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soldiers by Indians allied with the French. The battle and ensuing massacre was captured for
history-though not accuratelyby James Fenimore Cooper in his classic The Last of the Mohicans
The tide turned for the British in 1758, as they began to make peace with important Indian allies
and, under the direction of Lord William Pitt began adapting their war strategies to fit the territory and
landscape of the American frontier. The British had a further stroke of good fortune when the French were
abandoned by many of their Indian allies. Exhausted by years of battle, outnumbered and outgunned by
the British, the French collapsed during the years 1758-59, climaxing with a massive defeat at Quebec in
September 1759,
By September 1760, the British controlled all of the North American frontier; the war between the
two countries was effectively over. The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the European Seven Years
War, set the terms by which France would capitulate. Under the treaty, France was forced to surrender all
of her American possessions to the British and the Spanish.
Although the war with the French ended in 1763, the British continued to fight with the Indians
over the issue of land claims. "Pontiac's War" flared shortly after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and many
of the battlefields-including Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagarawere the same. The Indians, however, already
exhausted by many years of war, quickly capitulated under the ferocious British retaliation; still, the issue
remained a problem for many years to come.
The results of the war effectively ended French political and cultural influence in North America.
England gained massive amounts of land and vastly strengthened its hold on the continent. The war,
however, also had subtler results. It badly eroded the relationship between England and Native
Americans; and, though the war seemed to strengthen England's hold on the colonies, the effects of the
French and Indian War played a major role in the worsening relationship between England and its colonies
that eventually led into the Revolutionary War.
- -- - Chapter 16 Chapter 16 -- Westward Expansion – Louisiana Purchase
Chapter 16 Chapter 16 --
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French
government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky
Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the UnitedStates. To Jefferson,
westward expansion was the key to the nation's health; He believed that a republic depended on an
independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with
land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. ("Those who labor in the earth," he wrote, "are
the chosen people of God.") in order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous
yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand. The westward expansion of the United States
is oneof the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but th+is not just the story ofJefferson's
expanding "empire of liberty." On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the
Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion "very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.
By 1840, nearly 7 million Americans-40 percent of the nation's population-lived in the trans-
Appalachian West. Most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic
opportunity. Like Thomas Jefferson, many of these pioneers associated westward migration, land
ownership and farming with freedom. In Europe, large numbers of factory workers formed a dependent
and seemingly permanent working class; by contrast, in the United States, the western frontier offered the
possibility of independence and upward mobility for all.
Chapter 17 Chapter 17 --
- -- - Chapter 17 Chapter 17 -- Gadsden Purchase
In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to The
United States and fixed the boundaries of the "lower 48" where they are today.In 1845, a journalist named
John O'Sullivan put a name to the idea that helped pull many pioneers toward the western frontier.
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