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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32 Items found Print
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Abraham Lincoln
Initial Biography
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Alexander Graham Bell
by Elizabeth MacLeod
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Black Courage
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Buffalo Bill
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
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Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Meryl Stevenson
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Calamity Jane
by Doris Faber
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Crazy Horse: The Story of an American Indian
by John R. Milton
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Davy Crockett
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Frontiersman
by Marian T. Place
First Ediition from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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George Rogers Clark: War in the West
Events of the Revolution
by Susan and John Lee, illustrated by Richard Wahl
from Children's Press
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Jed Smith, Young Western Explorer
by Olive W. Burt
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Jedediah Smith
by Sharlene and Ted Nelson
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Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
by Peter & Connie Roop
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
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$7.99
Kit Carson
by Shannon Garst
from Julian Messner
Biography for 1st-3rd grade
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Kit Carson
A Discovery Book
by Nardi Reeder Campion, illustrated by Shannon Stirnweis
from Garrard Publishing Company
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Legends of the Wild West
by James A. Crutchfield, Bill O'Neal, Dale L. Walker
from Publications International
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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
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Meet Thomas Jefferson
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
by Marvin Barrett
from Random House
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Picture Book of Davy Crockett
by David Adler
from Holiday House
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Picture Book of Davy Crockett
by David Adler
from Holiday House
Picture Book Biography for 2nd-4th grade
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Remarkable Rough-Riding Life of Theodore Roosevelt
by Cheryl Harness
from National Geographic
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Robert Fulton
by Marguerite Henry; illustrated by Robert Patterson
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
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$5.00 (4 in stock)
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
by Edward Eggleston
from Yesterday's Classics
Narrative History for 1st-4th grade
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$11.95
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
by Edward Eggleston
2nd edition from Memoria Press
Narrative History for 1st-4th grade
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$14.65
Story of Louisa May Alcott
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #35
by Joan Howard, illustrated by Flora Smith
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 3rd-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Stephen Foster
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #31
by Esther M. Douty, illustrated by Jo Polseno
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 3rd-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Western Lawmen
by Frank Surge
from Lerner Publishing Group
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Western Outlaws
by Frank Surge
from Lerner Publishing Group
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Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder?
by Patricia Brennan Demuth
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Wyatt Earp
Outlaws and Lawmen of the Wild West
by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford
from Enslow
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Young Abe Lincoln
by Cheryl Harness
from National Geographic
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