Weatward Expansion
Parts of the westward expansion
Texas
It started out when mexico invited Stephen Auistin to live in Texas. Stephen brought along some pioneers. As they continiued to live their they thought that it wasnt fair they weren't alowed to have slaves sense mexico prohibit it. This conflict eventuly lead into the Mexican-American War. A major battle was the Alamo. The Alamo was a fort were the texans fought at. The mexicans won but the building still stands today. When the texans fought back with a secret attack the battle cry was ,"Rember the Alamo!'. during the war The United States of America fought on texas side. By the end of the war Texas was officaly a state of The United States of The America.
Trails West
Pioneers and their family traveled long trails west to have a chance of starting a new life or buisness. People left behind their house and some of their posseisions because they could onley bring so much. Some people even left some of their family behind! (probaly not the people that lived in thier house though) Some of the trails west are the Organ trail,California trail, and the Mormon trail are onley some of the trails. My personal favorite trail is the Mormon trail. The Mormon trail is made because some people were dealing with discrimination because of thier religon. So they moved west and setteled in Salt Lake City.
Gold Rush
The gold rush was when a setteler in california found gold in the river that he was building a sawmill on, in 1848.Then one day he and the windmill owner John Sutter found gold in the river. They tried to keep it a secret, but by August 4,000 gold seekers came to california and set up tents,shacks,ect. on John's property. In December 1848 President Polk told the Congress about the discovery of gold. 80,000 people left their lifes homes and families in 1849 to go to california. Theese miners were called "forty-niners". Even people from diffrent countries came to search for gold. By 1853 more than 250,000 people had come to California to search for gold. Minning started out simple. The minners just panned for gold. Anither ool used was the sluice. The miners ran streamn water through the long wooden box. The wooden bars across the bottom of the box let the lighter stuff flow through and the heavy stuff such as gold. Lots of miners died becuse the water they were working in was freezing cold. Some died becuase of diesiese or a poor diet.Some people found gold but some did not. By 1850 less gold was found in the river and now mining was done more mechanicly by big companies. Stores got a good profet becuase of the gold rush. if you sold pans for mining you could charge $8 were in the east it could be bought for 20 cents. So as more people came for gold the larger the town grew.
Texas was a slave state in tell slavery waas banned
There were many trails going west. The settelers back then thought that traveling along the great plains was the hardest.
Gold is a yellow metel soft enough to molded into objects. California produced 76 tons of gold during 1848-1849