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US History – Westward Expansion, 1803-90
In this course, Dr Kevin Waite (University of Durham) explores the westward expansion of the United States in period 1803-90. After a broad introduction to the period in which we outline some of the factors that contributed to this westward movement, we think about the foundation of the American state in the late 18th century and the initial attempts at expansion, culminating in the Louisiana Purchase of 1804. After that, we look at encounters between white settlers and Native Americans in the period 1810-40, focusing in particular on the War of 1812 and the Trail of Tears, before moving on in the fourth module to explore how the issue of slavery contributed to America's expansion into Texas and further west. In the fifth module, we see how westward expansion exacerbated tensions between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South and ultimately led to the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-65), before learning, in the sixth module, about how hostilities with Native Americans continued in the decades following the Civil War. Finally, in the seventh module, we study the treatment of Native Americans in the final decades of the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on the creation of Indian Boarding Schools, the Dawes Act of 1887, and the massacre at Wounded Knee.
Introduction
In this module, we provide a broad introduction to the course as a whole, before outlining the factors that contributed to the American expansion to the west.
Hi, I'm Kevin.
00:00:02Wait, an assistant professor in American history here at Durham University.
00:00:04Uh, and in this series of many lectures,
00:00:08we'll be talking about the expansion of the
00:00:10United States across the North American continent.
00:00:13We'll learn how the U. S.
00:00:17Went from a relatively weak nation that was largely
00:00:19confined to the eastern seaboard of North America,
00:00:23uh,
00:00:27to a global power that conquered an entire
00:00:28continent in a remarkably short span of time.
00:00:32There are six many lectures in this series.
00:00:36Um, first,
00:00:40we'll be learning about the Louisiana purchase of 18 oh
00:00:41three and the Foreign Policies of America's Founding Fathers,
00:00:44notably Thomas Jefferson.
00:00:48Then we'll move south to learn about encounters between white settlers and native,
00:00:50um, Americans in the 18 tens, twenties and thirties.
00:00:57Then we're moving west into Texas to learn about how Anglo American immigrants, uh,
00:01:01basically detached Texas from Mexican control.
00:01:09Then in the fourth lecture,
00:01:14will learn about how the institution of slavery shaped questions about American
00:01:16expansion and ultimately led to the bloodiest war in America's history.
00:01:22Uh, and then we'll go into the post war period in the fifth lecture, uh,
00:01:28to learn about the Plains Indians war.
00:01:34Uh, and finally,
00:01:37we'll conclude in the year 18 90 when the United
00:01:38States virtually consolidated its control over the American West.
00:01:42Uh, and before we dive into the actual content of the course,
00:01:48I want to outline a few general themes and some key questions.
00:01:53Uh, and in doing so, I hope that they'll, uh, help you wrestle with some of the, uh,
00:01:59with what's really a big and a complex topic in American history.
00:02:07America expanded west through three main factors. Really.
00:02:13Uh, first through the power of the U. S.
00:02:18Military as it forcibly seized land from Native Americans
00:02:22and from the Mexican government.
00:02:27Uh, second,
00:02:29the US expanded through the the initiative of individual settlers as they
00:02:31pushed westward onto the frontier and confronted native peoples on those lands.
00:02:36And third,
00:02:42the nation expanded through diplomacy and the
00:02:43purchase of land from foreign powers.
00:02:48And what's important to keep in mind here is that these three forces, the military,
00:02:51individual settlers and diplomats weren't entirely
00:02:58distinct from one another or discrete.
00:03:02Often they work together
00:03:05in conjunction to assure America's expansion across the continent.
00:03:07But of course, this this expansion produced tensions.
00:03:14Um, not only with the people that the United States attempted to take land from, uh,
00:03:18but also between Americans themselves.
00:03:25Actually,
00:03:28um, the issue of expansion ran headlong into, uh,
00:03:29the very values that America had enshrined in its founding documents.
00:03:35The Declaration of Independence, for instance,
00:03:41written by Thomas Jefferson in 17 76
00:03:44decl where that quote,
00:03:48all men are created equal and that they have the fundamental right to life,
00:03:49liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
00:03:56Uh, these became the fundamental and we could we could say,
00:03:59the Universalist values of the American Republic.
00:04:03But, uh, these fundamental values produced attention.
00:04:08How could America achieve control of the
00:04:12continent without undermining these values without violating the
00:04:16rights to life and liberty and happiness of the people that stood in America's way?
00:04:23And this is really a question that vexed American
00:04:31leaders really at every turn of the 19th century,
00:04:34and it's a question as well See, that never really gets resolved.
00:04:38
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Waite, K. (2018, August 15). US History – Westward Expansion, 1803-90 - Introduction [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/the-westward-expansion-of-the-united-states-1803-90/the-war-of-1812-and-the-trail-of-tears
MLA style
Waite, K. "US History – Westward Expansion, 1803-90 – Introduction." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 15 Aug 2018, https://massolit.io/courses/the-westward-expansion-of-the-united-states-1803-90/the-war-of-1812-and-the-trail-of-tears