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WESTWARD MOVEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

STUDY GUIDE

 

 

TERRITORIES ADDED TO THE U.S. 1801 – 1861:

 

LOUISIANa PURCHASE:

Þ   Jefferson bought land from France (the Louisiana Purchase) which doubled the size of the U.S.

Þ   LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION-Meriwether Lewis & William Clark explored the Louisiana Purchase from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean

FLORIDA:

Þ   Spain gave Florida to the U.S. through a treaty

TEXAS:

Þ   Texas was added after it became an independent republic

OREGON:

Þ   Oregon Territory was divided by the U. S. and Great Britain

CALIFORNIA:

Þ   War with Mexico resulted in CA and the southwest territory becoming part of the U.S.

 

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCED WESTWARD MIGRATION:

Geographic and economic factors influenced westward movement:

Ø    Population growth in the eastern states crowded people out

Ø    Availability of cheap, fertile land in the west

Ø    Economic opportunity in the west (gold i.e. CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH, logging farming, freedom for runaway slaves

Ø    Cheaper and faster transportation (rivers and canals i.e. ERIE CANAL, steamboats which helped people move from one place to another

Ø    Knowledge of overland trails—Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail—encouraged travel

Ø    Belief in the right of MANIFEST DESTINY—the idea that expansion was good for the country and was the right of the country

 

THE EFFECTS OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES ON THE LIVES OF AMERICANS:

 

COTTON GIN:

¨     Invented by Eli Whitney

¨     Increased the production of cotton and thus increased the need for slave labor to cultivate and pick the cotton

REAPER:

¨     Invented by Jo Anderson ( a slave ) and Cyrus McCormick

¨     Increased the productivity of the American farmer

STEAMBOAT:

¨     Invented by Robert Fulton

¨     Provided faster river transportation that connected Southern plantations and farms to Northern industries

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE:

¨     Provided faster land transportation (railroad system)