13 abigail j

Westward expansion

By Abigail Johnson

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Table of contents Introduction 1. ................................ The Oregon trail 2. ................................ The Lewis and Clark expedition 3. ................................ California Gold Rush 4. ................................. The Luisiana Territory Conclusion

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Introduction I am writing about lots of things in the westward expansion because i think that lots of things are interesting in the westward expansion and i hope you do to. When people read this i think that maybe it would be interesting to read about lots of things and not just one thing. The reason I am doing this is because i wanted to find a way to be unique and different from everybody else, i mean who would want to be the same as everybody else right? So that is why i decided to just write the way I want to write not the way other people are wanting to write. I hope you enjoy my presentation.

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Chapter one The Oregon trail The Oregon trail was formed by lots and lots of unconnected trails used by many Native American Indians and many Fur traders too. The Oregon trail was a very important rout taken by settlers migrating to have a new and better life in the west part,

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of the United States. The Oregon trail covered over 2,000 miles.

It started in Independence Missouri and then followed the Platte River westwards, crossing the Rocky Mountains, The Sierra Nevada Mountains and after that it crossed Wyoming and finally ended in Oregon city. Early settlers in the 1840's traveled in covered wagons to carry their supplies and belongings on their 6 month journey.

The map of the Oregon trail shows how far a distance of a 2,000 miles, stretches.

Map of the Oregon Trail

The dangers and hard things that happened on the Oregon

Trail • The rivers and drowning: Crossing the big, deep, and fast river water along the route led to death to the settlers and their

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animals all drowning together with the loss of their supplies, goods and equipment.

• The wagons: The wagons could be tipped over and men, women, children and animals could be crushed by the wagon.

• Injuries: Migrants got many injuries due to gun shot wounds.

Other injuries were caused by kicking ox and horses, burns were another cause of injury from touching different kinds of sprays with really strong chemicals in them.

• Weather: Extreme weather conditions such as hailstorms, lightning grass fires, and crossing dangerous mountain terrain which caused deaths and injuries.

• Snakebites: Rattlesnakes were a great danger on the Oregon Trail, and to get the poison out of the wound they would need to slice the bite open and suck out the poison with some type of tool.

• Sicknesses: People became sick, and there were either no medication or not enough for those suffering from often serious and bad diseases such as cholera, small pox, measles, mumps, mountain fever, dysentery, scurvy, influenza, hypothermia, tuberculosis, even the normal colds caused death's!!

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• Childbirth: Women died giving birth in the difficult conditions experienced along the Oregon Trail. • Native American Indian attacks: Many Native Americans helped the migrants but the Native American attacks increased in the 1860's.

Interesting facts about the Oregon Trail 1. Most families went on the Oregon Trail with only one 10 foot long by 4 foot wide by 2 feet deep covered wagons made out of out of wood and iron, and either a few oxen or a few mules to pull the big heavy wagon, they did not use horses because horses ate too much to make the long journey.

2. Food was the most important thing families brought with them, for example people ate coffee, bacon, beans, rice, flour, and crackers, they would also hunt wild game along the way too.

3. Instead of burning wood, many travelers burned buffalo chips, and the dried out manures from the American buffalo.

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4. In some places you can still see the rust of the wagon wheels worn into the ground from this mass exodus out west!

Chapter two

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition Meriwether Lewis the explorer soldier was born on August 18th, 1774 in Virginia. As a member of the state Lewis helped to end the Whiskey Rebellion, a Pensilvania uprising led by some farmers that were going against taxes in 1794. A year after that Lewis met William Clark a man who would soon help him on one of the greatest expeditions of all time. Lewis joined a normal army and achieved the place of captain. In 1801 he was asked by president Thomas Jefferson to act like his private secretary.

Thomas Jefferson also made another offer to Lewis, and this offer was to lead an expedition into the lands of the west of the Mississippi River. Already wanting to know more about these lands Thomas Jeffersons interest in the area increased with the purchase of the Luisiana territory from France in 1803. Thomas Jefferson asked Lewis to gather information about the plants, animals, and people of the area. Lewis took the chance right away and picked an old friend William Clark to join him on his expedition, he would be the co-commander of the expedition.

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Lewis, Clark and the rest of their expedition started their journey near Missouri in may 1804. They faced dangerous waters, bad weather, hunger, injuries and illness. Along the way Lewis kept a notebook and a pencil to write notes in, he also brought samples of different kinds of plants and animals. Lewis Clark and their expedition received assistance from many Native Americans they met on their journey westward, for example The Mandans provided them with supplies for the first winter.

During this time the expedition picked up two more people Sacagawea and Charbonneau. Both of them acted like interpreters from the expedition and Sacagawea Charbonneau's wife and a ShoShone Indian were able to get horses for the

group later in their journey. The expedition reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805, they built Fort Clastop and spent the winter in Oregon. On the way back in 1806 Lewis and Clark split up to "10

explore more of the territory and try to find a quicker rout home. Lewis and his men faced great dangers when they met Blackfeet Indians wanting to steel from the corps in late July.

