Chapter 1 Trade Routes From Sea to Shining Sea Only 20 years after it became independent the United States gained a region that doubled the country’s size And barely 50 years later it reached across immense plains and towering mountain ranges to touch the Pacific Ocean How it grew so fast in such a short time is still an amazing tale One thing that promoted this growth was the strong desire of people to trade with each other When the year 1803 began the United States of America had only 17 states and one large territory surrounding the Great Lakes Most of the five and a half million Americans lived along the eastern edge of a huge undeveloped continent Georgia was the southernmost state and the western border of the country was the Mississippi River But by the end of 1803 President Thomas Jefferson had purchased the vast and unknown Louisiana GADSDEN PURCHASE 1853 OCEAN PACIFIC OREGON TERRITORY 1846 CEDED BY MEXICO 1848 4 4
Territory More land was quickly acquired In 1846 defining the boundary with Canada made the Pacific Northwest part of the United States By 1848 the country had added Florida and California as well as Texas and the Southwest In 1853 with the Gadsden Purchase which included southern Arizona and New Mexico the continental United States looked as it does today in size and shape not counting Alaska In less than 100 years the shape of the continental United States had expanded from the Atlantic Ocean across mountains and plains to the Pacific Ocean ESTABLISHED 1818 LOUISIANA PURCHASE 1803 TEXAS ANNEXED 1845 UNITED STATES PRIOR TO 1803 OCEAN ATLANTIC CEDED BY SPAIN 1819 55
The first paths across North America were formed by migrating animal herds and the Native Americans who followed and hunted them The challenge of exploring all of this newly acquired territory was immense But Americans were equal to the challenge By 1869 a transcontinental railroad linked the 3,500 miles 5,633 kilometers or more of wilderness between the two coasts The land suddenly became more accessible to explorers settlers and people bringing supplies and mail And there were nearly six times as many Americans as when the century had begun People had not only explored and settled much of the new land but had made it easier to transport goods and communicate with each other from sea to shining sea A Southwest Native American drawing of a deer 6
Long before the railroads came a network of trails had begun to connect the far-flung parts of the continent These trails were begun by the many tribes of Native Americans who had inhabited the country for more than 10,000 years before Europeans and others arrived Native Americans tended to follow trails made by animals such as deer elk and buffalo These trails marked the most convenient routes across mountains rivers and prairies Later explorers and settlers used these routes to travel to the West One of the oldest was the Santa Fe Trail which ran from Independence Missouri to Santa Fe New Mexico a distance of about 900 miles 1,450 kilometers Horses could not go far without water so their main routes followed the rivers 7
