Transcript US History-Honors

History 101
Manifest Destiny
• 19th century American belief that
Anglo-Saxons were destined to expand
from the East Coast of the United
States to the Western Coast of North
America
Manifest Destiny
• 1840s slavery
moved to the center
stage of American
politics, because of
Westward Expansion
• Depression that
began in 1837
sparked a large
migration of settlers
further west.
• 1840 and 1845 5000
emigrants made the
difficult 2000-mile
journey by wagon train
to Oregon
• By 1860 3000,000
men, women, and
children had braved
disease, starvation, and
natural barriers of the
Rocky Mts to travel
overland to Oregon and
CA
Expansion
• Appalachians - through the Cumberland
Daniel Boone
Gap (KY) into the Ohio River valley
• Rockies – mountain men fur trapped
• Soon develop overland trails to mass migrate
settlers
 Oregon Trail – began in 1842; 4-6 months travel.
Wanted land.
 Mormon Trail – 1847 led by Brigham Young,
Mormons settle near the Great Salt Lake to escape
religious persecution
 Santa Fe Trail – began in 1821 to trade with
Mexico
 California Trail – to Northern California to get rich
Overland Immigration to the West
 Between 1840
and 1860, more
than 250,000
people made the
trek westward.
The Oregon Trail
-Albert Bierstadt, 1869
The Mexican Frontier: NM, CA, TX
•When Mexico achieve its independence from Spain in 1821 had a population of
6.5 million
•California, New Mexico, and Texas were isolated and sparsely settled outposts
surrounded by Indian country.
• NM
•CA
30,000 Spaniards
3,200 missionaries, soldiers, and settlers
•
•Californios:
10,000 Natives
20,000 Natives on land
owned by missionaries
150,000 tribes in the interior
Mexican cattle ranchers
Texas
• 1821 – Mexico wins independence from Spain
• 1822 – Missourian Stephen Austin received permission
from the Mexican government to establish a colony in
Texas on three conditions.
 Mexico abolished slavery, but Americans could bring their
slaves
 Become a Mexican citizen
 Convert to Catholicism
• Americans ignored these and moved
anyway
• They then pushed for greater political
power
Stephen Austin
• 1830 Mexican
government annulled
existing land contracts
and barred future
emigration from the
U.S.
• General Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna, sent an
army in 1835 to impose
central authority
• Sparked a chaotic
revolt in Texas
• 3/13/36 Santa Anna
army stormed the
Alamo killing 187
Americans and
Tejano defenders
• “Remember the
Alamo”
Sam Houston
Davy Crockett
Texas War for Independence
• Sam Houston
former governor of
Tennessee and first President of Texas
• 3/2/1836 – Texans sign their
declaration of independence founding
the Republic of Texas
• Battle of San Jacinto (4/21/1836) –
Texans led by Sam Houston defeat the
Mexicans and capture Gen. Santa Anna
• Treaty of Velasco (5/14/1836) –
Santa Anna is forced to sign recognizing
Texan independence
• Texas Congress called for union with
the United States, but Jackson and Van
Buren shelved the question due Slavery
issues
• 1836-1845: Texas is an independent
country
Election of 1844
• John C. Calhoun
wrote a letter to
annex Texas to
strengthen slavery
• Clay and Van Buren
attempted to keep
slavery out of the
political race
• James Polk: A
slaveholder receives
the Southern Votes
• Congress declared
Texas part of the
United States days
before Polk’s
inauguration 1845
Polk’s Goals
• Reduce tariff
• Reestablish the
independent
treasury system
• Settle the dispute
over ownership of
Oregon
• Bring California into
the Union
• 54 40 or Fight
Polk’s campaign
slogan
• The dispute
between the
Oregon Territory
Border with
England
• Compromised on
the 49th parallel and
secured the Puget
Sound
The Mexican War (1846-1848)
Causes
• Dispute over southern
border of the newly
annexed Texas
 US says Rio Grande
 Mexico says Nueces River
• Pres. Polk wanted to realize
true manifest destiny
• Nov. 1845: US sent diplomat
John Slidell to buy California
and New Mexico for $30
million. Mexico refused to
meet with him or hear his
offer.
• Polk sends troops to the
border, a few Americans are
killed, thus providing a
reason to declare war.
The Bear Flag Republic
The Revolt  June 14, 1846
* White settlers declare their
independence in California
John C. Frémont
• U.S. Navy sailed into Monterrey and
San Francisco Harbors raised the
American flag and put an end to the
“bear flag republic”
• 1,600 American troops occupied Santa
Fe without resistance then set off to
southern California
• Henry David Thoreau:
Jailed in 1846
for refusing to pay taxes as a protest
against war
• Wrote an essay “On Civil Disobedience”
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 1848
Nicholas Trist,
American Negotiator
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 1848
• Mexico gave up claims to Texas north of the
Rio Grande.
• Mexico gave the U.S. California and New
Mexico, plus the modern states of Nevada,
Utah, Arizona, and parts of Wyoming &
Colorado
• U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and agreed to
pay the claims of American citizens against
Mexico (over $3,500,000).
The Mexican Cession
Gold Rush
• 1848 gold discovered in the foothills of
the Sierra Nevada Mountains
• By 1852
• By 1860
200,000
360,000
• 25,000 Chinese landed between 1849 and 1852,
almost all of them young men who had signed longterm labor contracts with Chinese merchants, who
in turn leased them to mining and railroad
companies
California Gold Rush (1849)
Territorial Growth to 1853
Gadsden Purchase – paid $10 million for land needed to
build a southern transcontinental railroad
Wilmot Proviso, 1846
• “Provided, territory from that, as an
express and fundamental condition to
the acquisition of any the Republic of
Mexico by the United States, by virtue
of any treaty which may be negotiated
between them, and to the use by the
Executive of the moneys herein
appropriated, neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall ever exist
in any part of said territory, except for
crime, whereof the party shall first be
duly convicted.”
•
Compromise of 1850
1) Congress would admit California as a free state
2)The people of the territories of New Mexico and Utah would
decide for themselves whether slavery would be legal
3)Congress would abolish the sale of slaves, but not slavery, in
Washington D.C.
4)Texas would give up claims to New Mexico for $10 million
5)A Fugitive Slave Act would order all citizens of the United States
to assist in the return of enslaved people who had escaped from
their owners. It would deny a jury trial to escaped slaves
Compromise of 1850
New Political Parties
• Whigs
 1852: last election where the Whigs are a
powerhouse
 Many northern supporters abandon the party due to
their willingness to compromise on slavery issues
• Free Soil Party
 Created in 1848
 Sought to end slavery in new territories.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
• Stephen Douglas proposal for all territories to have popular
sovereignty in deciding the question of slavery
John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
In response to the border ruffians
illegally voting and violence, Brown
and his followers drag 5 men from
their homes and kill them in front of
their families.
Women’s Rights Movement
• Cultural and Legal Limits




Place was in the home
Raise children
Did not engage in public activities
Could not vote or keep money earned
• Enter public life thru temperance and abolition
movements
• 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention
 Wrote Declaration of Sentiments
calling for women’s rights including
suffrage
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Lucretia Mott