From Joy Hakim's marvelous set of books, A History of US, this webisode offers narrative, pictures, and teaching guides for the settling of the West after the Civil War.

Click on the sliding bar and watch how the United States territory grew with the Louisiana Purchase, Florida Acquisitions, Texas Annexation, Oregon Country, and Mexican Cession.

In 1803, Jefferson made a controversial decision that effectively doubled the territory of the United States while transgressing his own views of proper presidential authority.

The 1848 discovery of gold in the territory of California prompted 300,000 hopeful prospectors to flood into the region, altering it forever.

World War II (WWII), a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945 involved more than 100 million people and over 30 countries. The Allied powers - including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union - worked together...

The Compromise of 1850 acted as a band-aid over the growing wound of sectional divide.

Test how much you know about major U.S geographic features, Indian tribes, states and regions, European colonists and territorial expansion. View your correct and incorrect answers, and print out your assessment.

Find a brief recounting of resistance by several Indian tribes in an attempt to maintain their territory. See how the settlers participating in the Oklahoma land rush stole land set aside for several Indian tribes.

See what turmoil resulted from the acquisition of new territory after the Mexican-American War. There was great disagreement between those who wanted to abolish slavery and those who wanted to be able to carry slavery into the new lands....

See how James Polk's plan to claim the Oregon Territory, which had been shared with Great Britain since 1818, led him to victory with the slogan, Fifty-four forty or fight. Read about the settlers who traveled the Oregon Trail and why...

On this map you can see Alaska and Hawaii in relation to the contiguous United States and read brief text about their purchase/annexation, territorial status, and addition as states.

Read about the essential repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which had established which states could be slave and which would be free for thirty years, with the rancorous passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. See who supported it and why,...

Here's an overview of the turmoil caused in the Kansas-Nebraska territory as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Read about the potential of conflict between the free-soilers and the border ruffians.

Congressman David Wilmot, even before the end of the Mexican-War, proposed legislation that would outlaw the expansion of slavery into the new territory, should the United States acquire it. Read about his reasons for proposing the...

An interactive map that clearly shows the change in the status of slavery in territories from the Missouri Compromise to the Compromise of 1850. Click on the map to see the status before and after the Compromise of 1850.

A map of the American Northwest Territory showing the boundary developments in 1790, 1800, and 1810. The upper left map shows the territory acquired by the United States from Britain after the Revolutionary War as established by the...

A map of the United States at the outbreak of the Civil War (1860-1861) showing the States that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. The map also shows the territorial boundaries of the Washington Territory, Dakota...

A map from 1911 of the United States showing the territorial acquisitions from the original states and territory established in 1783 to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 in which Germany and the United States divided the Samoan...

A map of the western United States between 1836 and 1850 showing the Texas controversy and territorial adjustments at the time. The map is color-coded to show the unorganized territory of the Louisiana Purchase and the boundary line with...

A map from 1885 of the United States showing the territorial growth from the original States and the Northwest Territory in 1783 to the Russian cession of Alaska in 1867. The map is color-coded to show the progression from the original...

A map of the United States showing the growth of the nation from 1783-1867. The map is color-coded to show the thirteen original states, the territory acquired by conquest during the revolution and the Treaty of 1783, the Louisiana...

A map of the United States showing the territorial growth from 1783 to 1790. The map is color-coded to show the original territory after the American Revolutionary War, the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River in 1787, the...

A map of the eastern coast of North America showing territorial claims of Europeans and the development of the United Colonies of New England (New England Confederation) in 1643, and the territorial changes between the Dutch and British...

A map from 1889 of North America showing the expansion in the region of the United States from the original Thirteen Colonies at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 to the time the map was made, around 1889, before the territories...