1. Geographic and economic factors that influenced westward movement.

2. Population growth in the eastern states.

3. Total population of the United States in 1800 – 5,236,631 - Density of 6.1

4. Total population of the United States in 1860- 31,443,321 – Density of 10.6

5. Availability of cheap, fertile land.

6. Economic opportunity

7. gold (California Gold Rush)

8. logging

9. farming

10. freedom (for runaway slave).

11. Cheaper and faster transportation

12. Rivers

13. Canals (Erie Canal),

14. How canals work

16. Steamboats

17. Knowledge of overland trails

18. Oregon Trail

19. Santa Fe trail

21. Belief in the right of “Manifest Destiny” – The idea that expansion was for the good of the country and was the right of the country.