Image Gallery
Westward Exploration and Settlement of the United States c.1850
A map illustrating the patterns and routes of westward exploration and settlement in the United States after the “Louisiana Purchase” from France in 1803. As Napoleonic dreams of a great North American Empire gave way to French hegemonic ambitions in Europe, the United States became a continental nation overnight. At the onset of the 19th century, as Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery made their way up the Missouri River and followed the Columbia River to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the image of western North America evolved from an almost empty and simple interior with a theoretical single mountainous divide, to a complex landmass of mountains and rivers. Since 1803, when Westward expansion began in earnest, most inland exploration was dominated by the search for suitable emigration routes through the West to Oregon and California, through the Great Plains and the Southwest. By 1820, out of a total population of roughly 10 million, 2 million Americans lived west of the Appalachian Mountains, and by 1845, as more and more settlers crossed the continent, the term Manifest Destiny was coined.
