u.s. history expansion

what is the compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 was congressional legislation that sought to bridge sectional divisions between the North and South related to the expansion of slavery. Among the issues confronting Congress in 1850 were the admission of California, Deseret (Utah), and New Mexico to the Union; the establishment of firm Texas boundaries and the clearing of Texan debt; fugitive slaves; and the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Resolutions and Debate On January 29, 1850, Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky introduced an omnibus bill of eight resolutions that tried to address these contentious issues. Clay's first resolution sought to admit California as a free state. Under resolution two, the territories of Deseret (Utah) and New Mexico would gain territorial governments without any restrictions or conditions on slavery. Resolutions three and four stated that Texas would be denied the source of the Rio Grande in establishing its western boundary and thus would be reduced in size and that its debt would be paid at an unspecified amount at a later date. Resolution five held that slavery could continue in Washington, D.C., while resolution six would end the slave trade in the capital. Resolution seven would create more stringent fugitive slave laws. The last resolution stated that Congress could not make any decisions regarding the interstate slave trade in the Southern states. Clay argued that the Northern states should think about sectional issues from the Southern point of view. After seven months of debate, Clay's resolutions failed to win the requisite support in the Senate. Soon thereafter, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, with Clay's blessing, split the omnibus bill into separate pieces of legislation. He proposed five new resolutions that sought to break the deadlock over the extension of slavery into new territories. The final versions of the resolutions authored by Douglas sought a delicate compromise between the free and slave states. The first three resolutions addressed statehood and territorial matters. Douglas's first resolution established the northern and western boundaries of Texas and ceded the disputed territory outside of those boundaries to the United States; in addition, Texas remained responsible for its debts. The same act also established the New Mexico Territory (which included present-day Arizona). The second act admitted California to the Union as a free state, bypassing territorial status. The third act established the Utah Territory and its boundaries. New Mexico and Utah were to be organized under the concept of popular sovereignty, meaning that the residents in those territories would decide for themselves whether slavery would be permitted. The two remaining resolutions impacted existing slavery legislation and enacted a new law. As such, Congress voted to revise and strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. This detailed the powers of the commissioners and courts regarding fugitives. The final act in this series of legislation prohibited the sale or transfer of slaves in the District of Columbia beginning on January 1, 1851. The law also authorized officials to abolish depots or areas where slaves were confined for sale within the boundaries of the District of Columbia. Passage and Effects Douglas's five compromise resolutions passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate on September 9, 1850. The Zachary Taylor administration had opposed the measures, but the president's death in July 1850 paved the way for President Millard Fillmore's support of the Compromise of 1850. Between September 9 and September 20, the president signed all five bills into law. The Compromise of 1850 briefly mended sectional disputes by granting a stronger Fugitive Slave Act to mollify the South. However, the addition of California upset the balance between free states and the slave states, giving the free states the majority representation in the Senate. The issues addressed by the Compromise of 1850 did not stop or reverse the growing sectionalism in the United States and in fact contributed greatly to the eventual secession of the Southern states in 1860 and 1861, precipitating the Civil War. Indeed, the Compromise of 1850 lasted just four years, at which time the highly controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act essentially nullified the 1820 Missouri Compromise, reopening the debate on the expansion of slavery.

when was the era of expansion in the u.s.

1790-1860

Manifest Destiny

A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.

what caused the mexican-american war and when did it happen

A short and stunningly victorious war for the United States, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) marked the pinnacle of U.S. expansionist feeling and resulted in the annexation of millions of acres of land that stretched America's borders to the Pacific Ocean. The cause or causes of the Mexican-American War are still a matter of historical dispute. However, that the Mexican-American War irrevocably changed the lives of countless Mexicans living in the region annexed to the United States is less debatable. Many maintain that Mexico initiated the war because the U.S. government approved the annexation of Texas, even though Texas had declared its independence from Mexico 10 years earlier in 1836. Others argue that the United States provoked the war by stationing armed troops at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, a contentious region claimed by both Texas and Mexico. These scholars believe that President James K. Polk saw a war as the most expedient way to gain vast Mexican territories in the American West. And a few advance yet another reason: Mexico had failed to pay claims for losses sustained by U.S. citizens during the Mexican War of Independence, and the United States wanted those claims settled.

