Transcript California Gold Rush

Journal #18
The Louisiana
Purchase doubled the
size of the United
States. Free land was
available to settlers in
the west.
What are some
advantages and
disadvantages of
moving to a new
location?
•
Frederick Douglass
•
Seneca Falls Convention
•
William Lloyd Garrison
•
Nat Turner
•
Utopia
•
Horace Mann
What were the
causes of westward
migration?
1. New intellectual and religious movements.
2. Social Reforms.
3. Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in American.
4. Re-emergence of a two-party system and more political
democratization.
5. Increase in federal power – Marshall Court decisions.
Expansionists justified their views by pointing to the weakness of
the Mexican government and economy.
They argued that the Mexicans, whom many Americans regarded
as inferior, did not deserve to keep lands so badly needed for
American settlement.
Expansionists were soon
using the term Manifest
Destiny to refer to the
belief that God wanted the
U.S. to own all of North
America.
Manifest Destiny – 19th century doctrine that westward
expansion of the United States was not only inevitable, but a
God-given right.
“The American claim is by the right of our
manifest destiny to overspread and posses
the whole of the continent which Providence
has given us for the development of the
great experiment of liberty and…selfgovernment entrusted to us.”
John L. O’Sullivan,
New York Morning News, Dec. 27, 1845
Manifest
Destiny
Santa Fe
Trail
Mexican independence spurred
American trade with northern
New Mexico.
Welcomed by Mexican officials, the
traders launched a growing
commerce along what became
known as the Santa Fe Trail.
American traders brought
manufactured goods to the New
Mexicans, while they offered
horses, mules, furs, and silver.
There were many daring young American trappers
who hunted for beaver pelts in the Rockies.
Restless in their pursuit of furs, the Mountain
Men thoroughly probed the Rockies, making
important discoveries.
Mountain Men – American
trappers who explored the
Rocky Mountains area in the
early 1800s.
Journal #19
Imagine life on the
Frontier. People faced
many hardships and
difficulties on a day to
day basis.
List 3 hardships that
frontier settlers
faced.
•
Manifest Destiny
•
Santa Fe Trail
•
Mountain Men
•
Monroe Doctrine
•
Andrew Jackson
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Missouri Compromise
In 1836, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman followed a
different trail that led them to Oregon Country, this
became known as the Oregon Trail.
The Whitman’s found
an Indian mission in
Walla Walla.
In 1847, the
Whitmans were killed
by Native Americans
who blamed them for
a deadly measles
epidemic.
Oregon
Trail
But by then, the tide of migration to Oregon
was unstoppable.
The Oregon Trail
Albert Bierstadt, 1869
Wagon Trains
Journey West
Beginning in the springtime at the western edge of
Missouri, the journey covered 2,000 miles and
took about 5 months to complete.
Emigrants traveled in trains in
anywhere from 10 to 100 wagons and
from 50 to 1,000 people. Why?
The journey was a gamble that
cost many their property and
some their lives. Emigrants faced
hunger, exposure, disease,
poisoned streams – or worse.
The Donner party is the name given to a group of
The Doomed
immigrants, who became trapped in the Sierra
Donner Party
Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-47.
Of the 83 members of the Donner Party, only 45 survived to get to
California. Nearly half of the party died, and some resorted to
eating their dead in an
effort to survive.
Mormon & Brigham Do you remember what happened to Mormon
founder Joseph Smith?
Young
Leadership passed on to Brigham Young,
who was convinced that the Mormons could
not survive among hostile neighbors.
In 1847, he led migrants across the Great Plains and the Rockies
to establish the colony of New Zion on the eastern shore of the
Great Salt Lake.
The Mormon Trek
What were the
causes of westward
migration?
Journal #20
Do you think a
government has the
right to displace the
Native peoples of
the country it
conquers?
•
Brigham Young
•
Manifest Destiny
•
Santa Fe Trail
•
Oregon Trail
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Charles Grandison Finney
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Transcendentalist
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Grimke Sisters
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Sojourner Truth
Journal #21
Texas won independence
from Mexico in 1836, but
Mexico wouldn’t recognize
Texas as an independent
country.
In an attempt to win
recognition as a nation,
Texas negotiated with
Belgium, France, and
Holland.
But it turned out to be Britain
most interested in Texas’s
bid to be recognized as a
nation.
Why do you think
Britain wanted to see
Texas become a fullfledged nation?
(Hint: Look back at our
history with Britain)
•
John Deere
•
Irish Immigrants
•
Mormon Trail
•
Samuel Slater
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Eli Whitney
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Nativism
•
John Marshall
How did the
revolution in Texas
lead to war with
Mexico?
The Mexican government invited American
settlers into Texas, in hopes of developing and
defending the province.
