Unit 3, Chapter 18

Question 1

Free soil party

Answer 1

(1848-1854) antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections
-opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers

Question 2

California gold rush

Answer 2

(Beginning in 1849) inflow of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of gold at sutter’s mill in January of 1848 had spread
-onslaught of migrants prompted California to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849

Question 3

Underground Railroad

Answer 3

Informal network of volunteers that helped runaway shaves escape from the south and reach free-soil Canada
-seeking to halt the inflow of runaway slaves to the north, southern planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law

Question 4

Seventh of March Speach

Answer 4

(1850) Daniels webster’s impassioned address urging the north to support the compromise of 1850
- Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican cession territory and urged northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion

Question 5

Compromise of 1850

Answer 5

Admitted California is a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty
-ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington, D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law

Question 6

Fugitive slave law

Answer 6

(1850) passed as part of the compromise of 1850 that set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways
- strengthened the antislavery cause in the north

Question 7

Clayton-bulwark treaty

Answer 7

(1850) signed by Great Britain and the us, providing that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control Andy future isthmian waterway
- later revoked by the hay-paunceforte treaty of 1901 which gave the us control of the Panama Canal

Question 8

Ostend manifesto

Answer 8

(1854) secret Franklin pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that falling, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain
- once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the north

Question 9

Opium war

Answer 9

(1839-1842) war between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain’s desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders
-resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese

Question 10

Treaty of wanghai

Answer 10

(1844) signed by the United States and China, assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers
- greatly expanded america’s trade with the Chinese

Question 11

Treaty of knonagawa

Answer 11

Ended Japan’s 200-year period of economic isolation

-established an American consulate in Japan and secured American coaling rights in Japanese prots

Question 12

Gadsden purchase

Answer 12

(1853) acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad

Question 13

Kansas Nebraska act

Answer 13

(1854) proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories
- revoked in 1820 by the Missouri compromise
- introduced by Stephan Douglas in an effort to bring Nebraska into the union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad

Question 14

Popular sovereignty

Answer 14

Notion advanced before the civil war that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery
-largely opposed by northern abolitionists, who feared it would promote the spread of slavery into the territories