what was the adams-onis treaty

Adams-Onís Treaty. The Adams-Onís Treaty (Spanish: Tratado de Adams-Onís) of 1819,[1] also known as the Transcontinental Treaty,[2] the Florida Purchase Treaty,[3] or the Florida Treaty,[4][5] was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. It settled a standing border dispute between the two countries and was considered a triumph of American diplomacy. It came in the midst of increasing tensions related to Spain's territorial boundaries in North America against the United States and the United Kingdom in the aftermath of the American Revolution; it also came during the Latin American wars of independence. Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or garrisons, so the Spanish government decided to cede the territory to the United States in exchange for settling the boundary dispute along the Sabine River in Spanish Texas. The treaty established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean, in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5 million and relinquishing the U.S. claims on parts of Spanish Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas, under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase.

explain the gold rush

After gold was discovered on January 24, 1848, in California, a stampede of settlers from the eastern United States and all over the world poured into the California gold fields in search of their fortunes. Ten days prior to the February 2, 1848, signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which formally ended the Mexican-American War, James W. Marshall discovered gold in California. Although this had no influence on the negotiations for or ratification of the treaty, it did have a major impact on California and the United States. With predictable and great speed, gold fever swept the United States. Some men abandoned their homes and families and started up the Oregon Trail with only what they could carry. Many of the people who headed for California during the gold rush never returned home or even asked for their families to join them. By 1855, hundreds of thousands of people had migrated to California, the largest migration of its kind in U.S. history. The huge influx of people brought many problems, which the new California government was not able to handle. Prices for all kinds of goods skyrocketed, and a lawless element appeared. Indeed, the vigilante movement helped bring forth cries for official law and order. When the gold rush ended around 1855, the value of the gold found during the California gold rush well exceeded the cost of the Mexican-American War for the United States.

what did the treaty of ghent accomplish if anything. what were american spirits like at the end of the war.

American victories lifted American morale, but some parts of the country persisted in dissent. In the fall of 1814, perceptions of the national government's neglect had increased and resulted in Massachusettscalling for a convention of New England delegates to discuss grievances called the Hartford Convention. Finally, on December 24, 1814, peace commissioners signed a treaty. Negotiations had been difficult, but there had always been the overarching American advantage that the British had not wanted to fight the United States while fighting Napoleon. Also, after Napoleon was defeated, the colossal effort of battling him had made the British tired of war. The Treaty of Ghent resolved none of the issues regarding naval rights or practices, but by Christmas Eve 1814, the two countries had fought each other to a draw. Serious divisions within the government had hampered the war effort, and threats of secession circulated at the Hartford Convention had almost divided the nation. Yet the conflict had also spawned determination in many Americans to strengthen the nation.