Two Blackfeet Indians were killed when the fight was over. A month later Lewis was shot in the thigh by one of his men while they were hunting. Lewis, Clark and their groups met up again at the Missouri River, then made the rest of the trek to St. Louis together, in total the expedition was about 8,000 miles by horseback, foot and by boat, oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!

Traveling to Washington, Lewis and his other buddies of the expedition received a warm welcome from nearly every place they went.

Many cities that they passed through had events to celebrate the explorers return. Once reaching the nations capital Lewis received a payment for his amazing efforts. Along with his salary and 1,600 acres of land, he was named governor of the Louisiana Territory. He also tried to publish the journals that he and Clark had written during their journey.

This shows that as Lewis and Clark passed through all these villages they were very popular that day because of the expedition that they were on, this also shows that people were "11

very happy and amazed that they made it through that tough journey.

After that Lewis had dark moods and a drinking problem and this caused him to be removed from his duties as governor.

Lewis died on October 12 1809, at a hotel near Nashville, Tennessee. He was on his way to Washington D.C. at the time, most historians believed that Lewis committed suicide while a few believed that he was murdered. Lewis's work inspired many people to follow in his footsteps and created great interest in the region. Lewis also advanced scientific knowledge from the plant samples and animals that he collected on his journey.

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Interesting facts about Lewis and Clark 1. What did Lewis and Clark eat? The expedition members carried some food supplies, for example pork, flour, dried soup, lard and liquor. While they were in North Dakota, the Corps of Discovery found game like buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope. They also had food like corn, squash, and beans from the Mandan and Hidasta Indians. While they were in North Dakota, the men were sometimes eating up to nine pounds of meat per day!

2. What kinds of animals were in North Dakota in 1805? Lewis and Clark found hundreds of thousands of buffalo, elk, antelope, prairie dogs and beaver. Near Bismarck, men of the expedition wounded their first grizzly bear, but it escaped before they could find it.

3. Were there any injuries on the expedition? Captain Meriwether Lewis was accidentally shot near present day Williston on Agust 11, 1806. He was shot by one of the crew members Pierre Cruzatte when they were hunting. Lewis was dressed in buckskins at the time and Cruzatte thought that Lewis was an animal because he was very nearsighted. Lewis was shot

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in the butt and no arteriosclerosis or bone were severed. Clark wrote that Lewis will be healed by September.

4. What was Lewis's dogs name? His name was seaman 5. How many members of the expedition died? Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, becoming the only man that died during the expedition. Sadly, Floyd's part in the Corps of Discovery was short lived. By late July, Lewis and Clark reported that Floyd had been sick for many days on the expedition. He seemed to grow better for a time, but on August 15, he had a complaint that he had like a violent chrolick and he was sick all night. Lewis and Clark concerned, did what they could to treat Floyd's ailment, but the sick young man steadily weakened.

The illness grew worse during the evening of August 19, sat up with the suffering man almost the entire night. Floyd died in the early afternoon of that day reportedly with a good deal of composure. The members of the expedition buried his body on the high bluff overlooking a river that flowed into the Missouri River.

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Chapter three California gold rush

John Sutter was a Swiss emigrant who arrived in California 1839. John became a Mexican citizen and received a land grant of 50,000 acres in Sacramento valley. John built Sutter's Fort on present day in Sacramento, at Sutter's Fort there were businesses such as farming and many other businesses. During time Sutter's Fort became a rest station for travelers and immigrants that passed through California. In 1847 John Sutter hired a man named James Marshal to build a sawmill at a site named "15

Coloma. On January 4 1848 James found a piece of metal at the mill that looked like gold then he took it to John. Together they tested it and found out that it was gold. John Sutter was afraid that the discovery of gold would take his workers far away from the fields, he was also worried that the gold would bring explorers onto his land. So he asked James Marshal and his men working at James Marshal John Sutter

the mill to keep the gold a secret. But the word came out! By late 1848 the word was spread all over the country. On December 5 "16

1848 president James Polk speaking to Congress confirmed accounts of gold, the discovery of gold became a national news!

By 1849 the rush was on, people from all over the United States and the world were arriving in California. People got "Gold fever" hoping that they would get rich in California. Many people expected to find rivers filled with gold on their way but to their surprise they found riverbanks filled with miners instead.

Most explorers were storekeepers, cooks, carpenters teachers, farmers or other kinds of jobs before they went to California in search for gold. By 1850 the mining country had become very populated, many immigrants ended up starting businesses, trading trading posts, importing goods to sell to miners, farming and ranching.

In the mid 1850s gold was becoming to be very difficult to find, because more people were making fortunes from selling supplies to miners, than miners themselves. When silver was discovered in Nevada miners went to Nevada and that ended The California Gold Rush.

