American History I
The Politics of Expansion President Thomas Jefferson, in 1803, purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the US. To President Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation's health. With this acquirement of land, it guaranteed that the US would grow from coast to coast. By 1840, nearly 70 million Americans lived in the trans-Appalachian West. Most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic opportunity. They associated westward expansion with land ownership and farming, and freedom. I think that people really believed in what was called "Manifest Destiny". In 1845 a journalist, John O'Sullivan, gave the expansion this name. With this expansion westward, Native Americans were removed from their homelands and relocated to a newly defined Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. This was the Indian Removal Act. This proved to be devastating to the Indian tribes. They were not prepared for the conditions, climate, or terrain that they would encounter. Thousands of Indians lost their lives. The United States even proved to be willing to go to war to secure new territories. It managed to negotiate an agreement with Great Britain to secure the Oregon territory, acquiring the valuable territory south of it required the use of force, and in 1...