the homestead act

By granting free land to qualified claimants, the Homestead Act of 1862 allowed nearly any man or woman willing to develop the land a chance to live the American dream. One of the most significant events in the westward expansion of the United States, the Homestead Act had far-reaching effects on the landscape and the people of the plains. When people first settled the lands that the United States acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, they bypassed the interior plains—which they called the Great American Desert—in favor of the coastal areas with richer farming land. However, the U.S. government soon wanted to settle the interior in order to increase the wealth of the nation. The idea of using the appeal of free land to encourage settlement had been around since the 1820s, but it didn't become a reality for more than four decades because of conflicts between the North and the South. The South wanted all new states to have the option of becoming slave areas, while the North wanted to admit only free states into the Union. The South, afraid of losing voting power in Congress, opposed every new act that would give land away. However, following the secession of the Southern states at the beginning of the Civil War, Congress passed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. It was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. The Removal of Native Americans The Great Plains, however, were already inhabited by Native Americans, such as the Sioux, the Crow, and the Cheyenne. The government considered these tribes to be nomadic, or not tied to any area of land in particular, and thus believed that American homesteaders were entitled to settle these lands. The government instituted several military campaigns to drive Native Americans off the land and seclude them to reservations. Click to Enlarge HomesteadAct Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, campaigns led by military officers, such as Union generals William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan, forced or enticed Native Americans to sign sham treaties that removed them from their land and placed them on reservations. These reservations were often comprised of infertile land far from the tribe's ancestral homes. These treaties and forced removal ignited several armed struggles between the U.S. military and the Native American tribes, such as the Battle of the Little Bighornand the Washita Massacre. Sherman and Sheridan both encouraged the strategy of "total war." Thus, in the practice of total war, the military targeted and decimated bison populations. Bison were an important source of food, clothing, and other necessities for Native Americans, and their extermination weakened the tribes' ability to fight off American troops and destroyed their traditional ways of life. Homestead Act Stipulations The Homestead Act gave 160 acres—a quarter of a section—to individuals who met certain requirements. The claimant had to be at least 21 years of age, a veteran of 14 days of active service in the U.S. armed forces, or the head of a family. Both men and women could qualify as the head of a family. The claimant also had to be a citizen of the United States or declare his or her intention of gaining citizenship. This stipulation allowed many European immigrants to stake claims. Many of the homesteaders were also "Exodusters," or African Americans who had recently been freed from slavery in the South and ventured west seeking economic opportunities. Click to Enlarge HomesteadAct In order to receive the patent and title to the land, a person had to build a home on the land, live there, and work the land for a period of five years. When it was time to "prove up," or establish that the requirements had been met, the homesteader simply went to the land office with two witnesses who could verify that they had known the homesteader for five years, that the homesteader had built a home on the site, and that the homesteader had tilled the land. Farming and Daily Life Much of the land available to homesteaders was covered with deep prairie grasses and had unpredictable, sparse rainfall. Homesteaders faced harsh natural conditions, from the scarcity of water and hard, compact soil to hot summers, and cold winters. Both men and women engaged in labor-intensive work required to toil the land, breaking down traditional gender roles and gaining women a greater amount of freedom in the region. The homesteaders' success depended on the development of new methods of dry farming and the use of irrigation. The development of the steel plow by John Deereand the horse-drawn McCormick reaper also aided the homesteaders' efforts. To prove up a claim took courage and tenacity. Click to Enlarge HomesteadAct Though they started with shacks made of tar paper and cheap timber or dugouts in the ground, the homesteaders eventually learned to build sod houses out of bricks made of soil and held together by grassroots. Homesteaders had large families with many children, who helped complete chores and keep the farm running. Parents would sometimes hire their children out to other farms in exchange for wages or material goods. Disease and death were frequent among the settlers of this region. The death rates of women were higher than men's due to the lack of clean conditions or complications that occurred during childbirth. Click to Enlarge HomesteadAct Homesteaders also faced isolation, as the farms were scattered with miles in between. Organized by seven men, including Oliver H. Kelley, the Grange was one of the few institutions that connected homesteaders. It began as a social organization, but later developed into a political group that would form the Granger Movement. On the Great Plains, the Grange organized public gatherings, such as picnics and parades, for its members to socialize. It also provided educational programs and economic assistance, selling its members equipment at reduced prices and organizing credit unions to help farmers obtain loans without borrowing from corrupt banks. The Homestead Act remained in effect for over a century, from 1863 to 1976. During that time, over 2 million people filed for a homestead on a quarter section of public domain land. However, only about 40%, or 783,000, succeeded in finally earning the title to their property

what was the louisiana purchase

Finally, after signing the Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803) on May 2, the U.S. took possession on December 20, 1803. The Louisiana Purchase, at a cost of $15 million, doubled the size of the U.S. The acquisition had an enormous impact on the expansion of the U.S., offering vast lands for farming and grazing, as well as mineral resources. The purchase helped to grow the wealth of the country and contributed to its growth as a world power.

why did britain agree to the deal. what did jay's treaty really do

Fortunately for Jay, British military resources were fully engaged against France, so Great Britain had no interest in taking on an additional opponent. The Jay Treaty therefore accomplished little other than to preserve peace between the two countries. The one positive British concession was a pledge to fulfill its earlier promise and withdraw all of its forces from the Northwest Territory of the United States. U.S. claims regarding minor boundary disputes and potential compensation for shipping losses were assigned to future arbitration panels. The treatycompletely ignored the slave issue.

