Westward Expansion

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Westward Expansion
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• In 1780, 2.7 million people lived in the original
  13 states
• By 1830, 12 million people lived in 24 states
• The average family had five children !!

• 50 Years Later

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Push Factors

• What causes people to leave?
• What forces people to move?

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Push Factors

• Think about . . .What pushed you out of bed
  today?

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Pull Factors

• What leads people to a certain location?
• What attracts people to relocate to a specific
  place?

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Pull Factors

• Think about this . . . What pulled you to SS
  today?

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In your notebook . . .

• Describe a push and a pull reason for doing the
  following things
• Reading your Social Studies Text
• Heading West in the Mid-1800s

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Push Factors to the West

• Overcrowding (you need a new place to live)
• Need for jobs (displaced workers)
• Ethnic/Religious repression
• Refuge for outlaws

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Pull Factors to the West

• Land (cheap and plentiful)
• Riches (gold, silver, later oil)
• Freedom of religion/beliefs

• Family connections
• Jobs and new opportunities

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Adventure!
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Or maybe to find love ??
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Today . . .

• What are some modern day examples of push/pull?
• New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina evacuations
• Poor economy and moves for jobs

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What encouraged (or pushed) so many Americans to
go West (or did they get pulled West)?

• A belief in the philosophy of Manifest Destiny,
  which stated that ..

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• . God, , clearly wanted hardworking
  American(s) to occupy North America. It was
  inevitable and good that the United States occupy
  the continent from sea to shining sea.

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• John L. OSullivan (editor) gave these ideas a
  name Manifest Destiny

• It is, he wrote, our manifest destiny to
  overspread the continent allotted by Providence
  for the free development of our yearly
  multiplying millions.

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• What incentives does the government provide to
  help fulfill this manifest destiny and pull
  people west?

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Incentives to go west included

• Homestead Act for approximately 10, settlers
  could have 160 acres of western land, if they met
  certain criteria

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• American citizens who were 21 years or older, or
  the head of a household
• Built a home on their lot, and lived in it at
  least 6 mos. of the year
• Farmed the land for 5 years or more

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Incentives to go west included

• The Pacific Railways Act
• Granted railroads 10 square miles on either side
  of each track they laid to the west

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What did the railroads do with all that land?

• They Sold It!!

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Morrill-Land Grants

• Granted land to state educational facilities with
  curriculum tied to agriculture and mechanical
  arts (Texas AM, Oklahoma AM, etc.)

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• states were given land in the west in exchange
  for opening up colleges even Delaware!

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Once weve decided to go west, how did we get
there?
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on steam powered boats
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Wagon Trains
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On Horseback
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Stagecoach
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Locomotive
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Most often WALKING!!!
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• What potential conflicts might occur as a
  result of all this movement?

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Slides not used.
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• Songs were created about Manifest Destiny and
  then mocked in parodies

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Questions to Answer About Songs

• If these songwriters were to meet, would they
  agree with each other about what it would be like
  to move westward? List two things that each
  person might say to the other.
• Which song best expresses the truth and why?
• Why do you think each person wrote his song?