201-232 Flashcards
(30 cards)
the belief that the United States was destined, or meant, to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Settlers moved west in an attempt to trade, gain access to free land, and convert Native Americans. Groups faced numerous challenges along the way including disease, geographic barriers, weather, lack of supplies, conflicts with Native Americans, etc.
Manifest Destiny
fur trappers of the northwest.
Mountain Men
founded by Joseph Smith, was a religious group based on the religious text Smith created called the Book of Mormon. Mormons were religiously persecuted and their leader, Joseph Smith was killed by an angry mob. Mormons fled persecution in the east and settled in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Mormons,
To many settlers, Oregon held out the promise of fertile, available farmland and greater freedom. But first, they had to pack their belongings and set off on the very long and difficult trip
Oregon Trail
First major highway to the west, mainly a trade route but saw its share of emigrants, especially during the California Gold Rush. The trail also became an important route for stagecoach travel
Santa Fe Trail
In 1819, there were exactly 11 slave states, and 11 free states. Missouri had been asking to join the Union as a slave state since 1817. Northerners, of course, were strongly against this proposition. Therefore, the Missouri Compromise was created. This compromise consisted of three parts. The first part was that Missouri would enter the union as a slave state and Maine would enter the union as a free state. The second part was that anything north of the southern border of Missouri, in the Louisiana Territory, was automatically a free state. And lastly, the third part of the Missouri Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed any slave owner to pursue slaves into a free territory and return them south.
Missouri Compromise
Shortly after Mexico won its independence from Spain, it began allowing Americans to settle in Texas. Stephen F. Austin led nearly 300 American settlers into Texas. The only stipulation was that the American settlers had to follow Mexican laws. Many American slaveholders were against Mexican laws. Finally in 1833, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana took control of Mexico as a dictator. Shortly after, Texas declared independence from Mexico. The first major battle of this event was the Battle of the Alamo. Although Mexico was ultimately victorious in this battle, it was a major turning point of the revolution. In April 1837, Sam Houston led a group of revolutionaries to San Jacinto. In nearly 18 minutes, Houston had captured Santa Ana securing Texas independence. Then Texas was annexed into the U.S., making Mexico very angry.
Texas Revolution/Sam Houston
a frontiersman, legendary folk hero and three-time Congressman. He fought in the War of 1812 and died at the Alamo in the Texas Revolution.
Davy Crockett
Statesman and a key political figure in the creation of the state of Texas. He led Texan forces against general Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was elected the first president of the Republic of Texas in 1836
Samuel Houston
The first major battle of the Texas Revolution Santa Anna’s forces surrounded the Alamo killing Tejano and American forces inside. Although Mexico was ultimately victorious in this battle, it was a major turning point of the revolution and led many Americans to join the Texan army.
Battle of the Alamo
was the 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1849, the last strong President until the Civil War. He was called the “Dark Horse Candidate” because he intended to run for Vice President but was nominated as president at the convention. He ran against Henry Clay and won. He was also the president of the Manifest Destiny. Polk led the charge to acquire land in the Southwest from Mexico.
James K. Polk
James K. Polk knew that the Mexican government needed cash. He offered money to settle the claim for the Rio Grande Border. He also offered to purchase California and the rest of New Mexico. Mexico declined this offer because they didn’t want to give more land to the U.S. American and Mexican forces fought over the Texas border. After a big defeat for Mexico, the Mexican Capital was in America’s hands.
Mexican-American War
an American military war hero best known as the 12th president of the United States. Taylor was sent by President Polk to the Texas border with Mexico to settle disputes over the location of the border. He led American forces in the Mexican-American War. Oregon boundary
Zachary Taylor
Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded a lot of territory to the U.S. This territory included present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In return, the U.S. paid $18 million to Mexico. California was acquired after California declared its independence from Mexico in the Bear Flag Revolution.
Mexican Cession
was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico for a portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. This provided the land necessary for a southern trans-continental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.
Gadsden purchase
David Wilmot created a plan that would ban all slavery in any territory that might become part of the United States. Although this pland didn’t pass, it scared the South greatly.
Wilmot Proviso
In 1848, James Marshall found a gold nugget while building a saw mill on John Sutter land. In the span of 2 years, the population of California grew from 10,000 to 100,000. There were two main effects of the California gold rush: California became very diverse because people came from all over the world to obtain wealth and new ways to travel were created. Chinese immigrants
California Gold Rush
owned the land where the first gold nugget was found in California. He tried to keep it a secret, but the news spread fast.
John Sutter
This nickname was given to people who came to California in search of gold after the year 1849 when the biggest influx of miners arrived.
“forty niners”
a railway that connected the existing eastern train routes on the Missouri all the way to the Pacific seaboard at San Francisco Bay. This allowed for new commerce, trade, and for people to move about the country quicker. It was a feat of the Pacific Railroad Company. There was also a golden spike driven with a silver hammer halfway at Promontory Summit. Mostly Chinese and Irish immigrants had worked on this railway.
The Transcontinental Railroad
When the debate over slavery reheated after the Mexican Cession became a part of the United States, it came time for another compromise, or else. Henry Clay, already known as “The Compromiser” for his work on the Missouri Compromise, wrote a second compromise to buy more peacetime. This both helped this issue and made it worse. The document, in essence, did four core things, one for those who were anti-slavery in the north and pro-slavery in the south. For the north:
● It made it so that Washington, D.C. would no longer be used as a hub to trade slaves, unlike most other major eastern port cities.
● It introduced the state of California into the Union as a free state.
● For the south:
It altered the already-existing Fugitive Slave Act so that whatever white man that went north and claimed a slave as his own did not have to go to trial anymore. The white man simply had to swear under oath that it was in fact an escaped slave.
● It allowed for territories to decide whether they were to be slave or free states using popular sovereignty, basically an election, and no longer had to go by the Missouri Compromise.
● The Compromise did pass. With the alteration of the Fugitive Slave Act, northerners became outraged.
Compromise of 1850
a very controversial and inhumane law over the issue of slavery.
This law, in essence, allowed people to be pursued into free
territory and brought back into a slave territory. The system was corrupt and often times people were brought into the institution
of slavery even if they had never been a part of it prior.
Fugitive Slave Act
a 19th century U.S. politician who served in Congress and as secretary of state under President John Quincy Adams. Clay authored the American System that called for higher tariffs in order to pay for infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, and canals. Clay also wrote the Compromise of 1850 and the Missouri Compromise.
Henry Clay
A daughter of an abolitionist minister met many, many people
that had escaped from the horrors of slavery. After the Fugitive Slave Act, she wrote the famous book Uncle Tom’s Cabin which chronicles the horrors and injustice of slavery.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