what was indian removal act

In May 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, a bill that gave President Andrew Jackson the authority to negotiate for the cession of Indian lands east of the Mississippi River and the relocation of eastern Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi. This legislation was instrumental in ensuring the removal of tribes and the development of Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. Although Jackson helped push this legislation through Congress, the roots of Indianremoval can be found in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Land ownership by Native Americans east of the Mississippi at the end of the 18th century hindered Jefferson's vision of a country populated by self-sufficient yeoman farmers. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 appeared to offer Jefferson the perfect solution in two respects. First, a full-scale relocation of the eastern Native American populations would open up lands to settlers who, through the practice of agriculture, would form the base of an agrarian republic. Second, removal beyond the Mississippi would separate the Native Americans from the more harmful effects of Western culture and give them time to prepare for a possible future integration within American society. Although Jefferson's ideas never progressed while he was in office, subsequent presidents built on his vision until Jackson finally made it concrete. White Americans had different reasons for wanting Native American removal. In the old Northwest Territory, the end of the War of 1812 had resulted in a demographic explosion. Where settlers had once confined their incursions to the land around the Ohio River, in the late 1810s and 1820s they began to push north toward the Great Lakes. With every passing year, the Shawnee, Wyandotte, Delaware, and Potawatomi felt the pressure to move. In the southern United States, cotton provided the primary driving force. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made cotton growing a more profitable enterprise, and the fertile soil in present-day Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi met the needs of this crop perfectly. This increasing demand for farmland received a boost from land cession treaties signed in the 1810s with the Creek Indians. By 1820, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens had flooded the region west of Georgia. Ten years after passage of the Indian Removal Act, its impact was clear. As white settlers pushed westward, federal officials negotiated scores of treaties and worked to arrange for the westward journeys of thousands of men, women, and children. In both the Northwest Territory and the southeast, American Indian leaders by choice, force, and fraud signed these treaties, gave up their lands, and relocated to territories west of the Mississippi River. They traveled on foot, by wagon, by horse, by boat, and, in many cases, at gunpoint. Both the journey and the overall experience created a painful and enduring legacy—thousands of Cherokee died on the Trail of Tears and Potawatomi still recall the Trail of Death. Although some American Indian communities and individuals retained their lands and avoided removal, the federal legislation largely accomplished its goal of opening eastern lands to white settlement. Thousands of Native Americans left their homes and marched west, and those who survived the journey often found it difficult to adjust to their new environment. By the 1850s, relocated Native Americans also discovered that removal had not established the separation the U.S. government had envisioned.

explain the american feelings toward annexation of texas and the whole process of annexation

In October that same year, Houston was proclaimed the first president of the Republic of Texas. Many Texans immediately began to press for the republic's annexation by the United States because of their ties to the nation and the ever-present threat that Mexico would attempt to seize the region again. Increased sectional tension within the United States and the status of Texas as a potential slave statemade annexation a major issue in U.S. politics in the 1840s. On December 29, 1845, however, the Republic of Texas officially joined the Union as the 28th state. The annexation of Texas, and a resulting border dispute, prompted the United States to declare war on Mexico the following spring. Mexico's defeat in the Mexican-American War secured Texas' induction into the United States.

why did napoleon cell why did u.s. buy louisiana purchase

It soon became clear to the politicians in Washington that Napoleon had grown tired of holding on to his vast "American Empire," which was particularly troubled by disease and slave revolts in the West Indies. It also became clear to U.S. citizens that the new land would provide more opportunity for them.

when did the lewis and clark mission occur

January 18, 1803 is an appropriate date to identify as the birth of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

who did jefferson buy the lousiana territory from

Jefferson's opportunity to purchase the Louisiana Territory from the French government

what made mexico start the battle over control of texas

Matters came to a crisis in early 1835, when General Antonio López de Santa Anna came to power in Mexico and quickly showed himself a more autocratic ruler than his predecessors. As Santa Anna moved to crush liberalism in northern Mexico, the Americans in Texas initiated a rebellion against Mexican control in the summer of 1835. In November that year, a provisional government called for Texas to be made a state within Mexico in a federal arrangement. That government collapsed within a few months, riven with its own internal divisions, and was replaced by another provisional government that declared Texas an independent nation and called for the creation of an army. Santa Anna quickly deployed his forces to the rebellious region and dealt the Texans several devastating defeats, including the massacre at the Alamo in March 1836, which immediately became a part of American folklore after all 187 Texans inside the fortress were killed (including renowned frontiersmen Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie). However, the Texas Army, under the command of General Sam Houston, retaliated and captured Santa Anna himself the following month at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21. Santa Anna was forced to surrender all Mexican forces in the region and accept Texas' independence.

