Westward expansion

Even before the American Revolution a restless nation started to expand westward, this process was fastened after the formation of the USA. Families and individuals were moving west, settling the frontiers and changing the face of the land. Within a generation frontiers transformed into settlements, but thousands of newcomers continued moving west.

In 1790, most people lived east of the Appalachian Mountains within a few hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean. But by 1840, already one-third lived between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River – at that time this area was known as the West.

Life on the frontier was harsh and full of adventure; the experience of settling frontier land influenced the formation of American character and values, making them more egalitarian. The frontier also influenced American manners, economics, and society.

Acquiring Western Lands

The first years of American independence saw the first major shifts of the population from east to west – from New England people were moving to upstate New York, Pennsylvanians moved to Ohio, Virginians and Carolinians – to Kentucky and Tennessee. By 1803, four new states entered the Union – Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803).

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States (after Washington and Adams), his inauguration marked a change of style in government – as a representative of Republic Party he tried to limit the power of central government and promoted westward expansion. Like many Americans, Jefferson shared the belief that the United States was destined to expand its "empire of liberty". By one of his acts Jefferson doubled the area of the country – the Louisiana Purchase opened the way for westward expansion across the continent.

The Louisiana Territory was France's largest colony in the New World, it stretched from the western border of the United States along the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to present-day Minnesota. The port of New Orleans was of great importance for developing American economy. The plans of the French emperor Napoleon to rebuild the empire in the New World threatened American trading rights and safety of western settlements.

In 1803, Napoleon, who was preparing for the war with Great Britain, decided to fill his treasury and to sell 827,000 square miles of Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. The nation gained rich plains, mountains, forests, rivers, and the port of New Orleans. Within 80 years this territory became America's breadbasket – it supplied with food not only the USA, but also many other countries in the world.

The Louisiana Purchase awoke Americans' long-standing interest in the West. It was an immense territory about which Americans knew nothing, no one was sure of its western boundary. Jefferson claimed that Louisiana extended to the mountains west of the Mississippi, but there were no people certain of the exact location of these mountains. To explore the lands west from the Mississippi River, in 1804 Jefferson planned the expedition to the Pacific Ocean via the Missouri and Columbia Rivers.

The expedition, headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was called "botanical", but it was fishing for much more – obtaining accurate measurements of latitude and longitude, gathering information about Native American languages and customs learning about natural phenomena.

That first attempt to explore American West was followed by many others – in 1807, Lieutenant Pike reached the Rocky Mountains and found a navigable path to the Far West. A year later Pike's men spent several months on the Spanish territory in the south – this experience was described in the published accounts of western exploration. In the 1820s, the road to the southwest called the Santa Fe Trail was opened giving way to mass westward expansion.