Westward Expansion

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    "Grew to the West" lyrics

How did the USA get to be
The size it is on maps we see?
It started with thirteen colonies
Then grew to the West with more territory

France claimed the land past the Mississippi
Sold it for $15 million in 1803
To the US government which gave our country
The best real estate deal in history
Thomas Jefferson bought the land from Napoleon for only 3 cents an acre.
What did they call this purchase?
It was the LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Two great explorers with little time for play
Their journey took eight-hundred and sixty four days
Their mission was to find the safest way
To reach the Pacific and start more trade
Exploration is dangerous; Meriwether was accidentally shot in the butt when he was mistaken for an elk.
Who were these two explorers?
It was LEWIS AND CLARK

The first people traveling West had no car
Or a fast train with a salad bar
10 miles a day was about as far as they could get with this thing that was pulled by a horse...
They used COVERED WAGONS

How did the USA get to be
The size it is on maps we see
It started with thirteen colonies
Then grew to the West with more territory

Pardon me, fella. Do you know the way to San Jose?

How did the settlers know where to go?
When there were no maps or a single paved road
Landmarks and stories were the way to know
That, Native Americans could easily show
What did pioneers travel along before super highways were built?
They followed TRAILS, like the Oregon and Santa Fe

California in the year 1849
Had something that thousands of people came to find
A great discovery with moneymaking shine
They called them "forty-niners," they worked in a mine
What event was attended almost completely by men who wanted to get rich (even though most did not)?
That's the CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

Settlers were killing all their buffalo
So they bravely fought back like Geronimo
Loosing their land with no place to go
But their fate would be negotiating reservations of land and trying to build a new identity in a modern world...
They were NATIVE AMERICANS

You know how the USA got to be
The size it is on maps we see
It started with thirteen colonies
Then grew to the West with more territory

You know, we call it Westward Expansion, but if you were a Native American at the time, you might have looked at it more as an Eastern invasion. It's something to think about!

© 2005 Power Arts Company, Inc.

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Bonus video:

Watch the United States Grow

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