Although British colonist William Bradford once called America a hideous and desolate wilderness, that type of sentiment did not keep colonists and future Americans from pressing westward to discover new lands, new riches, and new perils. Students will learn about famous and lesser-known explorers who traversed the great expanse. Through a variety of primary-source documents, readers will learn how the expansion affected not only the establishment of the country but international relationships and indigenous populations. Students gain a fuller understanding of the costs and benefits of Manifest Destiny.

"Describes the opposing viewpoints of the American Indians and settlers during the Westward Expansion"--Provided by publisher.

When it appeared in 1949, the first edition of Ray Allen Billington's 'Westward Expansion' set a new standard for scholarship in western American history, and the book's reputation among historians, scholars, and students grew through four subsequent editions. This abridgment and revision of Billington and Martin Ridge's fifth edition, with a new introduction and additional scholarship by Ridge, as well as an updated bibliography, focuses on the Trans-Mississippi frontier. Although the text sets out the remarkable story of the American frontier, which became, almost from the beginning, an archetypal narrative of the new American nation's successful expansion, the authors do not forget the social, environmental, and human cost of national expansion.

Discusses the concept of manifest destiny and examines the diplomatic deals and wars that brought new territories under American control and allowed the country to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean.

"3 story paths, 47 choices, 19 endings"--Cover.

As the population of the 13 colonies grew and the economy developed, the desire to expand into new land increased. Nineteenth-century Americans believed it was their divine right to expand their territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. "Manifest destiny," a phrase first used in 1839 by journalist John O'Sullivan, embodied the belief that God had given the people of the United States a mission to spread a republican democracy across the continent. Advocates of manifest destiny were determined to carry out their mission and instigated several wars, including the war with Mexico to win much of what is now the southwestern United States. In Manifest Destiny: Westward Expansion, learn how this philosophy to spread out across the land shaped our nation.