Westward Expansion ‑ Videos

Migrants Travel West on the Oregon Trail

Over 400,000 people travel West to start a new life and claim new land along the Oregon Trail, including Lucinda Brown. One‑hundred seventy years later, one of her descendants sees a kettle from her journey for the first time.

Manifest Destiny

Historian Matthew Pinsker gives a crash course on the concept of “manifest destiny” and the seeds of westward American expansion.

Sacagawea

In 1804, Jefferson sends a team to explore lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery will travel nearly 8,000 miles over three years, reaching the Pacific Ocean and clearing the path for westward expansion.

Louisiana Purchase: The Land Deal of the Millennium

For a mere $15 million, Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States, buying 800,000 square miles from the French that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

Donner Party

Western migration through uncharted regions strands a wagon train in the Sierra Mountains leaving little choice for survival.

Transcontinental Railroad

Find out how the transcontinental railroad transformed America into one nation.

The Gold Rush of 1849

Discover how the Gold Rush led to the creation of California.

This Day in History: 05/10/1869 – Transcontinental Railroad