Led by Stephen F. Austin, American emigrants
began to settle east of San Antonio, founding the
town of Austin.
By 1835, Texas was home to about 30,000
American settlers, known as Anglo-Texans.
They outnumbered Tejanos by about six to one.
In 1835, the Texans rebelled against
Mexican rule and a year later declared
their independence.
Their new nation became known as the
Lone Star Republic because of the
single star on its flag.
Santa Anna, a ruthless general who
had seized power a few years earlier
led his army north into Texas.
His forces attacked the small Texan
garrison at the Alamo, a fortified former
mission in San Antonio.
Davy Crockett was
among the defenders
of the Alamo.
Mexican troops overran the walls of the
Alamo after 12 days of cannon fire.
Refusing to keep prisoners, Santa Anna
ordered the defenders slaughtered.
Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett were
among the casualties at the Alamo.
Davy Crockett was
among the defenders
of the Alamo.
Remember the Alamo!!
Santa Anna
expected the
slaughter to frighten
other Texans into
surrendering.
The defenders of the Alamo became martyrs.
Led by Sam Houston, the Texans drew Santa
Anna into a trap. They surprised and crushed
the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Texans elected Sam Houston as their
first president. He quickly asked
Congress to annex Texas.
President Jackson privately favored the
request, but he could not overcome
opposition in Congress.
The annexation of Texas became a key
issue in the 1844
presidential
election.
What problem is the United
States going to have with Texas
becoming a state?
James K. Polk
Democrat
Henry Clay
Whig
Polk was a slaveholder, and believed in Manifest Destiny.
Polk reasoned that northerners would accept the annexation
of Texas if they got their own prize (Oregon Territory).
Expansionists after the
1844 election shouted
"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!"
Polk’s rivals wanted him
to be as uncompromising
in acquiring the Oregon
territory as he had been
in annexing Texas.
Polk wanted territory, not
war, and compromised
with the British.
The Oregon Treaty of
1846 divided the Oregon
Country along the 49th
parallel.
Polk angered many midwestern Democrats.
Many of these
Democrats believed that
Polk had always wanted
the boundary at the 49th,
and that he had fooled
them into believing he
wanted it at the 54th
parallel.
Congress voted to annex Texas,
which entered the Union as a
slave state in Dec. 1845.
Polk endorsed the Texan claim
to the land south and west of
the Nueces River as far as the
Rio Grande.
Outraged, the Mexicans refused
to recognize the annexation.
The Whigs did not dare block a declaration of war – they
remembered the demise of the Federalist Party. Congress declared
war on Mexico on May 13th, 1846.
American Advantages:
 Larger, Wealthier, and a Larger
Population.
 Industries to provide arms and
ammunition.
 Larger & better navy and artillery.
 Superb officers trained at West
Point.
 Gen. Zachary Taylor
 Gen. Winfield Scott
 Robert E. Lee
 Ulysses S. Grant
 William T. Sherman
Who is going to
win the war?
Gen. Zachary Taylor
(“Old Rough & Ready”)
at Palo Alto
Gen. Winfield Scott
(“Old Fuss & Feathers)
Enters Mexico City
The U.S. navy helped American
settlers led by explorer John Fremont
to seize control of California.
Until they legally could join the United
States, these rebels organized a
short-lived Bear Flag Republic.
How did the
revolution in Texas
lead to war with
Mexico?
Journal #22
Manifest Destiny is the
idea that it was the
United States’ destiny
to expand westward
across the continent,
all the way to the
Pacific Ocean.
Do you think
westward expansion
was truly the United
States’ destiny?
Why or why not?
Journal #25
Daniel Webster is reported
to have said of what is now
California,
“What do we want with this
vast worthless area? This
region of savages and wild
beasts, of deserts and
shifting sands and
whirlwinds of dust, of cactus
and prairie dogs…What can
we ever hope to do with the
western coast, a coast of
3,000 miles, rockbound,
cheerless, uninviting, and
not a harbor on it?”
Write Webster a
short response
about what
California is like
today.
•
54-40 or Fight!
•
Mexican-American War
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Sam Houston
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Stephen F. Austin
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Alamo
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Santa Anna
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Spoils System
1. What were the effects of the
Mexican-American War and
the California Gold Rush?
2. How did the MexicanAmerican War serve to
heighten tensions over
slavery?
3. What problems did fortyniners face in the California
Gold Rush?
1. The 17-month war cost $100 million and 13,000+ American
lives (mostly of disease).
2. New territories were brought into the Union, which forced the
explosive issue of SLAVERY to the center of national politics.
~ Brought in 1 million sq. mi. of land (incl. TX)
3. These new territories would upset the balance of power
between the North and South.
