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Website
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: The Spanish American War in the Philippines (1898)

For Students 9th - 10th
After giving a general summary of the Spanish-American War in the Western Hemisphere, the course of the war as waged in the Philippines is explained. See how the Philippines was annexed to the United States.
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Graphic
Other

The Story of the Us Told in 141 Maps

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection of United States maps includes a year-by-year. Beginning from the Declaration of Independence and extending to present-day, students will learn explore and interact with these maps that change year-by-year.
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Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. In this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
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Website
University of Virginia

Miller Center at Uva: u.s. Presidents: James Polk

For Students 9th - 10th
A comprehensive site examining James Polk's life before the presidency, his campaigns, domestic and foreign affairs, life after the presidency, and his family. From the left-hand toolbar, select links detailing his cabinet and staff...
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Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Ap Us History: Prelude to War

For Students 9th - 10th
AP U.S. History learning module covers Manifest Destiny, conflict over slavery and events leading to the Civil War.
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Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Us History: Westward Expansion and Economic Growth

For Students 9th - 10th
US History learning module on westward expansion and economic growth. Interactive multi-media resources, assignments, projects and assessment.
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Lesson Plan
Constitutional Rights Foundation

Constitutional Rights Foundation: Conflict of Cultures: President Polk and the Taking of the West

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Lesson and activity on conflict of cultures in which students study U.S. overtaking lands of Mexico and California and form policy on property rights and citizenship of conquered cultures. Activity guidelines, questions for discussion...
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eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: u.s. History: The Westward Spirit

For Students 9th - 10th
From a chapter on America's expansion westward in a history textbook. This section looks at how Americans felt about westward expansion in the mid-1800s, and ways that the federal government promoted migration. Includes review questions.
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

C3 Teachers: Inquiries: Westward Migration

For Teachers 7th
A comprehensive learning module on the westward movement that took place prior to the Civil War. It includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Contested Territories

For Students 9th - 10th
This site highlights the westward expansion of settlers in North America and the effects this expansion had on Native Americans between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
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Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Manifest Destiny

For Teachers 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Learners use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation students use nineteenth-century maps and art, and consider the roots of American exceptionalism.
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Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Liberty for All? Webisode 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Webisode 3 - Liberty for All? The history of the United States is presented in a series of webisodes, within each are a number of segments.Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
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Primary
Museum of the City of San Francisco

Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco: Fremont Conquest of California

For Students 9th - 10th
This first-person account by John Bidwell and his dealings with John Fremont in California.
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Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library: Imagining the American West in the Late Nineteenth Century

For Students 9th - 10th
Learning modules with primary resources explores how the West has been imagined as both America's manifest destiny and a wild frontier and examines the ways American Indian art and literature challenge these popular narratives.
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Lesson Plan
iCivics

I Civics: A Growing Nation

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this unit, students learn how the United States began to grow as soon as it became a nation, and they examine the effect of this growth on societies already established in North America. Register for a free account to download teacher...
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Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: Ap Us History: Unit 4: A House Divided

For Students 9th - 10th
This extensive learning module examines how the United States became more connected with the world as it pursued an expansionist foreign policy, became the destination for many new immigrants, and encouraged migration to the Pacific...
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Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection uses primary sources to explore Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears.
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Primary
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian: National Museum of the American Indian: Battle of Little Bighorn

For Students 9th - 10th
The Battle of Little Bighorn made an immense impression on American society and culture. Americans became obsessed with this battle and created artworks, shows, postcards, and dime novels. View primary sources from this era to understand...
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: New Frontier, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A speech and an essay that alternately praise the acquisition of foreign territory by the U.S. and that raise questions about the costs and value of these imperialistic adventures.
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Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Frontier, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Students 9th - 10th
Arguably the most famous essay every written about the impact of land on American history, Frederick Jackson Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" explains how Americans' relationship with the environment shaped...
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: "Burden," the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site includes poems and editorials, some of which that praise, others that harshly condemn what Rudyard Kipling asserted was the "White Man's Burden."
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Website
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Two Wars, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Students 9th - 10th
A political cartoon depicting a Union and a Confederate veteran united in support for the Spanish-American War. A painting entitled Twelve-Inch Gun depicting elegant officers and ladies aboard a battle ship, civilizing gentility and the...
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: America's Manifest Destiny [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
After a brief discussion of Manifest Destiny in other parts of country, read about the Texas rebellion against Mexico, the battles against Santa Anna, and the treaties that made Texas an independent country. [pdf]
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Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Westward

For Students 9th - 10th
Overview of U.S. westward expansion during the 1800s.