Westward expansion
Imagen: Census Bureau map depicting territorial acquisitions. Public Domain.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Territorial-acquisition-uscensus-bureau.jpg
Instructions: Read the text and look at the words in bold.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase streched from the MIssissipi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that Independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth”, he wrote, “are the chosen people of God”). In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal opulation of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand. The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history.
Westward expansion. Retrieved October, 2016 from http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion
Quiz
Getting started: Minnesota in 1858
Instructions: Read the text about how Minnesota became the 32nd state in 1858.
In 1800 presidents Andrew Jackson, James Polk and John Tyler wanted to expand the borders of America to the West, along with the pioneers who headed west to California. Minnesota became the 32nd state in the Union on May 11, 1858.
Besides of quantity of lakes, the Mississippi River starts there and it is the western most point of the St. Lawrence Seaway that runs through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Immigration was slow until the second half of the 19th century, when people in the east started to hear about Minnesota’s woodlands and fertile prairie. Between 1850 and 1857, the state population skyrocketed from 6,077 to more than 150,000. It became U.S. territory through the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Louisiana purchase (1803).
Minnesota today is still a leader in farming, lumbering, and milling, as well as printing and iron production.
Minnesota. Retrieved and adapted October, 2016 from http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states/minnesota/
To the west
Instructions: Choose T (True) or F (False).
Simple Past – Regular Verbs
Let’s study the Simple Past with Regular Verbs.
Instructions: Read about how to form the Simple Past with Regular Verbs.
We use the Simple Past form to talk about events in the past.
To form the past tense of regular verbs we only add ED. Examples:
| Present | Past "ED" |
|---|---|
| work
travel cook play bark look bake smile laugh |
worked
traveled cooked played barked looked baked smiled laughed |
Look at the word order in the positive form:
| Subject | Verb in past "ED" | Complement |
|---|---|---|
| I
You Elizabeth Michael The dog My wife and I They |
worked
traveled cooked played barked baked laughed |
in a bank for many years.
a lot last year. for the guests. the guitar in the party. all night. the wedding cake. because of the joke. |
Quiz
Regular verbs
Instructions: Complete the sentences with the past tense of the verb in parenthesis.
- Peter to school yesterday. (walk)
- They a museum last week. (visit)
- You French last year. (study)
- In 2000 we high school. (finish)
- David from New York last week. (arrive)
- Mary the bag of cookies. (open)
- You to music a few minutes ago. (listen)
Westward expansion and slavery
Instructions: : Fill in the gaps with the past tense of the verbs in parenthesis.
The question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states (shadow) every conversation about the frontier. The Congress (stipulate) that slavery would be prohibited north of the southern boundary of Missouri (the 36º30’ parallel) in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. However, the Missouri Compromise did not apply to new territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, and so the issue of slavery (continue) to fester as the nation (expand). The Southern economy grew increasingly dependent on “King Cotton” and the system of forced labor that (sustain) it. Meanwhile, more and more Northerners came to believe that the expansion of slavery (impinge) upon their own liberty, both as citizens–the pro-slavery majority in Congress did not seem to represent their interests–and as yeoman farmers. They did not necessarily object to slavery itself, but they (resent) the way its expansion (seem) to interfere with their own economic opportunity.
Evaluation
Westward expansion and the Mexican war
Instructions: Choose the correct form of the verbs in the following sentences.
Despite this sectional conflict, Americans kept on migrating West in the years after the Missouri Compromise was adopted. Thousands of people placed/crossed the Rockies to the Oregon Territory, which belonged/stated to Great Britain, and thousands more changed/moved into the Mexican territories of California, New Mexico and Texas. In 1837, American settlers in Texas joined/petitioned with their Tejano neighbors (Texans of Spanish origin) and won independence from Mexico. They asked/petitioned to join the United States as a slave state. Thispromised/declared to upset the careful balance that the Missouri Compromise had achieved, and the annexation of Texas and other Mexican territories did not become a political priority until the expansionist cotton planter James K. Polk was elected to the presidency in 1844. Thanks to the maneuvering of Polk and his allies, Texas joined the Union as a slave state in February 1846; in June, after negotiations with Great Britain, Oregon joined/stayed as a free state.
That same month, Polk asked/declared war against Mexico, claiming (falsely) that the Mexican army had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.” The war stated/proved to be relatively unpopular, in part because many Northerners objected/agreed to what they saw as a war to expand the “slaveocracy.” In 1846, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot added/attached a proviso to a war-appropriations bill declaring that slavery should not be permitted in any part of the Mexican territory that the U.S. might acquire. Wilmot’s measure failed/succeded to pass, but it made explicit once again the sectional conflict that haunted/shouted the process of westward expansion.