chapter 30 Flashcards
the americas in the age of independence
Expeditions in 1804 and 1806 led by what two explorers expanded peoples’ knowledge of lands to the west, and encouraged settlement beyond the Mississippi River?
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
The Declaration of Independence had declared that “all men are created equal”, but for many years the vote was limited to men of property. By the late 1820s, what changed about the criteria for an individuals’ right to vote?
most property qualifications had disappeared, almost all adult white men were eligible to participate in the political affairs of the republic
What was the idea of manifest destiny?
the United States was destined, even divinely ordained, to expand across the North American continent from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific and beyond
- idea was often invoked to justify U.S. annexations
How did the United States double in size in 1803 with Napoleon Bonaparte?
Napoleon needed funds to protect revolutionary France from its enemies, he allowed the United States to purchase France’s Louisiana Territory, which extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains
What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 do to Native American tribes?
United States government determined to move all native Americans west of the Mississippi River into “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma)
What was the Trail of Tears?
a harrowing 800 mile migration from the eastern woodlands to Oklahoma (at least in the case of the Cherokee) where thousands died from disease, starvation, and the difficulties of relocation
In what battle did Native American tribes (Lakota Sioux and their allies) especially demonstrate their effective resistance to encroachment by white settlers in 1876?
Battle of the Little Bighorn (in southern Montana)
What happened in 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota?
Sioux man accidentally shot off a gun, and the U.S. cavalry (who had been chasing them to suppress their religious ceremonies of ghost dancing) overreacted, slaughtered more than two hundred men, women, and children with machine guns
When did Texas declare independence from Mexico?
1836
- in 1845, the U.S. accepted Texas as a new state against Mexican protest
Who instigated and won the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)?
U.S. forces instigated the war, and inflicted defeat on the Mexican army
- this was all in efforts for the U.S. to consolidate its hold on the territory of Texas, when adopting it as a new state
Under what treaty did the United States take possession of approximately one-half of Mexico’s territory, paying 15 million dollars in exchange for Texas north of the Rio Grande, California, and New Mexico?
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
What two factors contributed to the reinvigoration of the slave system in the United States/demand for what cash crop increased in the early 19th century?
- cotton rose as a cash crop in the early 19th century
- westward expansion prompted exploitation of more land
- U.S. slave population rose sharply, from 500,000 in 1770 to almost 2 million in 1820
Beginning with what political compact, did government authorities attempt to maintain a balance between slave and free states as the republic admitted new states carved out of western territories?
the Missouri Compromise of 1820
What event ignited war between the states in 1860?
the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency
- he was an explicitly sectional candidate that was convinced that slavery was immoral, and was committed to territories without slavery
What could’ve been the two goals of the American civil war?
- abolition of slavery
- restoration of the Union (what President Lincoln had insisted from the beginning of the war was his primary aim)
For what reasons did Abraham Lincoln not adopt an abolitionist policy?
- he was elected on a platform of noninterference with slavery within the states (people elected him because he pledged to remain neutral on such an issue?)
- doubted the constitutionality of any federal action (doubted he could control the states’ authority)
- concerned about the difficulties of assimilating slaves into the nation’s social and political fabric
- feared it would induce border states to join Confederacy and upset the loyalty of the four slave states that remained in the Union
What were the four slave states that remained in the Union?
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
What three other central issues did the American Civil War revolve around?
- states’ rights vs federal government authority
- nature of the Union
- budding industrial-capitalist system vs export-oriented plantation economy
How many southern states withdrew from the Union in 1860 and 1861, affirming their right to dissolve the Union and their support for states’ rights?
11
By the mid-19th century, what region of the United States was the world’s major source of cotton (most of which went to the British isles)?
southern states
How did southerners view their secession from the Union? How did northerners view the southerners’ secession?
- southerners considered themselves self-sufficient and believed that they did not need the rest of the United States
- northerners viewed secession as illegal, and act of betrayal
While the first two years of the American Civil War ended in stalemate, the tides of the war turned when Abraham Lincoln signed what document?
the Emancipation Proclamation
- made the abolition of slavery an explicit goal of the war
- Lincoln increasingly viewed abolition of slavery as the only way to preserve the Union
Where did the Union take their victory in the American Civil War?
Antietam
The final version of the Emancipation Proclamation (issued January 1, 1863) did what to slaves?
freed the slaves in those states that had rebelled
- ironically, slavery remained protected by the U.S. Constitution in the states that remained loyal to the Union