Picture yourself as a young Irish immigrant who recently boarded a ship to America in search of a better life.  Your family has lived in New York City for several years facing one hardship after another.  You hear of free land offered in the West and a chance to strike it rich with the recent Gold Rush in California, however; there has also been stories shared of tragedies and failures in this "land of opportunity."  With the recent death of your father, you are the oldest sibling who must make a critical decision.  What are you going to do?  Will it be beneficial to head out West and embark on a new life, or stay where you are and make the best of it? To go, or not to go? That is the question you need to ponder on!  

WHY ARE AMERICANS SO OBSESSED WITH THE WEST ?

1. Manifest Destiny
> Look up for the definition of what we call "Manifest Destiny"

American Progress, John GAST, 1872

2. Lewis and Clark expedition

3. The Gold Rush: No guts, No glory! : In 1849, more than 80,000 people (“the forty-niners”) poured into California looking for gold (which had been discovered there one year earlier). They came from all over the continent, but also from South America and Australia. Prospectors (or gold diggers) found so much gold that they used their gold nuggets as currency.

4. The Pacific Railroad Act passed by Congress in 1862 (12 Stat. 489), authorized the construction of the first transcontinental railway line connecting the east and west coasts. The need for a transcontinental railway to facilitate transportation of persons and products across the United States became increasingly clear in the 1850s due to the acquisition of California […]. In 1862, the Republican Party in Congress was instrumental in enacting legislation that authorized the Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railroad to construct such a railway. The Union Pacific Railway was to begin construction at Omaha, Nebraska, with the objective of connecting with the Central Pacific Railroad, which was to begin construction at the same time at Sacramento, California. 

=> Write a short paragraph to describe the different steps of this movement you can see in the events above. (The name of the events, the dates, the people, the places concerned, the reasons … Do not forget to use link words to make your paragraph coherent.)

=> Be prepared to report orally to the class without looking at your notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2InkWRc1zww

IT'S TIME TO TWEET NICE TWEETS TO YOUR PEERS, 2-8 !

This photo was taken on Route 66, the famous road in America that stretches from the East Coast to the West Coast.

In the background we can see a chain of mountains and the sunset. The bright blue of the mountains contrast with the warm colours of the sunset. There is only one road leading to the horizon, and that is road 66. 

This road is being rode by two bikers, who might be friends taking a road trip. They're the only two people that we can see on this picture which gives the impression that they're alone in this vast world. On top of that, there is no sign of civilisation, there only nature around them. The road itself seems to be in poor condition. Somehow it feels like they're in the middle of nowhere, just hitting the road until they reach a destination (if they have one).

This picture gives a feeling of ultimate freedom, as if these two bikers were on top of the world, fulfilling a dream.

That's what we call riding Route 66!