westward expansion

1783-1848

The 1783 Treaty of Paris with Great Britain defined the original borders of the United States. Due to ambiguities in the treaty, the ownership of Machias Seal Island and North

Rock remains disputed between the U.S. and Canada; other original territorial

ambiguities (including the Northeastern Boundary Dispute and the disputed Indian

Stream territory) were resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.

[edit] Louisiana

The Louisiana Purchase, completed in 1803, was negotiated by Robert Livingston during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson; the territory was acquired from France for $15,000,000 (equivalent to $219 million in present day terms). A small portion of this land was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1818 in exchange for the Red River Basin. More of this land was ceded to Spain in 1819 with the Florida Purchase, but was later reacquired through Texas annexation and Mexican Cession.

[edit] West Florida

West Florida was declared by President James Madison to be a U.S. possession in 1810.

[edit] Red River

Red River Basin, acquired in 1818 by treaty from the United Kingdom, namely the Anglo-American Convention of 1818.

[edit] East Florida

The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 with Spain resulted in Spain's cession of East Florida and the Sabine Free State and Spain's surrender of any claims to the Oregon Country. Article III of the treaty, when properly surveyed, resulted in the acquisition of a small part of central Colorado.[1]

[edit] Along Canadian border

Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 which finalized the border between United States and Canada (a British colony at the time).

[edit] Texas

Texas Annexation of 1845: The independent Republic of Texas long sought to join the U.S., despite Mexican claims and the warning by Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna warned that this would be "equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican Republic." Congress approved the annexation of Texas on February 28, 1845. On December 29, 1845, Texas became the 28th state. Texas had claimed New Mexico east of the Rio Grande but had only made one unsuccessful attempt to occupy it; New Mexico was only captured by the U.S. Army in August 1846 and then administered separately from Texas. Resistance ended with the Siege of Pueblo de Taos on February 5, 1847. Mexico acknowledged the loss of Texas and New Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848.

[edit] Oregon

Oregon Country, the area of North America west of the Rockies to the Pacific, was jointly controlled by the U.S. and the United Kingdom following the Anglo-American Convention of 1818until June 15, 1846 when the Oregon Treaty divided the territory at the 49th parallel(see Oregon boundary dispute). The San Juan Islands were claimed and jointly occupied by the U.S. and the U.K. from 1846-1872 due to ambiguities in the treaty

(see Northwestern Boundary Dispute). Arbitration led to the sole U.S. possession of the San Juan Islands since 1872.

[edit] Mexican Cession

Mexican Cession lands were captured in the Mexican-American War in 1846-48, and ceded by Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where Mexico agreed to the present Mexico –United States border except for the later Gadsden Purchase. The United States paid $15 million (equivalent to $352 million in present day terms) and agreed to pay claims made by American citizens against Mexico which amounted to more than $3 million (equivalent to $70 million today).

[edit] Gadsden Purchase

Gadsden Purchase of 1853, United States purchased a strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border for $10 million (equivalent to $263 million in present day terms), now in New Mexico and Arizona. This territory was intended for a southern transcontinental railroad.

Learn About Westward Expansion

In the span of five years, the United States increased its size by a third. It annexed Texas in 1845; negotiated with Britain for half of the Oregon country; and acquired California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming as a result of a war with Mexico.

America’s dramatic territorial expansion intensified the sectional conflict between North and South and raised the fateful and ultimately divisive issue of whether slavery would be allowed in the western territories.

It took American colonists a century and a half to expand as far west as the Appalachian Mounts, a few hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. It took another fifty years to push the frontier to the Mississippi River. Seeking cheap land and inspired by the notio n that Americans had a “manifest destiny” to stretch across the continent, pioneers by 1850 pushed the edge of settlement to Texas, the Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest.

The westward movement of the American population occurred in intermittent flurries of settlement. The first began early in the nation's history, resulting in the statehood of Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, all of which were admitted to the Union between 1791 and 1803. With the Louisiana Purchase the US doubled in size, opening up new regions to exploration and settlement. Once the War of 1812 ended, expansion began in earnest. The government was eager to enlarge the Union, and, accordingly, six new states joined the Union between 1816 and 1821: Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri.

summary

Settlers of the west, called pioneers, usually migrated as families and settled along the rivers of the West in order to facilitate trade. Pioneers often settled among others who hailed from the same areas of the East, or shared similar customs or religion. For instance, Indiana was overwhelmingly populated by southern migrants. As a result, many New Englanders chose not to settle there and instead moved on to Michigan, which became primarily populated with former New England residents. Even before there were organized cities and towns, there was a strong sense of cooperation and community in the West. Inhabitants met regularly to participate in sports and hold fairs, parties, and "hoedowns," or dances.

