful Feet Books
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Facing West
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Famous Trains - Coloring Book
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
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Fear in the Forest
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First Four Years
Little House Series #9
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
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Flaming Arrows
by William O. Steele, Illustrated by Paul Galdone
1st edition from Harcourt
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Fort Clatsop
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Forts in the Wilderness
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From Sea to Shining Sea for Children
by Peter Marshall, David Manuel & Anna Fishel
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From Sea to Shining Sea: Americans Move West 1846-1860
How America Became America
by Jack Rakove, Sheila Nelson
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Frontier Fort
by Scott Steedman, illustrated by Mark Bergin
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Gathering of Days
by Joan Blos
from Aladdin Paperbacks
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1980 Newbery Medal winner
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Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
Native American Biographies
by Spring Hermann
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Gold Rush Dogs
by Claire Rudolf Murphy, Jane G. Haigh
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Good Ol' Cowboy Stories
by Jack Terry
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Grandfather's Dance
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
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