what were the u.s.-british tensions pre war of 1812

Meanwhile, throughout 1811, the United States and Great Britain moved closer to war. The British government refused to make any concessions to American demands. Americans became convinced that the British goal was to restore the colonial relationship of the 17th and 18th centuries in all but name. Additionally, western Americans (living in the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi River Valley) incorrectly suspected a British role in the growing nativist movement among American Indians. Therefore, in the fall of 1811, William Henry Harrison was authorized to march against Indian (Tecumsehand Tenskwatawa) settlements. His expedition culminated in the Battle of Tippecanoe and the destruction of the town. Ironically, it also convinced the northwestern Indians to form an alliance with the British.

the northwest ordinance

On July 13, 1787, Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, structuring settlement of the Northwest Territory and creating a policy for the addition of new states to the nation. The members of Congress knew that if their new confederation were to survive intact, it had to resolve the states' competing claims to western territory. In 1781, Virginia began by ceding its extensive land claims to Congress, a move that made other states more comfortable in doing the same. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson first proposed a method of incorporating these western territories into the United States. His plan effectively turned the territories into colonies of the existing states. Ten new northwestern territories would select the constitution of an existing state and then wait until its population reached 20,000 to join the confederation as a full member. Congress, however, feared that the new states—10 in the Northwest as well as Kentucky, Tennessee and Vermont—would quickly gain enough power to outvote the old ones and never passed the measure. Three years later, the Northwest Ordinance proposed that three to five new states be created from the Northwest Territory. Instead of adopting the legal constructs of an existing state, each territory would have an appointed governor and council. When the population reached 5,000, the residents could elect their own assembly, although the governor would retain absolute veto power. When 60,000 settlers resided in a territory, they could draft a constitution and petition for full statehood. The ordinance provided for civil liberties and public education within the new territories, but did not allow slavery. Pro-slavery Southerners were willing to go along with this because they hoped that the new states would be populated by white settlers from the South. They believed that although these Southerners would have no enslaved workers of their own, they would not join the growing abolition movement of the North.

when did the u.s. declare war with great britain

On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain.

how did the battles in the mexican-american war pan out

Once war was declared, the U.S. strategy called for a three-pronged offense. The Army of the West would take New Mexico and California; the Army of the Center would take northern Mexico; and the Army of Occupation would march into Mexico City. Although the Mexican forces fought valiantly, the U.S. forces beat them decisively in battle after battle. After a year and a half of fighting, the war ended when a peace treaty was signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a village a few miles outside of Mexico City.

what did president jefferson promote in terms expansion

President Jefferson conceived the idea of westward expansion long before it came to fruition in 1803. Having inherited his father's skill at surveying and love of exploration, Jefferson had already considered a major westward expedition before he was elected president in 1800.

why did jefferson feel obliged to accept the offer of Napoleon 1 for the territory

Regardless, after France's official offer arrived from Emperor Napoleon I, President Thomas Jefferson felt obliged to accept without delay for two reasons: Napoleon's offer was only valid as long as he remained ruler of France, and the French territory blocked the continued western expansion of the U.S.

why did anti slavery supporters not support annexation of texas. explain how the war started

Texas's application for annexation had caused several years of political debate in the United States and indeed, was successfully blocked for a time by antislavery forces, who feared that several new slave states would be created from the Texas territory. Not only did Texas annexation threaten the balance of slave to free states, it also potentially expanded slaveholding even further west. Nevertheless, the annexation of Texas was approved by a joint congressional resolution on February 28, 1845. But there was still controversy. The boundary between Texas and Mexico had been a long-standing source of dispute. The Republic of Texas claimed the Rio Grande River as its southern boundary, while the Mexican state of Tamaulipas claimed the Nueces River that lies further to the north as the boundary. While there was a strong political faction in Mexico that believed Mexico owned all of Texas and refused to recognize Texas as an independent republic. Following the annexation vote, President Polk ordered American troops to the mouth of the Rio Grande to defend Texas from invasion. Yet because of the murky border issues, Mexico saw this as an act of defiance and issued a declaration of war on April 23, 1846. Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande on April 25, 1846 and attacked the American troops. The war had started. America officially declared war on Mexico on May 13.

