The United States of America was formed after thirteen British colonies in North America declared independence from the British Empire on July 4, 1776. In the Lee Resolution, passed by the Second Cont
An example of a banco, created when a meander is cut off by a new, shorter channel, leaving a cut-off section of land surrounded by a U-shaped (oxbow) lake
Manifest destiny was the expansionist belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand westward across North America, and that this belief was both obvious and c
American Progress (1872) by John Gast – Columbia leads American settlers westward, symbolizing the spread of westernization, civilization, modernization, technology, and commerce, while Indigenous Americans are driven from their homeland.
John L. O'Sullivan, sketched in 1874, was an influential columnist as a young man, but he is now generally remembered only for his use of the phrase "manifest destiny" to advocate the annexation of Texas and Oregon.
John Quincy Adams, painted above in 1816 by Charles Robert Leslie, was an early proponent of continentalism. Late in life, he came to regret his role in helping U.S. slavery to expand, and became a leading opponent of the annexation of Texas.
The first Fort Laramie as it looked prior to 1840. Painting from memory by Alfred Jacob Miller