Historical GIS Lesson: Manifest Destiny

Summary

Manifest Destiny is an introductory Historical GIS project. It combines basic Arcview skills with topics that are taught in United States History classes.

Materials

1. Arcview 3x
2. U.S. History textbook or alternatively, historical data and map may be obtained from Internet sites.
3. List of dates for each states admission into the Union. Use"17760704" (Arcview Date format) for original 13 states. An alternative would be to use the year only. In that case make sure you select number not date when editing the theme table.
4. Use either the blank or completed chart Handout depending on time allotment for the project.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will gain familiarity and practice in the uses of GIS in Social Studies classes. Students will learn the origins of each of the fifty states that make up the United States of America.

Instructional Procedures

GOALS: To make available a model Historical GIS lesson that can be replicated with other historical topics.

OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this lesson students will:

1. Be able to create GIS maps and layouts showing information about the way states entered the union.
2. Gain experience using Arcview GIS.
3. Participate in a innovative historical GIS activity
4. Create a GIS project that supports current United States history standards.

In this lesson you will learn and use GIS (Geographical Information Systems) skills to create resources on the process of American territorial expansion. Known at the time as Manifest Destiny the United States expanded from the original 13 states to its present 50 states in several different ways including war, annexation and purchase.

Some of the Arcview Gis skills you will learn are Layouts; hot linking, creating new views and adding data to a theme table.

Duplicate a copy of the territorial map and dates of states admission from either a textbook or WWW sites noted in materials above. In small groups or as a class students should come up with the major territorial acquisitions of the United States starting with the original 13 states. Each student should record this information along with the dates each state was admitted to the Union on the blank handout. Below are the major acquisitions of States. Give them to the students if they are not doing the research.

1. ORIGINAL 13 STATES
2. CEDED BY SPAIN
3. LOUISIANA PURCHASE
4. TEXAS ANNEXATION
5. OREGON TERRITORY
6. ADDED AS RESULT OF TREATY OF PARIS 1783 (Territories, later States, that came into the Union as a result of the treaty ending the American Revolution)
7. HAWAII ANNEXATION
8. ALASKA PURCHASE
9. MEXICAN CESSION
10. RESULT OF MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820, Maine
11. CIVIL WAR, West Virginia

Students should be reminded that the authentic ‘Original Owners” of all United States land were Native Peoples or Hawaiians.

Several states were formed from more then one source. To simplify the assignment only the source that provided the majority of land is indicated. For example, Colorado was formed from parts of the Texas Annexation, Mexican Cession and the Louisiana Purchase. Since the Louisiana Purchase was the major source of territory it is the only one included. To reflect all sources of a states origin teachers could add additional fields. Some territories such as the Gadsden Purchase have not been included. This would have required Arcview skills outside the goals of this lesson. Below is a suggested data dictionary with abbreviations that can be used when entering data into tables.
Decide whether to use abbreviations (AOT) or the actual terms themselves (ADAMS ONIS TREATY) and use your choice consistently throughout the lesson.

The lesson uses the abbreviations for View names while the terms themselves are used for Theme names.

DATA DICTIONARY

AOT = ADAMS ONIS TREATY
CW = CIVIL WAR
JO = JOINT OCCUPATION
LP =LOUISIANA PURCHASE
MC =MEXICAN CESSION
MOCOMP =MISSOURI COMPROMISE
O13 =ORIGINAL 13 STATES
PUR =PURCHASE
TA =TEXAS ANNEXATION
TP =1783 TREATY OF PARIS
ANX =ANNEXATION
GB =GREAT BRITAIN (NOT AN ORIGIN)

There are several activities that can be considered optional. These include hot linking, layouts, the additional graphic enhancement (flags and labels) and state capitol cities. If you decide to incorporate the flags into your lesson downloading them into an accessible directory is advised. Make sure the JPEG and Geoprocessing extensions are selected in the Extensions dialogue. Make sure students are familiar with the concepts and mechanics of 'Active theme”, turning themes on and off and saving their work in the proper folder Hawaii and Alaska do not fit the designated ‘Origin” fields. Inform the students that they should enter “PUR” in the Origins field for Alaska and “ANX” in the
Origins field for Hawaii. If students are unfamiliar with the Arcview GUI and it functions visual aids can be found at http://www.esri.ca/k-12/.

Bibliography

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