the kansas-nebraska act

The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the most important events leading to the Civil War. It founded the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska and implemented popular sovereignty within these boundaries. This effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed settlers to determine by vote if slavery should be allowed in Kansas and Nebraska, which further divided the North and South over the already contentious issue of slavery in new territories. Reasons for Passage Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. senator from Illinois and Northern Democrat, brokered the Kansas-Nebraska Actfor a variety of reasons; principal among them were his desire to see construction of a transcontinental railroad begin, his designs on the presidency, and his naiveté regarding the extreme volatility of the slavery debate. Douglas had successfully managed to navigate the partisan and sectional divides during congressional discussions leading up to passage of the Compromise of 1850. In 1854, this tactic utterly destroyed one political party, splintered another along sectional lines, greatly bolstered the political sway of the so-called slave power of the cotton-producing South, and set the nation on a direct path toward war. Using popular sovereignty—the ability of western settlers to vote on the issue of slavery—as the solution to partisan and sectional strife, Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in January 1854 as part of a larger plan to encourage settlement in the Kansas-Nebraska territory. The most controversial element of this proposal was the repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Douglas felt that eliminating the compromise line and allowing slavery into territories previously declared free would help populate the region. Of course, this was also part of a larger design. In addition to being a congressman and a former justice on the Illinois Supreme Court, Douglas was a major investor in Chicago real estate. In 1850, he had secured a land grant from the federal government for the Illinois Central Railroad linking Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. The resulting increase in the value of his Chicago real estate netted Douglas a small fortune. The possibility of building a railroad between Chicago and San Francisco promised to produce an enormous increase in his property value. To do so, however, required support from Southern proslavery Democrats seeking to expand slavery into previously prohibited areas. Likewise, if he hoped to receive the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency, Douglas needed strong support from the South. Thus, the successful repeal of the Missouri Compromise promised to satisfy Southern, proslavery constituents. Douglas offered popular sovereignty as a concession to the South so that his self-interested plan to increase the value of his property could advance undeterred. The Kansas-Nebraska bill would allow settlers in this territory to decide on the issue of slavery by voting. Douglas proved a bit naïve in making this concession. He assumed that the topography and climate in the Great Plains would not be conducive to cash crop cultivation. In turn, he believed that few slave owners would venture into the territory and that more free states than slave states would form from the Kansas-Nebraska territory. He underestimated the will of the pro-expansion slave-owning aristocracy, and by blurring the boundaries between free and slave states, Douglas increased the fears of the "slave power" voiced by Free Soilers and African Americans. Reactions and Consequences The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed on May 30, 1854. Reactions against it were immediate. Because the congressional vote followed sectional as opposed to partisan lines, the act caused the complete collapse of the Whig Party as its Southern members defected and joined their counterparts in the Democratic Party. Workers throughout the North held rallies to oppose the act. Although they still distanced themselves from radical abolitionism, they did adopt the jargon and symbolism employed by abolitionists. On the eve of congressional elections in 1854, ex-Whigs, antislavery Democrats, Free Soilers, and abolitionists voiced their collective opposition to the slave power through the formation of the Republican Party. As Abraham Lincoln noted in an October 16, 1854, speech, the revolutionary spirit unleashed in 1776 was undermined by the spirit of the Kansas-Nebraska Act—despite its call for popular sovereignty. In this particular case, the right to vote on the issue of slavery was a rationale for slavery, white supremacy, and the continued expansion of the influences of the South's "slave power." Lincoln went on to state that whereas the Declaration of Independence declared that all men were created equal, the 1854 act simply reinforced the savage inequities inherent in chattel slavery under the ruse of "self government" in the Kansas-Nebraska territory. In Lincoln's assessment, liberty lost ground to bondage as a direct result of the 1854 act. Far from being representative of classical liberal doctrine, popular sovereignty, as articulated by Douglas and his allies, was a clear and conscious acquiescence to white supremacy, slavery, and the Southern aristocracy. Although historians are left to ponder why Douglas offered such a sizable concession to Southern aristocrats, the Kansas-Nebraska Act can be measured as a resounding victory for the "slave power." This fact was not lost on the scores of slave owners pouring over the Missouri border into Kansas two months before the passage of the 1854 act in order to secure prime land for cash crop cultivation. Nor was it lost on the thousands of Free Soilers who became radicalized to the point that they not only opposed the westward expansions of slavery, but also began to militantly oppose the institution of slavery itself. Moreover, this concession demonstrated to free blacks that no section of the United States, neither the North nor the territories that had previously excluded slavery, could serve as a true haven for liberty. The result of this convergence of forces was guerilla warfare in Kansas, the emergence of militant Free Soilers and abolitionists who favored the use of violence, and an increasingly radicalized agenda among African American leaders and organizations.

