Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion Flashcards

Grade 8 · Social Studies · Flashcards

Key terms and events for understanding America's westward expansion in the 19th century.

Flashcards

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the United States was destined by God to expand across all of North America

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

828,000 square miles purchased from France for $15 million — doubled US size overnight

Lewis and Clark Expedition

1804-1806 exploration of the Louisiana Territory ordered by President Jefferson

Oregon Trail

2,000-mile overland route from Missouri to Oregon used by hundreds of thousands of westward migrants

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Law signed by Andrew Jackson authorizing forced relocation of Native Americans east of the Mississippi

Trail of Tears

Forced march of the Cherokee and other Native nations to Oklahoma in the 1830s; thousands died

Texas Annexation (1845)

United States admitted Texas as a state after the Republic of Texas requested it

Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

War with Mexico that resulted in the United States gaining a huge territory in the Southwest

Mexican Cession

Land Mexico gave up in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — includes present-day CA, NV, UT, AZ, NM

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Peace treaty ending the Mexican-American War; Mexico ceded about half its territory

California Gold Rush (1849)

Mass migration to California after gold discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848

Forty-Niners

The 300,000+ gold prospectors who flooded California in 1849

Homestead Act (1862)

Law giving 160 acres of public land to settlers who farmed it for 5 years — encouraged westward migration

Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

Railroad connecting East and West Coasts, completed at Promontory Summit, Utah — opened the West to rapid settlement

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