American Expansion | Civics and U.S. History for Middle School

In this middle school history lesson, step into one of the most transformative moments in American history, Westward Expansion. Using Alfred Rudolph Waud’s The Last Mile of the Pacific Railroad 1869, students explore how the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad connected the nation from coast to coast, symbolizing both extraordinary progress and the immense human cost of expansion.

How did the drive for territorial expansion shape America’s identity and create new challenges for the United States? Through guided historical thinking, students analyze this powerful artwork as evidence, develop historical context, and craft a thesis supported by reasoning, skills they’ll apply in the unit’s scaffolded Document-Based Question (DBQ) assessment.