Westward Expansion.

“If a young man is about to commence in the world… we say to him publicly and privately, go to the West. There, your capacities are sure to be appreciated and your industry and energy rewarded.” 

— Horace Greeley, editor of theNew York Tribune, so urged young men to go West in the 1850s

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Westward Expansion Map

The expansion of the United States into the territory west of theMississippi River began with theLouisiana Purchase in 1803.President Thomas Jefferson nearly doubled the nation’s size by negotiating a price of $15 million to purchase 828,800 square miles from France, including all or part of 14 current states. In 1804, Jefferson sent an expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the region. The three-year expedition produced a new understanding of the geography and resources of the western part of the continent.

Lewis and Clark on the Upper Missouri River.

Before that time, European immigrants did not stretch far beyond the eastern seaboard. The first British settlers in the New World stayed near the Atlantic Ocean to be close to their lifeline for needed supplies from England. By the 1630s, Massachusetts Bay colonists were pushing into the Connecticut River Valley.

Resistance from the French and theIndians also slowed the westward movement, but by the 1750s, colonists had settled in most ofNew England. It took American colonists a century and a half to expand as far west as the Appalachian Mountains, a distance of a few hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. It took another 50 years to push the frontier to theMississippi River.

Battle of New Orleans- War of 1812.

Despite some continuous push westward, it was not until the conclusion of theWar of 1812 that the westward movement became a significant outpouring of people across the continent. By 1830, theOld Northwest and Old Southwest, which were scarcely populated before the war, began to be settled. Before long,Illinois,Indiana,Missouri,Alabama, andMississippi were admitted into the Union.

In the 1830s and 1840s, the concept of “Manifest Destiny,” which reasoned that the United States was destined to expand across the entire continent, was used to promote further territorial expansion. The concept of American expansion was much older. John L. O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” in the July/August 1845 issue of theUnited States Magazine and Democratic Review in an article titledAnnexation. Democrats primarily used it to support the expansion plans of the Polk Administration. However, the idea of expansion faced opposition from Whigs like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, andAbraham Lincoln, who wanted to deepen the economy rather than broaden its expanse.

Americans began to buy into the inevitability of settling unexplored western frontiers, first moving into places such asMichigan,Arkansas,Wisconsin, andOhio. The nation expanded quickly in the 1840s and 1850s, and in just five years, the United States increased its size by a third. It annexedTexas, negotiated with Britain for half of theOregon country, and acquired more as a result of a war with Mexico, as noted in this timeline:

• In 1845, the United States annexed Texas.

• In 1846, the Oregon Treaty ended British claims to the Oregon Territory.

• In 1848, following the Mexican-American War, Mexico ceded a significant portion of the West andSouthwest to the United States. This included what would become the states ofCalifornia,Nevada,Utah, parts ofArizona,Colorado,New Mexico, andWyoming.

• In 1853, the United States bought an additional tract of land from Mexico.

To California during the gold rush.

People then began to move in numbers into Texas, California, andOregon. TheCalifornia Gold Rush, the construction of railroads, theMormons‘ long pilgrimage toUtah, and the blazing of theSanta Fe andOregon Trails all contributed to the expansion of the “Wild West.”

Between the California Gold Rush and theCivil War, Americans, in growing numbers, filled the Mississippi River Valley, the Southwest Territories, and the newly formed states ofKansas andNebraska. During the war, gold and silver discoveries drew prospectors—and later settlers—into Oregon,Colorado,Nevada,Idaho, andMontana. However, the most rapid migration occurred after theHomestead Act, passed in 1862, which allowed settlers to claim 160 acres of land for free. Another critical factor was the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, which led to much more rapid Western migration.

Old West Fact

Westward expansion seriously affectedNative Americans since continental expansion implicitly meant the occupation and annexation of their lands. The United States continued the European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of indigenous peoples. It sought to expand into the West through the nominally legal purchase of Native American land in treaties. In many cases, these treaties were negotiated and signed by tribal members who lacked the authority to do so, and in some cases, by signers who were unfamiliar with the contents of what they were signing. Despite the treaty’s legality, once one was signed, the government often used force to move the Indians from their homelands.

Indians were encouraged to sell their vast tribal lands and become “civilized,” which meant they should abandon hunting, become farmers, discontinue nomadic lifestyles, become educated in the “white ways,” and abandon their “savage” ceremonies and practices. Advocates of civilization programs believed that settlingnative tribes would significantly reduce the land needed by the  Native Americans and make more land available for homesteading by white Americans.

Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, Emanuel Leutze, 1861

“It is America’s right to stretch from sea to shining sea. Not only do we have a responsibility to our citizens to gain valuable natural resources, we also have a responsibility to civilize this beautiful land.” 

— Sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson, other sources say Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan