INFORMATION LEADS TO INTEREST

FUR TRAPPERS AND TRADERS

GOVERNMENT LED EXPEDITIONSLEWIS AND CLARK, 1804-1806ZEBULON PIKE, 1806-1807STEPHAN L0NG, 1819

Lt. John C. Fremont, published the account

of an exploration in 1845

THE OVERLAND TRAILWestern Trails

This map shows the main trails taken by Western emigrants on the way to Oregon, California, and Santa Fe.

NATIVE AMERICANS MEET MANIFEST DESTINY

Attack on Emigrant Train by Charles Wimar (1856)Although Indian attacks on Western emigrants were rare, this image was so powerful that it influenced portrayals of Indians in Western movies made byHollywood more than a century later.

THE MORMON FLIGHT TO UTAH

Joseph Smith founded Mormon sect in NY in 1830s

THE LARGEST ORGANIZED MIGRAITON IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Brigham Young: Successor to Smith who decided to move sect to

the west

NORTHERN MEXCIO

The Spanish mission system

Mexico seeks to strengthen northern regions

In Texas, Mexican government gives land grants to American settlers

THE CLASH IN TEXAS

Fall of the Alamo—Death of CrockettThe heroism of the Alamo’s defenders is

captured in this crude woodcut, which shows Crockett’s bravery in the face of battle.

Sam Houston

Texas: The Politics of Annexation

Those who opposed Texas annexation

(largely because they opposed slavery)

Those who favored annexation

(southerners and those who favored slavery)

James K. Polk and Expansion

Election of 1844 centered on Texas where Polk, a pro-slavery expansionists

supported annexation.

Polk Election BannerPolk welcomes Texas, while Whigs vainly try to hold back the Lone Star Republic from joining

the Union.

POLK’S EXPANSIONIST VISION

Jacksonian vision of the west

Acquire Oregon

Get concessions from Mexico

A CONTROVERSIAL WAR

THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848

MOST PROFOUND CRITIC OF THE WAR

Abolitionists led by

William Lloyd Garrison

opposed the war

THE MEXICAN CESSION, 1848

THE WILMOT PROVISO

DAVID WILMOT

THIS PROVISO BANNED SLAVERY FROM ALL TERRITORY ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO

FREE SOIL VS. PRO-SLAVERY

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

SECTIONALISM AND THE ELECTION OF 1848

The Candidate of Many PartiesA phrenologist probes General Zachary Taylor’s head,

looking for some sign of what the presidential candidate thought about the key issues of the day. Taylor’s campaign tried to avoid taking stands on issues that might alienate

voters.