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Explore the causes and challenges of westward migration in the 19th century, including the concept of Manifest Destiny and the settlement of the Spanish borderlands. Learn about key figures and events that shaped the growth of the United States.
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Objectives • Trace the settlement and development of the Spanish borderlands. • Explain the concept of Manifest Destiny. • Describe the causes and challenges of westward migration.
Terms and People • Junipero Serra – Franciscan priest who set up a series of missions along the California coast • expansionist– American who favored territorial growth • Manifest Destiny– belief that God wanted the United States to own all of North America • Santa Fe Trail – wagon trail trade route between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico
Terms and People(continued) • Mountain Men– American hunters and trappers who blazed trails into the Rockies in the early 1800s • Oregon Trail–trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon that was used by pioneers in the mid-1800s • Brigham Young – Mormon leader who brought his religious group to Utah in 1847 • Treaty of Fort Laramie – 1851 treaty that restricted the Plains Indians to territories away from the overland wagon routes
What were the causes of westward migration? By the 1840s, American migrants were crossing into Oregon and California seeking economic opportunity. Soon, these and other western lands became part of the United States, helping the nation grow in both wealth and power.
The Spanish founded New Mexico in 1598 but the area grew slowly. • In 1765, there were 9,600 Hispanics, located mainly around El Paso, Santa Fe, and the Rio Grande Valley. • Settlers were threatened by nomadic tribes on horseback, primarily the Apache.
The Spanish built a mixture of missions, ranches, and fortified military presidios to protect against Indian attacks. Texas was an under-populated buffer, protecting towns and mines of Mexico against nomadic raiders. In 1760, there were only 1,200 settlers, mostly around San Antonio. Development was slow. By 1821 New Mexico still had only 40,000 settlers.
In the 1760s, a few small settlements served as a buffer against Russian traders moving south from Alaska. • Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest, set up a string of missions to convert Indians. • When Spain left in 1821, more than 18,000 Christian Indians lived in the missions. At first, California developed very slowly.
American expansionists believed in the idea of Manifest Destiny.John L. O’Sullivan,a journalist, coined the phrase in 1845. Manifest Destinywas the belief that God favored U.S. expansion westward to the Pacific. Expansionists saw Mexican independence as an opportunity to take New Mexico, Texas, and California.
Southern expansionistsalso hoped to add new slave states to strengthen their position in Congress. Expansionists did not care about Mexicans or Native Americans, whom they saw as inferiors to be pushed out of the way.
The first Americans attracted to the west were Mountain Men like Jedediah Smith who blazed trails across the Sierra Nevada into California. TheMountain Men crossed the Rockies seeking beaver pelts. They established fur trading routes later followed by wagon trains of settlers.
In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established a trading post on what became the Oregon Trail. Many were attracted to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. In 1842, John C. Freemont led an expedition following trails blazed by the Whitmans and the Mountain Men. His reports attracted settlers. During the 1840s, 20,000 Americans migrated to California, Oregon, and Utah by covered wagon.
The Oregon, Mormon, and Santa Fe Trails were popular routes west. Between 1840 and 1860, 260,000 crossed the continent.
Groups of 10–100 wagons and 50–1,000 people left Missouri in early spring for an uncertain future. • The 2,000-mile trip took several months. • They by passed the dry Great Plains and the deserts of the Great Basin. • Emigrants faced exposure, starvation, disease, poisoned streams and hostile Indians. • The Donner Party resorted to cannibalism to survive blizzards in the Sierra Nevada.
The Mormons migrated west after an Illinois mob murdered their spiritual leader Joseph Smith. • In 1847, Brigham Young brought them to Utah where they established New Zion. • By 1860, there were 40,000 Mormons living near Great Salt Lake. • Young remained the group’s leader for 30 years, including eight as territorial governor of Utah.
The federal government sought to protect settlers by restricting the Plains Indians. • Settlers traveling west generally avoided the Native Americans. • The Plains Indians attempted to cling to their nomadic way of life, but their future was limited. • In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie restricted Native Americans from areas near wagon routes.
