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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Puffin Classics
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Sterling Classics
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Amazing Impossible Erie Canal
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
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American History Stories Volume 3
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Ballad of Lucy Whipple
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Battle of Seattle
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Big Book of the Old West to Color
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Bite of the Gold Bug
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Black Courage
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Bonanza Girl
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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
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
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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!
by Sid Fleischman
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By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little House Series #5
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By the Shores of Silver Lake (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Cabin Faced West
by Jean Fritz
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Carolina's Courage
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
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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 of the Old West - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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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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Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
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Davy Crockett
by George Edward Stanley
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Down the Big River
Purple House Living History Library
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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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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
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First Four Years
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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
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Frontier Fort
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Gathering of Days
by Joan Blos
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Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
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Gold Rush Dogs
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Gold Rush Fever
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Grandpa's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 10
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Great Turkey Walk
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Harriet Tubman
by Ann Petry
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History of US Book 4
History of US Book 4
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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History of US Book 5
History of US Book 5
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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Home Crafts (Historic Communities)
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Horses of the Old West - Coloring Book
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Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
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Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
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Indians
Tales of the Wild West Volume 3
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Jed Smith
by Frank Latham
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Jedediah Smith
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Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express
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John Charles Frémont
by Charles W. Maynard
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Journal of One Davey Wyatt
by Donald Honig, illustrated by Sam Fink
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Journey West on the Oregon Trail
by Cecile Alyce Nolan
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Kidnapped Circus
by Richard Wormser, Drawings by Don Bolognese
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Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man
by Noel B. Gerson
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Klondike Fever
by Michael Cooper
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Last River
by Stuart Waldman, illustrated by Gregory Manchess
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Laura Ingalls Wilder Country
by William Anderson
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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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Fictionalized Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Little House - Full Color Trade Paper Set
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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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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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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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
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Little House on the Prairie
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Town on the Prairie - Audio CD
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$25.99
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
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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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Major Impossible
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #9
by Nathan Hale
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Mark Twain: Young Writer
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Mariam E. Mason
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Mary and the Trail of Tears
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May B.
by Caroline Starr Rose
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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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Meriwether Lewis
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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$11.99
Neeluk
by Frances Kittredge
from Alaska Northwest Books
for 3rd-6th grade
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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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$16.00 (1 in stock)
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