Social Studies Curriculum

History/Social Sciences Electives

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Adopted January 1999

Westward Movement

Course Description:

Westward Movement is a course that studies the frontier history and geography of the United States as a young nation expands from coast to coast. Sample topics in Westward Movement include:

• Native American cultures and histories
• Life on the Kentucky frontier (e.g. Daniel Boone, splitting wood, and salt pork)
• Men and women of the frontier
• Native American and settlers views of each other
• Treatment of Native Americans
• Louisiana Purchase and explorers of the territory
• Texas independence, annexation, and the Alamo
• Cultural diversity in the West
• Gold rushes, cowboys/girls, cattle drives, and cowtowns

The course title and description have been approved by the Anchorage School Board. This course outline is meant to serve as an example of one possibility for organizing this class. It does not represent the only way the course may be organized. Each course outline has been written by a different teacher so there will be differences in the approach used from one course to another.

Course Goals:

Through this course students will:

• Understand the economic, social and political reasons (forces) behind the western expansion of the United States.
• Explore the social/governmental consequences of the westward expansion.
• Understand the physical and political geography of the western lands.
• Discern the nature of U.S. society during the Western Movement by examining the architecture, arts, literature, music, and language of the time.
• Understand the role of technological improvements in the development of the West.
• Understand the westward movements effects on the social, political, and economic relations among different social groups.

Course Objectives:

The student will:

• Explain how the Northwest Ordinance provided for growth in the West.
• Explain why Americans moved west in the early 1800’s.
• Explain how transportation improved in the United States in the Early 1800’s.
• Explain how the beliefs and ideas of Americans led to westward expansion.
• Describe industrial development in the U.S and explain why cities grew rapidly.
• Explore and describe how the Industrial Revolution influenced the westward movement.
• Describe the international background and consequences of the Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812, and the Monroe Doctrine.
• Illustrate how the United States doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase, and describe the Western explorations of the newly acquired land.
• Examine conflict between Native Americans and settlers.
• Examine why rivalries between sections of the country increased during the westward expansion of the United States.
• Discuss how the Monroe Doctrine affected American foreign policy and the westward movement.
• Discuss the impacts of the 1828 Presidential election.
• Describe how Native Americans lost their ancestral lands in the southeast and moved west.
• Explain how the debate over tariffs created a crisis for the Union.
• Identify the nations that had conflicting claims to the Oregon Country. Interpret how people felt about their experiences through letters, essays, novels, poems, films or songs.
• Discuss how traders and trappers paved the way for western expansion.
• Explain how the conflict developed between Mexico and settlers in Texas and describe how Texas won its independence from Mexico and latter annexed into the United States.
• Examine how the U.S. obtained New Mexico and California.
• Investigate why the Mormons settled in what is now Utah.
• Explain how California’s population boomed in 1849.
• Explain why individuals and families migrated to the West and how they shaped political events.
• Describe life on the Oregon Trail between 1840 and 1860.
• Discuss how American writers and artists created a mythical west.
• Explain the economic, political, racial, and religious roots of the Manifest Destiny and analyze how the concept influences westward expansion.
• Describe the cultural and social changes of the United States during the westward movement.
• Examine how railroads greatly influenced the opening of the last American frontier.
• Describe how life for Native Americans changes in the late 1800’s.
• Describe how miners and ranchers influenced the settlement of the West.
• Explain how the transportation and market revolutions shaped the patterns of economic development in the West.
• Explain the lure of the West while comparing the illusions of migrants with the reality of the frontier.
• Assess the degree to which political democracy was a characteristic of the West, and evaluate the factors influencing political and social conditions on the frontier.
• Describe the political and economic background for the purchase of Alaska by the U.S. from Russia.
• Explain the roots and development of American expansionism and the causes and outcomes of the Spanish-American War.
• Describe the events that lead to the United States' annexation of Hawaii.

Course Outline

1. Early Westward Movement
   1. Frontier-- from the very beginning of colonialization people settle new areas west of established settlements.
   2. Proclamation of 1763--the British attempt at barring settlement west of the Appalachian mountains.
   3. Early explorers and settlers prior to Independence (i.e.; Daniel Boon and the Wilderness Road)
   4. Treaty of Paris-- United States receives title to all British lands east of the Mississippi and west of the Appalachian mountains.
   5. Land Ordinances of 1785 and 1787
2. The Nation Expands
   1. Jefferson takes office
   2. Louisiana Purchase
   3. Exploring the Louisiana Territory--Lewis and Clark and Pike
   4. Transportation improves
   5. War of 1812 and control of Northwest Territory
   6. Settlements of the Prairie Plains and the Lake Plains
   7. Native American culture and resistance
   8. The growing tensions over slavery as the western territories became states.
   9. Missouri compromise
   10. Music, literature and art
   11. Immigration and the Western Movement
   12. Transportation improves: steamboats, canals and the National Road
   13. Sectionalism and the Election of 1824
3. Americans Move Beyond the Boundaries of the United States
   1. Manifest Destiny and nationalism
   2. Indian policy, Indian wars, Indian Removal Act, and Trail of Tears
   3. Fur trading and Mountain Men
   4. Oregon Country become part of the U.S.
   5. The Texas Revolution and Annexation
   6. The Mexican War and Cession of lands, Gadsden Purchase
   7. Disruption to the way of life of Native Americans and Mexicans living in these areas
   8. Routes to the West
   9. The Rush to California and resulting mining boom
4. The West During the Civil War
   1. Regionalism: North, South, and West
   2. Dispute over slavery in the West
   3. Compromise of 1850
   4. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
   5. The Union controls the West
5. The West after the Civil War
   1. Settling of the Great Plains, the Southwest, and the Far West.
   2. Governments offers of free land and the promise of profits from ranching, farming, lumbering, and mining.
   3. Western Native American tribes: territory, customs and rituals
   4. Western Farmers
   5. The Cattle Boom and the cowboy
   6. Music, literature and art of the time
   7. The gunman and the lawman
   8. Conflict, treaty negotiations and broken promises with American Indians
   9. Agriculture in the Middle West and the Granger and Greenback movements
   10. Populism
6. Expansion into the Pacific Ocean
   1. The Spanish-American War
   2. Filipino call for independence
   3. U.S. annexation of Hawaii

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