Westward Expansion

Subject: Social Studies  ·  Grade level: 5th

Manifest Destiny, the Oregon Trail, the Gold Rush, and Native American displacement.

In this lesson

• Key events
• Manifest Destiny
• Costs & consequences

Key terms

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that U.S. expansion was inevitable and justified.

Trail of Tears

The forced removal of Cherokee and other tribes from the Southeast.

Frontier

The boundary between settled and unsettled land.

Westward Expansion lesson on BrightPath

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