There was a measure of rivalry between East and West, which was ever-present in the minds of many western settlers. Easterners thought westerners were primitive and uncouth, and westerners in turn chided the East for its soft and luxurious lifestyle. The identity of the West grew up around the ideals of simplicity, openness, and honesty. This identity was universally known throughout the settlements, and the westerners strove to support it with actions, consistently trying to demonstrate their simplistic sophistication to easterners and the eastern press, which painted the west as the domain of the unintelligent and backwards.

The federal government encouraged western expansion throughout the early nineteenth century. Most prominently, soldiers had been promised western lands in return for enlisting in the American army during the War of 1812. A total of six million acres were dealt in this manner as "military bounties," and many soldiers moved west at their earliest convenience to find arable land for farming after the war's end in 1814. Furthermore, in 1816, Congress authorized the appropriation of funds for the formerly postponed project of construction of a National Road, which by 1838 reached Vandalis, Illinois, and was widely used as a connection to western lands.

Trail choices

Oregon Trail –Independence, Missouri to the Oregon Territory California Trail –Fort Hall, Oregon Territory to Sacramento, California Santa Fe Trail – Independence to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory

Old Spanish Trail – Santa Fe to Los Angeles, California

Mormon Trail –Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory Southern Emigrant Trail - Mesilla to Los Angeles, California. [edit] Oregon Trail

Main article: Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail was the best land route for travel to the western United States. It was the only practical way for settlers in wagons with their tools, livestock, and supplies to cross the mountains. Many believe that without the trail, most of the American west would today be part of Canada or Mexico.

During the twenty-five years 1841–1866, 250,000 to 650,000 people "pulled-up-stakes" and headed west. About one-third immigrated to Oregon, one-third to California and one-third to Utah, Colorado and Montana. The Oregon Trail, the longest of the overland routes used in the westward expansion of the United States, was first traced by explorers and fur traders. Settlers began following the trail in 1841. The first large group of about 900 immigrants used the trail in the "Great Migration" of 1843. In that year, a provisional government was organized in Oregon. The Oregon Country's northern boundary was set in 1846, and the Territory of Oregon was formed in 1848 as over 12,000 people made the journey in that decade. The first people to travel the Oregon Trail were white missionaries; even though they didn't make many converts on the way they were amazed by the time they got to Oregon. Rumors about how the sun always shone there and wheat grew as tall as a man attracted American settlers.

Families usually began their journey at Independence, Missouri near the Missouri River. The journey in a covered wagon took six months, following a winding trail 2,000 miles (3,200 km) through prairies, deserts, and across mountains to the Pacific Northwest. The journey was a severe test of strength and endurance so travelers often joined wagon trains. Settlers often had to cross flooded rivers. Indians attacked the wagon trains; however, of the 10,000 deaths that occurred from 1835 to 1855, only 4 percent resulted from Indian attacks. Cholera, smallpox, and firearms accidents were the chief causes of death on the trail. Food, water, and wood were always scarce, and the travelers often encountered contaminated water holes. During summer, the trail was crowded with wagon trains, army units, missionaries, hunting parties, traders, and even sightseeing tours. Some travelers complained that they sometimes had to stop early in the day in order to find a good campsite ahead of the crowd. Others spoke of the need to wear masks for protection against the dust kicked up by the heavy traffic. It took from four to six months to cross the entire Oregon Trail and the best time to travel was from April to September. Most wagon trains traveled about 12–15 miles per day.

[edit] California Trail

Main article: California Trail

The California Trail carried over 250,000 gold-seekers and farmers to the gold fields and rich farmlands of California during the 1840s and 1850s, the greatest mass migration in American history. Today, more than 1,000 miles of trail ruts and traces can still be seen in the vast undeveloped lands between Casper Wyoming and the West Coast, reminders of the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs of early American travelers and

settlers. More than 240 historic sites along the trail will eventually be available for public use and interpretation.

Early emigrants once called the California Trail an elephant, due to the difficult journey. If you wanted to get to California in pre-railroad times, you were guaranteed an arduous trek. California emigrants faced the greatest challenges of all the pioneer emigrants of the mid-19th century. In addition to the Rockies, these emigrants faced the barren deserts of Nevada and the imposing Sierra Nevada Range. The travelers of the California Trail often quipped that if you had "seen the elephant," then you had hit some hard traveling.

