The Ideology of Expansion
The 19th-century belief that the U.S. was divinely ordained to expand across the continent.
Manifest Destiny
This 1803 purchase from France doubled the size of the nation to fuel an "Empire of Liberty"
Louisiana Purchase
This 1830 federal law authorized the exchange of Indigenous lands in the East for territory west of the Mississippi
The Indian Removal Act of 1830
This 1849 event acted as a massive economic "pull" factor, drawing a global population to the West
The California Gold Rush
This 1820 law established the 36°30' line to maintain political balance in the Senate
The Missouri Compromise
In John Gast’s American Progress, this object held by Columbia represents national enlightenment and Western education
What is the schoolbook?
This 1848 treaty ended the Mexican-American War and granted the Mexican Cession to the U.S
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This Cherokee leader protested removal by calling his people a "sovereign human family"
Chief John Ross
This group migrated to Utah seeking a "safe haven" or "Zion" from religious persecution
The Mormons
This 1846 proposal sought to ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico
The Wilmot Proviso
This concept frames expansion not as a political choice, but as the unavoidable, preordained will of God.
Divine Providence. Under the Authority of God
This slogan was used by expansionists to demand the Northwest boundary from Great Britain ("___ or Fight!")
54° 40'
A large economic driving force behind the expansion West that benefits Southern States
Slavery
These 1836 journals proved to a nervous Eastern public that respectable women could survive the Oregon Trail
The Narcissa Whitman journals?
Who famously warned that the dispute over slavery's expansion was a "fire bell in the night"
Thomas Jefferson
The belief that the U.S. is a "beacon to humankind" and morally distinct from traditional European empires
American Exceptionalism
This specific article was deleted from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, leading to the systemic dispossession of Mexican land grants
Article X (10)
This forced migration of the Potawatomi nation from Michigan resulted in the death of many children and elders
Trail of Death
This "invisible" workforce of over 12,000 laborers was excluded from the official "Golden Spike" photo
Chinese Laborers
This 1857 ruling declared African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" with no rights
Scott v Sanford
Gast uses the visual sequencing of transportation technology (foot travel to railroad) to construct this "illusion"
Illusion of Inevitability
This 1853 purchase finalized the lower 48 borders to facilitate transcontinental railroad expansion
Gadsden Purchase
The "Iron Horse" (Steam Trains) facilitated the destruction of this food source to force Indigenous nations onto reservations
The Bison
The Supreme Court Case based on the forced travels of a black man by his legal owner that created a fire bell reality for the nation
Scott v Sanford
The Dred Scott decision effectively erased the Missouri Compromise by ruling Congress could not ban this in the new Western territories
Slavery