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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 15 of 18

Westward Expansion

Manifest Destiny and its costs

What your child practices

Manifest Destiny, Indian removal and the Trail of Tears, Haudenosaunee land loss in New York, Texas and the Mexican-American War, and the people the westward movement helped and harmed.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7.6; 7.6a; 7.6b; 7.6c · westward expansion from 1800 to 1860, conflict and compromise with other nations, and who gained and who lost

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the US should spread across the continent.
  2. Expansion helped settlers but harmed Native nations: Indian removal and the Trail of Tears; the Haudenosaunee lost land in New York.
  3. The US gained land by war and purchase: the Mexican-American War, the Gadsden Purchase (1853) and Alaska (1867).

Example: From which country did the US buy Alaska in 1867? Alaska is across a narrow strait from Asia. Its seller held land in Asia. Answer: Russia

Westward Expansion in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 15 of 18 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Reformers of New York and before A Nation Divided.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The California Gold Rush began in…

    • 1776
    • 1848–1849
    • 1897
    • 1812

  2. Question 2

    The Homestead Act (1862) offered…

    • Free trains
    • Free gold
    • Free slaves
    • 160 acres of western land to settlers who farmed it for five years

  3. Question 3

    The first transcontinental railroad was completed in…

    • 1869
    • 1776
    • 1912
    • 1812

  4. Question 4

    The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed by…

    • Andrew Jackson
    • Thomas Jefferson
    • George Washington
    • Abraham Lincoln

  5. Question 5

    Why did water rights matter so much in the West?

    • it rained too much
    • no one farmed
    • rivers were useless
    • the dry land made river water scarce and valuable

  6. Question 6

    Many New Yorkers moved west after 1825 by traveling…

    • across the Atlantic
    • on the transcontinental railroad
    • by airplane
    • along the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes

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