4. Created two popular Whig generals who ran for President.
5. Manifest Destiny partially realized.
Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo
Treaty was basically forced on Mexico.
1. Mexico gave up claims to Texas above
the Rio Grande River.
2. Mexico gave the United States California
and New Mexico.
Nicholas Trist,
3. U.S. gave Mexico $15
American Negotiator
million and agreed to pay
claims of American
citizens against Mexico
(over $3.5 million)
Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo
Polk blamed Trist, for settling for too little.
But Polk had no choice but to submit the
treaty to Congress because northern public
opinion would not support a longer war.
Trist…you fool!
We could have
had more land!
Nicholas Trist,
American Negotiator
Gadsen Purchase
In 1853, the U.S. obtained from
Mexico another 29,640 sq. mi.
in southern Arizona and New
Mexico.
Americans bought this strip to
facilitate a railroad across the
continent.
Wilmot
Proviso
David Wilmot proposed a law that would ban slavery in
any lands won from Mexico. The bill passed in the
House of Rep, but failed to pass in the Senate. WHY?
The proposal broke party unity and
instead divided Congress largely along
sectional lines.
Most northern Democrats joined all
northern Whigs to support the Wilmot
proviso. Southern Democrats joined
southern Whigs in opposition.
Historical Significance: The lands won
from Mexico increased tensions between
the North and South.
To most Americans, the new lands in the west
seemed too distant for rapid settlement.
But in early 1848, workers at John Sutter’s
saw mill found flecks of gold in the American
River east of Sacramento, California.
Sutter’s Mill
California Gold Rush –
Mass migration to
California after the
discovery of gold in 1848.
California Gold
Rush – Mass
migration to
California after the
discovery of gold in
1848.
Off to the
Gold Mines
At the Gold
Mines
Back from the
Gold Mines
Miners first used cheap metal pans, picks
Forty-Niners – Miners
and shovels to harvest the gold from the
who went to California
sand along the banks and bottoms of rivers after the discovery of
and streams. This process was known as
gold in 1848.
placer mining.
• Life was difficult for the 49ers:
– Few miners got rich.
– Crowded mining camps led to
disease (Cholera & Dysentery).
– Lack of family life.
– No legal authority, they acted
as judges juries, &
executioners.
Forty-Niners – Miners
who went to California
after the discover of
gold in 1848.
• Life was difficult for the 49ers:
– Few miners got rich.
– Crowded mining camps led to
disease (Cholera & Dysentery).
– Lack of family life.
– No legal authority, they acted
as judges juries, &
executioners.
Forty-Niner
Placer mining soon gave way to more
Forty-Niners – Miners
efficient methods. One method was to
who went to California
dam and divert rivers to expose their beds.
after the discover of
Hydraulic mining, employed jets of water to
gold in 1848.
erode gravel hills into long lines of sluices
to catch the gold.
1. Native Americans were terrorized and killed by the thousands.
2. Mob violence drove most Mexican Americans (and Chinese)
away. Those who stayed had to pay the foreign miners’ tax.
In Oct. 1849, California
held a convention and
drew up a state
constitution. The new
constitution excluded
African Americans, both
slave and free.
California’s application
for statehood increased
tension between the
North and South.
Historical Significance:
Debate over the spread of
slavery into the lands won
from Mexico would grow
increasingly bitter.
Westward expansion
became a major source of
the division that ultimately
led to the Civil War.
America Achieves Manifest Destiny
The United States finally achieved Manifest Destiny after its
victory in the Mexican-American War. Yet, the long-term effects of
the war served to highlight growing differences between North
and South and set the stage for future conflict.
The California Gold Rush
To most Americans, the new lands in the West seemed too
distant for rapid settlement. But in early 1848, sawmill workers
found flecks of gold in the American River east of Sacramento,
California, starting a mass migration to the region.
Effects of the Gold Rush
The rapid settlement of California had unforeseen consequences
on both the territory and the nation. The most immediate effects
were felt by the people who already lived there. Among these
effects were discrimination and violence towards Indians and
Mexicans.
Journal #26
In 1848, miners
discovered a
precious substance
in California: gold.
Within a year,
prospectors flocked
to California
determined to strike it
rich.
Write a short letter
to your family
explaining that you
have “gold fever”
and are headed to
California to make
your fortune.
•
James K. Polk
•
Gadsden Purchase
•
Mexican Cession
•
49ers
•
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
•
Wagon Train
Journal #27
Frederick Douglass
was born a slave in
Maryland around 1817.
He escaped captivity
and fled to the North,
where he became the
famous and influential
spokesman of the
African American
abolitionists, and a
highly successful
author and speaker.
Compile a list of
three question that
you would ask
Douglass if you
were to interview
him.