Unit Five (1844-1877) Flashcards
Santa Fe Trail
Opened in 1821 to connect Santa Fe with Independence Missouri, leading to the incorporation of Mexico into the US sphere of influence and trade.
California
-Non-indian population 1821 was 3,200, outnumbered by 20,000 indians on religious missions and 150,000 tribe members. Mexican government hoped to attracted foreign settlers and decrease catholic influence in 1834 by dissolving great mission landholdings and emancipating indians working for friars.
-Land inherited by Californios, Mexican cattle ranchers who believed themselves to be capable of reason (compared to Indians) and required Indians to work for them.
Tejanos
the non-indian population of Spanish origin, numbered around 2000 when Mexico reached independence.
Stephen Austin
-Moses Austin offered colonization to the Spanish government, a plan which was continued by his son ______ in the 1820s selling small plots of land to American settlers and making them become Mexican citizens. _____ became leader of rebel party calling for authority.
-Spanish government annulled these land contracts and barred emigration in 1830 out of fear for loss of power
Texas Revolt
-Settlers and Tejanos(who enjoyed economic boost) fought for more autonomy in Mexico, an issue exacerbated by the American’s slaves is the abolition community. Mexico’s ruler, general Antonio López de Santa Anna sent an army to impose authority in 1835 which sparked the ____. Rebels formed a government and called for Texan independence, further angered on March 6, 1836 when General’s army stormed Alamo (mission compound) killing 187 rebel Americans and tejanos
-Battle of San Jacinto: Sam Houson (former TN governor) forced Santa Anna to recognized Texan independence and Houston was elected a President of Republic of Texas.
Republic of Texas
1837 texan congress called for union with US, which was not officialized, but nonetheless settlers came into the region, many with slabed and by 1845 the population was nearly 150,000.
Election of 1844/Annexation Debate
-In 1844 President John Tyler revived the annexation of TX in hopes of gaining southern support, and in April 1844 a letter from Calhoun was leaked linking slavery to TX annexation.
-Later Henry Clay and Van Buren agreed to reject immediate annexation to avoid war.
-Clay received Whig nomination, but Van Buren’s reputation was damaged by the annexation rejection and James K. Polk took his place as the Democratic candidate. Polk was a slaveholder with close ties to Jackson and called for a “reannexation” of Texas claiming it was part of the Lousiana Purchase.
-Polk beat Clay in a close election and in March of 1845 Congress declared TX part of US.
“54’ 40” or Fight”
Wanted “reoccupation of Oregon and ____ became a campaign slogan
Mexican War
-First American conflict on foreign soil inspired by manifest destiny which was supported by the majority, but some feared the it was an attempt to expand slavery.
-In June 1846, American insurrectionists proclaimed CA free from Mexican control and named Captain John C. Frémont, the ruler in hopes to incorporate into US, made bear flag.
US Navy sailed to Monterey and San Franciso to raise US flag ending the bear republic
600,000 volunteers fought on 3 fronts.
1.Bear Flag Republic
2.Santa Fe - Stephen W. Kearny occupied without resistance and moved southward to put down Mexican resistance
3.Central Mexico - Battle of Buena Vista: February 1847, Taylor defeated Santa Anna army, but Mexican government refused to negotiate, thus Polk sent Winfield Scott and forces to occupy the capital.
“Spot Resolutions”
Thoreau and Lincoln were against War. Lincoln who was elected to Congress in 1846 introduced a resolution questioning whether the war was justified wanting to know the spot where American blood had been shed in 1847
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
-1848, two governments confirmed the annexation of Texas and ceded CA, NM, AZ, Nevada, and Utah to US, in exchange for $15 million. Also granted male citizens all rights to protect the property of large Mexican land owners in CA, but fought against Indians.
-Gave US ½ million square miles of Mexican territory but severed trade routes and dividing families as about 100,000 Spanish-Indians and 150,000 inhabited the Cession.
Gadsden Purchase
Properties excluded from Mexican Cession that make up present day US including addition purchased land from Mexico in 1853 and Alaska from Russia in 1867.
“Western Borderland”
-Although Anglos (white settlers from East) and Tejanos fought together, Anglos began turning of tejanos in order to gain land and property, expelling them to Mexico.
-Tejanos also faced pressure to Americanize and many began sending kids to English speaking protestant schools, while other refused to convert from Catholicism. Often confined to unskilled agricultural and urban labor jobs.
-Area between Nueces River and Rio Grande was claimed by both US and Mexico but was controlled by the Comanche Indians, thus causing conflict, this way until 1870s.
Race + Manifest Destiny
-During the 1840’s territorial expansion seemed to prove the superiority of the “Anglo-Saxon” race, and race became a popular notion involving color, culture, national origin, class, and religion.
-Link between American freedom and liberty loving qualities of Anglo-Saxon protestants as well as the triumphs of civilization became popularized
-Mexican abolition of slavery and declaration persons of Spanish, Indian, and African origin equal to the law was reversed by the Texas Constitution which revoked rights and protected slavery
-In some places “spanish” mexicans, especially those with social power were deemed white, but residents of New Mexico were deemed too Mexican thus NM was not a state until 1912
Gold Rush
-In January of 1848 gold was discovered by Swiss immigrant Johann A. Sutter at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and experienced/ inexperienced miners of from all over the world flocked to California causing the non-indian population to rise from 15000 to 360,000 in 1860.
-Mostly young men but women also ran restaurants and boardinghouses, and worked as laundresses, cooks, and prostitutes.
San Francisco
Center of Gold Rush where competition was strong causing white miners organize to expel “foreign miners” and state legislature imposed a tax of 20 dollars per month on foreign miners which drove many away and CA constitution limited voting and right to testify to only blacks and overran Indian communities, making many slaves.
“Committees of Vigilance”
1851 and 1856 took control of San Fransico neglecting courts and trying to execute those accused of crimes.
Matthew Perry
Commanded warship in 1853 and 1854 that sailed to Tokyo Harbor to successfully negotiate a trade treaty with Japan, who in 1854 opened 2 of their ports of America
-Townsend Harris, the first American consul later persuaded Japanese to open additional ports and established full diplomatic relations
Methodist and Baptist Split
-The acquisition of 1 million square miles of territory from the win over Mexico added to divisions, and in 1844 and 1845, the Methodist and Baptist evangelical churches divided by north and south.
-Foreshadows split of the two-party system
Wilmot Proviso
-New land reopened question of slavery’s expansion and in 1846 Congressman David Wilmot of PA propose the prohibition of slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico.
-Supported by all Northerners but opposed by all southerners causing it to fail in Senate.
Free Soil Party
Organized in 1848 to fight the expansion of slavery headed by Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, while they did not win election it showed the spread of antislavery sentiment.
“Free soil”
-The call to bar slavery from western territories and for the federal government to provide free homesteads to settlers in the new territories, not as sympathy to slaves, but to advance white man.
-Prevents white men from having to compete with black labor.
Henry Clay
When California asked to be admitted into the union as a free state in 1850 southerners feared for an unbalance in Congress so ____ offered the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
-Allowed California to be admitted into the Union as a free state with the slave trade abolished in the nation’s capital, new laws to return fugitive slaves, and slavery status in Mexico being the decision of local inhabitants, and US paying of Texas’s debt.
-Compromise was eventually accepted with the help of Millard Fillmore believed by some to be a worth sectional peace, but some Southerners wanting slavery to be protected in all territory.
