4-5.2

It Is Essential For Students To Know:

• Pioneers moved into new territories both before and after they were acquired by the U. S. government.
• Their settlements helped to initiate and establish American claims to these lands that were also claimed by other nations and Native Americans (4-5.3).
• Americans began to justify their westward expansion with the idea of Manifest Destiny, a God given right to expand and claim lands from coast to coast.
• In addition to nationalism, the motives for the pioneers’ exploration and movement to the West included personal economic opportunity.
• The land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains was becoming more populated.
• There were many economic opportunities in trade for pioneers moving west that were different from the industrial north and large southern plantations.
• There was a bounty of furs to be hunted in the vast wilderness of the West and then sold in Europe for a profit.
• The availability of inexpensive rich farmland in places such as Oregon made it possible for settlers to own their own land and become self-sufficient. Eventually extra items would be traded.
• The push for westward expansion caused a tremendous economic advancement in the towns and cities that were being established along the trails leading west.
• The California Gold Rush brought many new migrants to the West who were looking to get rich quick. These miners and others who traveled with them needed food and supplies so merchants followed the miners.
• In order to escape religious persecution in the United States, the Mormons, who settled present-day Utah then in the Mexican territory, are an example of a religious group that settled in the West

It Is Not Essential For Students To Know:

• Students do not need to know about the farming techniques of the times.
• Students do not need to know how to mine for gold or how the fur traders hunted and finally prepared the furs for market.