United+States+1920-+2009

=United States (1920- 2009)=

Overview
The united States has not changed in size as much as the two time periods before this. The main changes during this time period is that more states were added to the country. We also gained some new territories. This is the final time period i will cover because we will probably not get any bigger unless our common wealth country of Puertro Rico decides to join the United States and the 51st state. We will not undergo any more changes in our country it is set in. The United States in this time period got a new territory and even made that territory a state. We also gained two new states during this period Alaska, and Hawaii both in the year of 1960.

Central Issue
The main issue for this time period are that we have achieved manifest destiny and even went beyond that when we got Alaska and Hawaii. Centuries of of work by our ancestors have led to this. We control all the land between the Atlanta and the Pacific. We did it by achieving the goal they set our for us, and even did better than they wanted. Sure enough some of the things we had to do to get to this point are not good, but we can not help that anymore. Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia's greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. Secretary of State William Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer and on March 30, 1867, agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Eduardo De Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. The Senate approved the treaty of purchase on April 9; President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty on May 28, and Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867. This purchase ended Russia's presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim. People called the purchase of Alaska "Seward?s Folly," until oil was found there.

Conclusion
So with Hawaii and Alaska the United States is now complete. Even though Hawaii is a series of islands it is a huge

[[image:http://www.edmaps.com/United_States_Today.jpg width="151" height="205" align="right" caption="United States, 2010" link="http://www.edmaps.com/United_States_Today.jpg"]]
money maker, because of tourists. Even though Alaska is basically a frozen state that can have whole months go by without sun it is ours. Seward?s Folly turned out to be one of the most important purchases in our history, it may even come close to the Louisiana Purchase made by Thomas Jefferson. We could have got Alaska sooner but, the civil war delayed the purchase. Hawaii however was kind of a bad history on our part. We basically stole Hawaii, it was it's own nation before becoming a state.

2009-20101.2.A