Smithsonian's History Explorer Resources Related To "An Army for the Nation, 1866-1914"

West Point in the Making of America Homepage

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:29:15 GMT

This website looks at the lives of selected West Point graduates who attended the Academy between 1802 and 1918. Students will also learn about the U.S. Army's major functions in 19th and early 20th century America: building the nation's infrastructure of roads, bridges, canals, and railroads; exploring its territories from the Mississippi to the Pacific; and fighting its wars-the role of the West Pointers in engineering, exploration, and war.

The Spanish American War

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 16:33:38 GMT

Students will learn the details of the Spanish-American war including: the causes of the war; the influence of Yellow Journalism; the successes of a modernized American navy; the war in Cuba and the Philippines, the Philippine Insurrection and the new foreign policy of expansionism in this section of the online exhibition entitled The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. America went to war against Spain to free Cuba from Spanish domination. But the war provided the United States an opportunity to seize overseas possessions and begin building an American empire. A non-flash version of this site is available: The Spanish American War.

Western Indian Wars

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:11:33 GMT

In the decades following the Civil War, the U.S. Army fought dozens of engagements with Indians in the West. This website explores Federal Indian policies and conflicts that arose as Americans flooded west into the Great Plains. Through the use of images and objects from the Museum's collections, students will learn about: Sitting Bull, George Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn; the massacre at Wounded Knee; the resistance of Geronimo and the Chiricahua Apache; buffalo soldiers; and the realities of life on Indian Reservations. A non-flash version of the site is available: Western Indian Wars.