1. Unit 4: Westward Expansion
Big Question: Does expansion lead to progress?
Focus Questions:
How did the idea of “Manifest Destiny” fuel the westward expansion of the United States?
How did westward expansion fuel the debate over slavery?

2. John L. O'Sullivan, Manifest Destiny, 1839
“America is destined for better deeds...We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that "the gates of hell" -- the powers of aristocracy and monarchy -- "shall not prevail against it..." Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?”
John L. O'Sullivan, Manifest Destiny, 1839

3. American Progress, by John Gast

4. Answer these questions on a sheet of paper:
Do you believe that countries (as well as people) can have a destiny? Are some places pre-determined to be powerful, weak, rich, or poor?
If you do not believe in destiny, what do you think does cause a country to be powerful, weak, rich or poor? How can a country change from one state to another?

7. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

8. Traveling mainly by river, Lewis and Clark began their journey up the Missouri in 1804, reached its navigable limits above Great Falls and then crossed the Rocky and Bitterroot Mountains to the Clearwater River, which led them to the Snake River and on to the Columbia, down which they passed to the Pacific Ocean in 1805.

10. Oregon Trail
Santa Fe Trail

11. Missouri traders arrive in Santa Fe traveling the Santa Fe Trail
Missouri traders arrive in Santa Fe traveling the Santa Fe Trail. From 1821, when William Becknell first made the trip, to 1880, when the Santa Fe railroad finally made it obsolete, the Santa Fe Trail was perhaps the most important commercial route for bringing the fur and mineral riches of the West to eastern markets and for carrying manufactured goods to the steadily growing communities of the frontier.

12. A small group of covered wagons preparing to ford a stream on the way to Oregon. During the era of the pioneers, beginning with the Great Migration of 1843, thousands of wagons made the trek along the Oregon Trail.

13. California Gold Rush 49ers
One of the many newspaper headlines that sparked the California Gold Rush of 1849.

14. White and Chinese miners hoping to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush at Auburn Ravine in 1852.

15. Texas Annexation

19. United States