US History › Section I · The West and big business › Topic I.1
The westward spirit
Between the 1840s and 1900, millions of Americans and immigrants moved onto lands west of the Mississippi that Native nations and Hispanic communities already called home. Belief, profit and federal policy worked together to make that migration possible.
In this topic
- A desert, or a promised land?
- Manifest destiny after 1848
- The overland trails
- The Homestead Act
- Building the transcontinental railway
- Worked example: reading American Progress
- Forts, surveys and federal power
- Who actually went west?
- Black migrants and Buffalo Soldiers
- Worked example: why migration surged after 1869
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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