8.8.2

Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny...and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Western Expansion

How did leading American thinkers(such as artists, intellectuals, religious and government leaders)justify America’s westward expansion in the 19 century? Download Primary Source Set: Western Expansion

This lesson includes a number of strategies designed to improve student reading comprehension, writing ability, and critical thinking, such as the ability to cite specific textual evidence to support analysis, to integrate visual information with print and visual texts, and writing explanations.

Western Expansion

One of the major themes of eighth-grade American history is the expansion of the nation, both geographically and economically. Population growth, a desire for new land for farmers along with markets for their agriculture, and a belief that God intended Americans to occupy the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific combined to drive American expansion. As early as 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote to his father:

Western Expansion
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