the gadsden purchase

The Gadsden Purchase (Spanish: la Venta de La Mesilla "The Sale of La Mesilla"),[2] is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effect on June 8, 1854. The purchase included lands south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande where the U.S. wanted to build a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route, which the Southern Pacific Railroad later completed in 1881-1883. The purchase also aimed to resolve other border issues. The first draft was signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and by Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico.[1] The U.S. Senate voted in favor of ratifying it with amendments on April 25, 1854, and then transmitted it to President Franklin Pierce. Mexico's government and its General Congress or Congress of the Union took final approval action on June 8, 1854, when the treaty took effect. The purchase was the last substantial territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States, and defined the Mexico-United States border. The Arizona cities of Tucson and Yuma are on territory acquired by the U.S. in the Gadsden Purchase. The financially strapped government of Santa Anna agreed to the sale, which netted Mexico $10 million[3] (equivalent to $230 million in 2019).[4] After the devastating loss of Mexican territory to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the continued filibustering made by New Mexico governor William Carr Lane in the zone, Santa Anna may have calculated it was better to yield territory by treaty and receive payment rather than have the territory simply seized by the U.S.

industrial revolution

The Industrial Revolution (sometimes known as the First Industrial Revolution), occurring mainly from 1760-1840, saw the development of new power sources to run mechanized production equipment and the establishment of new production techniques, including interchangeable parts. It caused a major upheaval in how Americans produced the goods they consumed and exported. In the process, the revolution also redefined how people earned a living, where they lived, and their roles at work. some of the British technology had been imported to America before the American Revolution, particularly the cotton gin (gin is short for engine), which separated cotton fibers from their seeds. In 1793, Eli Whitney redesigned the British cotton gin (a roller gin) so it would remove the seeds from the short-staple cotton grown in the American South, which a roller gin could not do. Whitney changed the cotton gin so it used wire teeth to pull the threads of cotton through slots that were too small for the seeds to get through. With this modification, his machine could produce more than 50 times as much cotton in a day as a manual laborer could. Whitney patented his machine and opened a factory to build cotton gins for all of the Southern growers, who then produced what became America's largest export, cotton, using this new production capability. Lowell's mill was the first in America to process all of the steps of textile production in the same factory: washing and dyeing the raw cotton fiber; spinning the yarn; weaving the fabric; washing and printing the textile; and then ironing the finished cloth and rolling it on a bolt. Lowell modified the Jacquard Loom, a loom used for weaving that was invented in France in 1804, so it could be driven by the belts. He also modified other machines used for producing textiles to work with the belts, making his manufacturing process much more efficient, lowering its production cost significantly, and making him an excellent profit. His concepts were adopted throughout New England to produce textiles and other manufactured goods. To operate the various machines, Lowell hired young, single women as production workers, working them from 12 to 14 hours a day for six days a week with few holidays and no vacations. They spent their days at workstations, running the same machine from their assigned starting time until their assigned quitting time with only a short lunch break. Today, these conditions would be known as a "sweatshop" environment for workers. Despite the hardships of working in such an environment, Lowell was sensitive to workers' living conditions outside the mill and did not want them living in slum neighborhoods. He imposed a boarding-house system for the mill's single women, requiring them to live in company housing and to meet curfews, attend church, and avoid improper conduct. The experience of living away from home or family farms was a new one for many of these young women, who popularly became known as "Lowell girls," and by the middle of the 19th century, there were thousands of them laboring in either Lowell's or similar factories in New England. By the middle of the 19th century, Lowell's factory system had spawned hundreds of other textile manufacturers to open facilities in New England, where rivers provided a steady source of power for the mills and a large concentration of people supplied abundant factory workers. Industrialization had met with great success in the first half of the century and appeared to be quickly sweeping over the country. During the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution produced new solutions for America's farmers as well as its industries, and one of the most important was the reaper developed by Cyrus McCormick, which replaced labor-intensive hand-held sickles for cutting grain. A reaper helps farmers harvest their grain by automatically cutting the stalks so the grain is not damaged and placing the cut stalks so they can be bundled. A field that would have taken 20 hours to harvest with a sickle now took just one hour to harvest with McCormick's reaper, which made a huge difference in a farmer's productivity. Before tractors became available in the 20th century, the reapers were pulled by horses. Invented by McCormick in 1831 and patented in 1834, the reaper was not produced on a large scale until McCormick founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in 1847 and opened a large manufacturing plant near Chicago, the gateway to the agricultural Midwest. By 1851, the company was reputed to be the largest farm equipment producer in the world. With the reaper, farmers could farm more acreage with the same amount of labor, growing and harvesting enough grain, by some estimates, to feed the world. During the same time, other industries produced machine tools, sewing machines, typewriters, clocks, iron castings, and many other products. The communication revolution of the 19th century had also been set in motion when the telegraph allowed customers, salesmen, and manufacturers to communicate rapidly. The fast ships, steamboats, and railroads created by the transportation revolution of the 19th century moved the raw materials and finished products around the country. Industries in all parts of the country contributed to the Industrial Revolution, and all benefited from it as well. Factory workers, however, were not so uniformly fortunate. Many industrial companies hired workers from slum neighborhoods, often women and children, and worked them as much as 20 hours a day for six days a week to run machines in unheated and unventilated factories under unsafe working conditions. Fatigue and lack of training caused accidents, while the unhealthy working environment resulted in serious illnesses that frequently proved fatal to workers. The manufacturers' disregard for the workers' plight set the stage for labor confrontations that lasted well into the 20th century. heavy urbanization

