Week 4: Westward expansion

Question 1

Manifest Destiny

Answer 1

• notion by John L. O’Sullivan (American writer)
• 1845
• describes the common belief among Americans that God had sent them a mission to expand westward
• era of westward expansion often called the “Age of Manifest Destiny”
• 3 major characteristics :
  
  • security
  • virtuous government
  • national mission
• highly contested concept

Question 2

What are the 3 major characteristics of the Manifest Destiny? Who identified them? When?

Answer 2

• Albert K. Weinberg
• 1935
• Security: Americans feel safe on their territory sharing only few borders
• Virtuous governement: the US Constitution is seen as superior as it gives priority to the people over those exerting power
• National mission: America is seen as a promised land on which Americans have to spread civilization. The first targer being the native Americans ; hence the racist overtone of the concept

Question 3

Land Ordinance / Northwest Ordinance

Answer 3

• 1783: Treaty of Paris –> Great Britain ceded its rights to the Northwest Territory
• 1785: Land Ordinance: generated revenue for government in selling public lands
• 1787: Northwest Ordinance: new territories to become states as soon as peopled by 60.000 inhabitants, and to be free states

Question 4

Missouri Compromise

Answer 4

• 1820-1821
• 1810s and 1820s: territories organized out of the lands bought with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase
• Louisiana became a slave state in 1812 and slavery was allowed in the Arkansas territory
• The admission of Missouri as a slave state proved controversial: would have disrupted the balance between free and slave states
• compromise set a new dividing line between freedom and slavery

Question 5

Andrew Jackson

Answer 5

• 7th President of the USA
• In office: March 4, 1829 - March 4, 1837
• Public prosecutor: made his name on the Western frontier
• national hero for having fought the British and the Indians
• founded the Democratic Party
• great democratic uprising against the Eastern elites
• pursued expansionist policies
• large slave-holder: anti-abolitionist

Question 6

Indian Removal Act

Answer 6

• 1830
• allowed states to deport Indian tribes west of the Mississippi river to appropriate their lands
• 60.000 Indians of the 5 main tribes were moved from their lands
• caused immense human suffering
• Trail of Tears: at least 4.000 Cherokess died, either in the concentration camps where they were assembled for deportation or during the removal itself

Question 7

Mexican-American war

Answer 7

• 1846-1848
• Texas annexed from Mexico to the US
  –> most Texans wanted to be part of the US
• seen as provocation by the Mexicans: attacked and US declared war
• Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo forced to sign
• US quickly conquered Texas and some parts of Mexico
• Territorial dispute with Mexico inspired term “Manifest Destiny”
• many viewed it critically: increased tensions concerning slavery
  –> upset balance between sleve-owning and free states

Question 8

California Gold Rush

Answer 8

• 1848-1855
• news of gold brought approximately 300.000 people to California: quickly became a state
• devastating effect on local native population (forced off their land)

Question 9

The Myth of the West

Answer 9

• West conquered by brave individuals, alone in the wilderness (frontiersmen)
• wilderness to be conquered (but already inhabited and controlled by highly civilized people)
• romanticization and idealisation of the West
• Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” (1893)
• Myth of the Wild West: cowboys, ranchers and gold mines in novels and movies

Question 10

Frontier Thesis

Answer 10

• Frederick Jackson Turner
• 1893
• “meeting point between savagery and civilization”

Question 11

Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo

Answer 11

• Mexico forced by the US to sign it
• gave the US :
  
  • Texas
  • California
  • half of New Mexico
  • most of Arizona
  • Nevada
  • Colorado