Core Themes

Westward Expansion and Growth

This theme will review scholarship about political and technological developments leading population movements within the United States over time-how transportation changed settlement patterns and how settlement, transportation and industrialization impacted the expansion of the United States. Teachers will examine how individuals such as Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne and William Henry Harrison, in consultation with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, acquired western lands and prepared it for development.

Participants will study the interaction between American Indians, established groups and new immigrants, settlement patterns and displacement and individual contributions to the Territory's development through the words and actions recorded in this resource. Teachers will build a detailed understanding of the people, places and events through the workings of territorial governments. Additional perspectives and supplemental information will include settlers' journals and letters, notes on speeches from American Indian leaders such as Tecumseh and Blue Jacket, treaties such as the Treaty of Greenville and the remnants of historic places such as Ft. Stanwyck.