Westward+Migration

= Why did Americans move westward? =

Summary
In 1803 Thomas Jefferson called for an exploration the west of the Mississippi river. Also in July of 1803 Napoleon of France offered the Louisiana territory to the US for 15,000,000. This doubled the size of the American territories. Also people migrated westward mainly during the gold rush of 1849 in California. People thought of this as a great way to make money and everyone left their current lives to try to get gold. This movement raised california's population by 80,000 people. Many people pictured a better life in the west areas so moved there.



__**Lewis and Clark 1804:**__ __**Santa Fe Trail 1821:**__ __**Oregon Trail 1835:**__ __**Pony Express 1860:**__
 * lewis and clark were looking for, what they called the northwest passage which was an all water route connecting the pacific and the old world of the atlantic. While looking for this passage lewis and clark also made negotiations with the indian tribe called the black feet and were also looking for new places to set up trade posts, find new scintific information on the animals and plants and also scenic recorses.
 * The Trail ran from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico. The Trail opened in 1821, the year Mexico gained its independence from Spain. A decade later, the Trail had two main routes: the Mountain Fork, which went through Colorado, and the Cimarron Fork, which went through Kansas. Travel along the Trail reached its height after the Mexican Cession, in 1848. The Civil War brought travel along the Santa Fe Trail to a halt, but people began traveling again after the war ended, in 1865.
 * The Oregon Trial was a trail to the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah. It was the only to get past the mountain range. Many people died on the trail.
 * Runaway horses, stampeded cattle, prairie fire, blizzards, heat, sunstroke, Indians, lice, snakes and the pure loneliness of the open plains
 * Bandidos mexican gangs