Westward Expansion of the U.S. - Activity 2. Important locations *** If you have not gone through the preparation of this topic yet, please click here. *** *** The red circle(s) on the screen shots indicate the location of the tool or button you must use. *** 1. In this activity, your students will learn why America wanted to have each territory and what motivation made America interested in the territories. The reasons were mostly that Americans wanted to take important locations for trade and transportation. Also, students will learn additional important locations such as trails and trade centers in this era. The following table is a list of important locations that we will mark on a map with related pictures. You can include more locations or exclude some of them as you wish. Territory Location Reason Louisiana Purchase Texas Annexation Oregon Country Mexican Cession Gadsden Purchase New Orleans St. Louis El Paso South Pass (South Pass City, Wyoming) Santa Fe Yuma and Tucson Trade (crop) Trade (Major port on the Mississippi River) & Transportation (Beginning of Lewis & Clock) Trade Made people to migrate easily - Route of Oregon Trail Trade and Transportation (Santa Fe Trail - Bent s Old Fort in Colorado as a stopping point) Railroad transportation (LA to Yuma to Tucson to El Paso => Southern Pacific Railroad) 2. If you have done the previous activity (Activity 1. Territories), you can continue to use the same map. If not, click this link. Once the map is loaded, save this map in your Esri account using Save.
3. First, let s mark New Orleans, Louisiana on the map. The beginning of Louisiana Purchase was from New Orleans. America wanted to have New Orleans because for farmers, the city s location was important for shipping crops to Europe and up the East Coast. We need to find the location of New Orleans on the map. Type New Orleans, Louisiana in the Find Places box, and hit the enter key. 4. The center of today s New Orleans is in the layer of Florida Purchase and Spanish Cession in 1819. We will move the point mark on the layer of Louisiana Purchase in 1803. 5. Click the + sign, and then choose Map Notes. 6. Now you can see a green point symbol.
7. Click the point symbol, and then click Edit. Then click Edit Shape. 8. The point symbol is now editable. Move it in the territory of Louisiana Purchase. Then click Done.
9. Now we will add a related image on the point symbol. Click the point symbol, and then click Edit. Then click Edit Pop-up 10. Change the title, and add description. You can add a related image and website. If you do not know how to find the URL of an image, please click here. Once you are done, click OK.
11. Your map may look like the following: (Image source: By J. L. Bouqueto de Woiseri [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons) 12. Follow the previous steps from #3 to #11 for St. Louis and El Paso. You might need to talk about the topology of St. Louis, where two major rivers are intersect; this circumstance made St. Louis a major port. 13. The landmarks of Oregon Trail are the following: Starting from Independence, Montana => Fort Kearny (Kearney, Nebraska) => Fort Laramie, Wyoming => South Pass (South Pass City, Wyoming) => Fort Bridger, Wyoming => Fort Hall, Idaho => Fort Boise (Boise, Idaho) => Whitman Mission (Walla Walla, Washington) => Fort Vancouver (Vancouver, Washington) => Portland, Oregon
Find these locations on the map by following the steps from #3 to #6. Change symbols by clicking the point symbols, and then click Edit. Then click Change Symbol. The Symbol Palette will pop up. Pick the one you would like to change. 14. Your map may look like the following. We will draw the line to connect these locations. Click Add Features on the left side of the map.
15. Click the Line tool. 16. Connect these points. You need to do double-click at the last point. This tool tells you the total distance of the trail.
17. You can add description of the line symbol by clicking the line symbol, and then click Edit. Then click Edit Pop-up. You can also change the color and width of the line symbol by clicking Change Symbol. 18. Follow the previous steps from #13 to #17 for the Santa Fe Trail. The major landmarks of the Santa Fe Trail are the following: Santa Fe Trail: Westport (Kansas City, Missouri) => Council Grove, Kansas => Bent s Old Fort (La Junta, Colorado) => Taos, New Mexico => Santa Fe, New Mexico Your map may look like the following map. 19. Gadsden Purchase (1853) This land was good for a railroad route because it was flat. Therefore, railroad builders wanted this area. This land was used to build the Southern Pacific Railroad. We will draw the line of the railroad route: Los Angeles => Yuma, Arizona (1877) => Tucson, Arizona (1880) => El Paso, Texas (1881) Like Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail, find the four cities on the map, and connect them using the Line tool (steps #13 to #16).
20. Here is my final map. Discussion questions o How did the locations above benefit to the U.S.? o How were the territories related/interconnected to each other (i.e. relationship between Oregon Country and Mexican Cession) o Why was St. Louis so important in Westward Expansion? What did its location mean to the U.S. at that time?