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The cultural endeavor and pursuit of manifest destiny provided a strong impetus for westward expansion in the 19th century. The United States began expanding beyond North America in 1856 with the passage of the Guano Islands Act , causing many small and uninhabited, but economically important, islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean ...
The Oregon Trail, the longest of the overland routes used in the westward expansion of the United States, was first traced by settlers and fur traders for traveling to the Oregon Country. The main route of the Oregon Trail stopped at the Hudson's Bay Company Fort Hall , a major resupply route along the trail near present-day Pocatello and where ...
The history of the United States from 1815 to 1849—also called the Middle Period, the Antebellum Era, or the Age of Jackson—involved westward expansion across the American continent, the proliferation of suffrage to nearly all white men, and the rise of the Second Party System of politics between Democrats and Whigs.
American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel Leutze's famous painting Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1861). As president, Polk sought compromise and renewed the earlier offer to divide the territory in half along the 49th parallel, to the dismay of the most ardent advocates of manifest destiny.
The seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as the population grew they pushed westward for fresh farmland. [37] Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread. Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well ...
America wished to rescue Europe from the devastation of World War II, and to contain the expansion of communism, represented by the Soviet Union. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy of containment (containing the spread of communism). [ 212 ]
American Progress, a painting of profound historical significance, has become a seminal example of American Western Art.Serving as an allegory for manifest destiny and American westward expansion, this 11.50 by 15.75 inches (29.2 cm × 40.0 cm) masterpiece was commissioned in 1872 by George Crofutt, a publisher of American Western travel guides and has since been frequently reproduced.
In 1867, the United States acquired Alaska from the Russian Empire, capping American westward expansion on the North American continent. The next 75 years saw a monumental change on the west coast of the United States. Successive booms of agriculture, oil, entertainment, and industry greatly increased California's population.