Social Sciences and History / Unit 2 SSH 0101 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Manifest Destiny and the Last West
Captions available
The idea
Manifest Destiny, John O'Sullivan's phrase, named the belief that White Americans had a duty to settle the West. Homesteaders took the Oregon Trail; miners followed strikes like the Comstock Lode; cattle drives followed the railroads.
In practice
Bonanza farms succeeding by the eighteen seventies while family farms struggled.
Where people slip
In mining and cattle alike, big business replaced the lone prospector within a generation.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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