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Chapter four Luisiana purchase The central portion of North America was considered prime land for settlement in the early days of the republic. The Missouri and Red Rivers drained the region east of the Rocky Mountains into the Mississippi valley offering navigation, farmlands, prairies, pastures and forests, the region also had big deposits of many minerals. Buffaloes and other wild game were offered as a food supply to the Native Americans. From the midfifteenth century France had claimed the Luisiana Territory.

France engaged the British in the Seven Years War ( 1754-1763) also known as the French and Indian war because of the alliance of these two groups against British troops over property disputes in the Ohio Valley. As part of the settlement of the Seven Years War, the 1763 Treaty in Paris called France to turn over control of the Luisiana Territory including New Orleans to Spain as compensation for Spanish assistance to the French during the war. By early 1800's, Spain offered the Americans free access to shipping on the Mississippi River and encouraged Americans to settle in the Louisiana Territory. President Thomas Jefferson officially frowned at this invitation, but secretly hoped that many of his frontier-seeking citizens would indeed have people go to the area owned by Spain. Like many Americans, Thomas "19

Jefferson suspiciously eyed the huge Louisiana Territory as politically unstable place; he hoped that by increasing the American presence there, any potential war concerning the territory might be averted.

The Purchase

In 1802 it seemed that Thomas Jefferson's fears were well found, the Spanish governor of New Orleans canceled Americans privileges of shipping produce and other goods for export through his city. At the same time, American officials became aware of a secret agreement that had been arranged and signed the previous year between Spain and France. This, the Treaty of San Ildefonso, provided a position of nobility for a minor Spanish royal in exchange for the return of the Louisiana Territory to the French.

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Based on France's history of engaging in hostilities for land, Thomas Jefferson and other leaders were alarmed at this potential threat on the United States western border. While some Congressmen had begun to talk about taking New Orleans. Spain's control over the territory as a generally had been a week. Accordingly, in April 1802 Thomas Jefferson and other leaders instructed Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister to France, tried to purchase New Orleans for $2 million, as a amount of Congress quickly approved for the purpose. The first time he approached officials in Paris, Livingston was told that French did not own New Orleans and they could not sell it to the United States. However Livingston quickly assured the negotiators that he had seen the Treaty of San Ildefonso and hinted that the United States might instead simply capture control of the city.

With the two sides not able to come to an agreement, Thomas Jefferson quickly sent Secretary of State James Monroe to Paris to join negotiations. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), who had come to power in France in 1799, planned in 1801 to use the good soil of the Mississippi Valley as a source of food and trade to supply a French empire in the New world. However, in 1801 Toussaint L' Ouverture led a slave revolt that eventually took control of Haiti and Hispaniola, the latter of which Napoleon had chosen as the seat of his Western empire. French armies under the leadership of Charles LeClerc tried to regain control

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Haiti in 1802 however without being affected by some successes, thousands of soldiers were lost in the battle and yellow fever.

Noticing uselessness of his plan, Napoleon abandoned his dreams for Hispaniola. As a result, Napoleon no longer had a need for the Louisiana Territory, and new that his forces were insufficient to protect it from capture. Furthermore, turning turning his attentions to European conquests he noticed that his plans there would need an infusion of ready money. Accordingly Napoleon gave his ministers official permission to make an offer to the Native Americans instead of simply moving the ownership of New Orleans, France would be willing to part with the entire Louisiana Territory.

Livingston and Monroe were amazed at his proposal, congress quickly approved and authorized a guarantee issue to raise the the necessary $15 million to complete the deal. Documents effecting the transfer were signed on April 30th 1803, and the United States officially took control of the region in ceremonies at St. Louis, Missouri on December 20th.

Consequences of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase has often been described as one of the greatest real estate deals in history. There were some issues that concerned Americans of the day. First, many wondered hoe or if the United States could defend this huge addition to its land "22

holdings. Many New Englanders worried about the effect the new edition might have on the balance of power in the nation.

Further, Thomas Jefferson and Monroe had problems with the national implications of the system in which they carried out the purchase, particularly in light of Thomas Jeffersons previous heated battles with Alexander Hamilton concerning the understanding of limits of constitutional and presidential powers. In the end however the wish to purchase the territory outweighed all of these practical and theoretical objections.

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Conclusion I hope you learned a lot about this presentation and is hope you enjoyed this story to. Before I end this entire story I wold like to tell you the websites that I found all of the great information, first the one I found most of the information on was called kidport.com and by the way before you press enter on the keyboard or something you need to do space and then type the thing that you want to write about, and then you press enter.

The second website is called history.com and by the way you do the same thing that I told you about the other website, again I hope you learned a lot about my presentation let me ask you some quick questions, first did you learn anything from what you read about? And did you put yourself in the persons shoes to feel how they were feeling? Did you feel something different with all of these different feelings? Like sad, mad, glad, sacred hurt, sick and many more. Well I sure did. Thank you so much for reading "24

and I hope you read again soon. Oh, and by the way if this story gives you any ideas of writing your own story about something don't be afraid of going for it, because you might write something wonderful that you never thought you could do.

Thank you so much for reading!

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Abigail

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