[edit] Santa Fe Trail

Main article: Santa Fe Trail

William Becknell was a trader who wanted to travel to Santa Fe with goods. He believed that the new settlers in New Mexico would trade well due to lack of goods. It turns out he was right. He traveled on a Mountain path to Santa Fe and traded with the people. When he got back everyone realized that New Mexico was a place where you could get rich. The second time he traveled to Santa Fe he took a wagon and a group of people. But the wagons couldn't go over the mountain pass. He eventually found a cutoff that avoided the steep slopes but went through a deadly deser just south of the original pass. The band of wagons ran out of water but eventually found a stream that let them continue onto Santa Fe. Thousands of people brave the cutoff to make it to Santa Fe every year. To the present day, the achievement of Becknell may seem tame and lacking in adventurous glamour. The great plains of Kansas are now rich wheat fields. Mile-a-minute express trains carry passengers across this stretch of eight hundred miles. Wide concrete highways permit automobiles to speed over that expanse of country with the comfort and speed unknown to even a King in 1822. Planes now cover in one hour what, 125 years ago, took months.

[edit] Old Spanish Trail

Main article: Old Spanish Trail

The Old Spanish Trail witnessed a brief but furious heyday between 1830 and 1848 as a trade route linking Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California. During that period, Mexican and American traders took woolen goods west over the trail by mule train, and returned eastward with California mules and horses for the New Mexico and Missouri markets.

The Trail left Santa Fe and split into two routes. The South or Main Branch headed northwest past Colorado's San Juan mountains to near Green River, Utah. The North Branch proceeded due north into Colorado's San Luis Valley and crossed west over Cochetopa Pass to follow the Gunnison and Colorado rivers to meet the Southern Branch near Green River.

From central Utah the trail trended southwest to an area now shared by Utah, Nevada and Arizona. It crossed southern Nevada and passed through the Mojave Desert to San Gabriel Mission and Los Angeles.

Between 1598 and 1830, Spanish (1598–1821) and later Mexican

(1821–1830), and American (1821–1830) traders connected the native trade routes that started to Old Spanish Trail and completed it.

[edit] Mormon Trail

Main article: Mormon Trail

The Mormon Trail was created by Mormons who settled in what is now the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Mormon Trail followed part of the Oregon Trail and then branched off down to the Great Salt Lake. The Mormon Trail is 1,300 miles long and extends from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Mormon Trail was used for more than 20 years after the Mormons used it and has been reserved for site seeing.

The initial movement of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake occurred in two segments: one in 1846 and one in 1847. The first segment, across Iowa to the Missouri River, covered around 265 miles. The second segment, from the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, covered about 1,032 miles.

From 1846 to 1869, more than 70,000 Mormons traveled along an integral part of the road west, the Mormon Pioneer Trail. The trail started in Nauvoo, Illinois, traveled across Iowa, connected with the Great Platte River Road at the Missouri River, and ended near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Generally following pre-existing routes, the trail carried tens of thousands of Mormon emigrants to a new home and refuge in the Great Basin. From their labors arose the State of Deseret, later to become the Utah Territory, and finally the State of Utah.

The Mormon pioneers shared similar experiences with others traveling west: the drudgery of walking hundreds of miles, suffocating dust, violent thunderstorms, mud, temperature extremes, bad water, poor forage,

sickness, and death. They recorded their experiences in journals, diaries, and letters that have become a part of our national heritage.

The Mormons, however, were a unique part of this migration. Their move to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake was entirely voluntary, but to maintain a religious and cultural identity it was necessary to find an isolated area where they could permanently settle and practice their religion in peace. This was a movement of an entire people, an entire religion, and an entire culture driven by religious fervor and determination.

[edit] Southern Emigrant Trail

Main article: Southern Emigrant Trail

Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, Kearny Trail, and Butterfield Stage Trail, was a major land route for immigration into California from the eastern United States that followed the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Unlike the more northern routes, pioneer wagons could travel year round, mountain passes not being blocked by snows, however it had the disadvantage of summer heat and lack of water in the desert regions through which it passed in New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Desert of California. Subsequently it was a route of travel and commerce between the eastern United States and California. Many herds of cattle and sheep were driven along this route and it was followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857-1858 and then the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 - 1861.

In 1846, General Stephen Watts Kearny and his dragoons with their scout Kit Carson found the route. One year later, Colonel Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion followed Kearny’s route establishing the first wagon road. This wagon road became known as Cookes Road, or Sonora Road, until the discovery of gold brought a flood of Americans westward in 1849. From this date on, it was called the Southern Emigrant Trail.

Tied in with the Santa Fe Trail and the route from San Antonio to El Paso, Texas, the Southern Emigrant Trail route ran from Mesilla, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California. It passed westward to Tucson, Arizona, then followed the Gila River to the ferries on the Colorado River near what became Fort Yuma, crossed the Colorado Desert to Vallecito, then up to Warner's Ranch. From Warner's the road then ran either northwest to Los Angeles or west southwest to San Diego. [1][2][3]From either of these towns the traveler could continue north by land to the gold fields on the coast via the El Camino Real or over the Tejon Pass into the San Joaquin Valley

by what would become the Stockton Road. Alternatively they could take ships to San Francisco from San Diego or San Pedro.