This assignment is a “think piece,” which is an essay that requires you to interact with a subject and develop your own interpretation based on that experience. After your initial analysis of a specific topic, you should synthesize that with other outside

This assignment is a “think piece,” which is an essay that requires you to interact with a subject and develop your own interpretation based on that experience. After your initial analysis of a specific topic, you should synthesize that with other outside research to support your ideas. You should use a minimum of two other scholarly, peer-reviewed resources. Specifically for this assignment, we will use an interactive map of westward expansion from 1860 to 1890. You can access it at this URL: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/asset/akh10_int_expansion/ Once you have the map open, click on the boxes for Major Cities, Railroad Networks, Improved Agricultural Land, and States and Territories. At the bottom of the map, you will notice the decades 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1890. Click on each of these decades in succession and you will see the ways in which the country changed. The goal of this assignment is for you to interpret, synthesize, and analyze what you are seeing on the map. You will make a well-organized argument, support that through research, and then write a conclusion for your findings.