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
by Carl Sandburg
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
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Battle of the Little Bighorn
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Bold Journey
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Bonanza Girl
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Book of Cowboys
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Boy in the Alamo
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Buffalo Bill
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
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Children of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Children of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Children's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
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Colter's Run
by Judith Edwards, illustrated by John Potter
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Cowboys
Tales of the Wild West Volume 4
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Cowboys of the Wild West
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Cowboys of the Wild West
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Cowgirls - Coloring Book
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Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
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Dark and Bloody Ground
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Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
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Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
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Facing West
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First Four Years
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First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
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Fort Clatsop
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From Sea to Shining Sea: Americans Move West 1846-1860
How America Became America
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Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
Native American Biographies
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Gold Rush Dogs
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Good Ol' Cowboy Stories
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Grandpa's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 10
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
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Hero Tales
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History of US Book 4
History of US Book 4
by Joy Hakim
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Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
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Indians
Tales of the Wild West Volume 3
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John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife
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Journey West on the Oregon Trail
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Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man
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Laura
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Legends of the Wild West
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Lewis & Clark Expedition
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Old West: Miners
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Old Yeller
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Oregon Trail
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Outrageous Women
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Pathways of America: The Oregon Trail
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Patty Reed's Doll
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Tales of the Wild West Volume 11
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Pioneers Go West
Landmark Series
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Pony Express
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Pony Express
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Prairie Star
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Railroad
Inventions That Shaped the World
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Sacajawea
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Seabird
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Seaman
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Seaman's Journal
by Gail Karwoski & James Watling
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Seaman's Journal
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Seek the Dark Gold
Land of the Free series
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
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1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
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1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox, illustrated by Eros Keith
from Bradbury Press
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Smoky the Cow Horse
by Will James
August 1928 printing from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Smoky the Cow Horse
by Will James
1930 printing from Charles Scribner's Sons
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1927 Newbery Book
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Sophie of the Lazy B
by Myra Richardson, illustrated by Nicholas Panesis
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Standing Like a Stone Wall
by James I. Robertson Jr.
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Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
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Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
Second Edition from Avyx, Inc.
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Streams to the River, River to the Sea
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
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Tall Tales
Tales of the Wild West Volume 13
by Rick Steber
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They Loved to Laugh
by Kathryn Worth
from Bethlehem Books
Realistic Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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This was Mining in the West
by David W. Pearson
Second Edition; First Printing from Schiffer
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Toward the Setting Sun
by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien
1st edition from Two Dot Books
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Trails Plowed Under
by Charles M. Russell
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Trails to Poosey
by Olive R. Cook
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Pioneer Fiction for 4th-7th grade
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Trappers and Traders of the Far West
Landmark #29
by James Daugherty
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Traveling the Missouri
from Silver Burdett Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Treasure Legends of the West
by Choral Pepper
1st edition from Gibbs M. Smith
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True Tales of the Wild West
by Paul Robert Walker
from National Geographic
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Virginia's General
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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We Were There on the Oregon Trail
We Were There #1
by William O. Steele, illustrated by Jo Polseno
from Grosset & Dunlap
Historical Fiction for 5th-9th grade
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Western Heroes
Tales of the Wild West Volume 16
by Rick Steber
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Westward Expansion and Migration
American History Series
by Cindy Barden & Maria Backus
from Mark Twain Media
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
What's the Deal?
by Rhoda Blumberg
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Wide Open Spaces
by Jack Terry
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Wild West
Book Club from Time-Life Books
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Wilderness Wife
by Etta B. Degering, illustrated by Ursula Koering
from David McKay Company
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$28.00 (1 in stock)
With Custer's Cavalry
by Katherine Gibson Fougera
from University of Nebraska
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Women of the West
Tales of the Wild West Volume 5
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
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$2.50 (2 in stock)