Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Contested Territories

For Students 9th - 10th
This site highlights the westward expansion of settlers in North America and the effects this expansion had on Native Americans between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Chinese Immigrants and Mexican Americans

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the conflict with Mexican American and Chinese groups as white settlers pushed westward in the nineteenth century. Explains what brought so many Chinese immigrants to America and the roadblocks and discrimination that they had...
Graphic
Curated OER

Object of History: Chinese Miners (Chinese Immigration During the Gold Rush)

For Students 9th - 10th
An image is provided of "Gan Saam Meets El Dorado," which depicts the Chinese miners in California during the 1850s in search of gold.
Website
PBS

Pbs: New Perspectives on the West

For Students 9th - 10th
This in-depth resource presents a history of the American West from pre-Columbian times until World War I with profiles, documents, and images. It encourages visitors to link these into patterns of historical meaning for themselves....
Website
Digital History

Digital History: Western Expansion: Conclusion

For Students 9th - 10th
A good overview of the territorial expansion and its results that occurred in the United States over the first half of the 19th century.
Primary
Museum of the City of San Francisco

Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: Samuel Brannan's Bank

For Students 9th - 10th
This site contains a poster of a new bank started by Sam Brannen in San Francisco during the gold rush.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Westward Expansion and Reform

For Students 3rd - 8th
Part of a longer time line describing the history of the American West, this section covers the period 1829 to 1859 with hyperlinks to stories and people of this time period.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Treasures of Am. History: Western Expansion

For Students 9th - 10th
Shown are images and descriptions of artifacts that express the challenges that the migrants, Mexicans, and Indians shared in their quest for westward expansion in the United States during the 1800s.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: Journeys West

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A series of lessons utilizing primary texts, including narratives, photographs, and maps, through which students explore the following question: "What motivated thousands of people to journey west during the 1800s?"