The United States used a variety of devices to conquer the West. Aside from military might, the nation employed transportation systems and technologies, the power of government to bound territory and bestow land, and the promise of expanded freedom to bring more and more settlers into the land it claimed.
1. What technologies are the most useful to conquest?
2. How did the technologies of empire affect conquered people? How did they affect new settlers?
3. Was the American West really an "empire for liberty?"
