GED Social Studies European Settlement and Westward Expansion Summary

In the 1840s, many Americans believed it was the nation's destiny to spread across North America. The phrase was popularized in 1845. This belief was used to justify taking land, including through the Mexican-American War, often at great cost to American Indians and Mexicans.

Wrong choices

• The belief that the United States should stay east of the Mississippi River: Manifest Destiny was about spreading west across the continent, not stopping at the Mississippi.
• A law that let Southern states leave the Union: No law allowed states to leave the Union. Manifest Destiny was about expansion.
• A plan to return the colonies to Britain: Manifest Destiny was a belief about American expansion, not a plan to return to British rule.

The Indian Removal Act, signed by President Andrew Jackson, led to the forced removal of Native nations from the Southeast. Thousands of Cherokee died on the forced march west, known as the Trail of Tears.

Wrong choices

• The end of westward settlement: Westward settlement continued and grew after 1830.
• Citizenship for all American Indians: American Indians were not granted citizenship as a group until 1924.
• More land for Native nations in the Southeast: The act took Native lands in the Southeast. It did not give them more land there.

The Columbian Exchange is named after Christopher Columbus. Crops such as corn and potatoes went from the Americas to Europe, and horses, cattle, and wheat came to the Americas. Diseases such as smallpox also came to the Americas and killed many Native people.

Wrong choices

• Manifest Destiny: Manifest Destiny was a belief about U.S. expansion in the 1800s.
• The Homestead Act: The Homestead Act (1862) gave western land to settlers.
• The triangular trade: The triangular trade was a pattern of trade, including enslaved people, among Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It is narrower than the exchange of plants, animals, and diseases.

The Homestead Act offered land almost for free to people willing to live on it and farm it. This encouraged millions of people to move west. It also pushed American Indians off more of their lands.

Wrong choices

• To protect western lands from settlement: The act invited settlers to live on the land, which is the opposite of protecting it from settlement.
• To reduce the amount of farming in the West: Requiring settlers to farm the land would increase farming, not reduce it.
• To raise taxes on western farmers: The act gave land away for a small fee. It did not raise taxes.

Native peoples had never been exposed to diseases such as smallpox and measles, so they had no immunity. Epidemics killed a very large share of the Native population. War, forced labor, and loss of land added to the decline.

Wrong choices

• Native peoples moving to Europe in large numbers: Few Native people went to Europe. The decline happened in the Americas.
• Native peoples not knowing how to farm: Many Native peoples were skilled farmers who grew crops such as corn, beans, and squash.
• Volcanic eruptions across the Americas: There is no evidence of volcanic eruptions causing this decline.