what was jay's treaty

The Jay Treaty ranks as one of the most controversial international agreements ever presented to the U.S. Senate for ratification. The United States and Great Britain were on the brink of war in 1794 when President George Washington sent John Jay to London to work out an agreement to prevent conflict. The resulting treaty contained many provisions that were repugnant to various sectional and political groups in the United States. It also failed to address many controversial issues. In the end, however, it achieved Washington's major goal: maintaining peace with Great Britain and delaying a resort to war until 1812.

what was the lewis and clark expedition

The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-1806 was the first government-sponsored exploration of the United States' newly acquired Louisiana Territory. The adventure, which was undertaken during President Thomas Jefferson's term, accomplished its primary goal of reaching the Pacific Ocean and also yielded a comprehensive map of the western terrain; descriptions of flora, fauna, and animals in the wilderness; and interaction with western Native Americans.

the missouri compromise

The Missouri Compromise was United States federal legislation that admitted Maine to the United States as a free state, simultaneously with Missouri as a slave state, thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South in the US Senate. As part of the compromise, the legislation prohibited slavery north of the 36°30′ parallel except for Missouri. The 16th United States Congress passed the legislation on March 3, 1820, and President James Monroe signed it on March 6, 1820. When free-soil Maine offered its petition for statehood, the Senate quickly linked the Maine and Missouri bills, making Maine admission a condition for Missouri entering the Union as a slave state.

what was the monroe doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine was a seminal principle of U.S. foreign policy. It was declared on December 2, 1823, by President James Monroe during his annual message to Congress. It held that the United States had an obligation to prevent European powers from meddling in the internal affairs of the Americas. threats of invasion from france and other world powers prompted him to say this. Monroe's speech included four primary positions. First, European powers ought not to attempt to establish colonies in the continents of North or South America. Second, the nations in the Western Hemisphere were inherently different than the Old World monarchies. Third, European monarchs should not meddle in the internal politics of the Americas, especially to attempt to overthrow republics and replace them with monarchies. Fourth, the U.S. would continue to refrain from interfering in the internal politics of any European power. Monroe warned that European interference in the Americas would be viewed by the U.S. "as dangerous to our peace and security." He also said it would be seen "as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." While not enforced at first, the Monroe Doctrine became a basic tenet of American foreign policy. It also justified U.S. intervention throughout the Western Hemisphere.

declaration of the sentiments/seneca falls

The New York State Woman's Temperance Society spoke out against the abuse of women by husbands under the influence of alcohol and advocated for reforming divorce laws. The society was organized by Susan B. Anthony and others after Anthony tried to speak at a state temperance meeting against the exclusion of women from politics but was silenced by the crowd. The society held first convention in mid-1852, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton was elected as its president. Stanton, who had opened her home as a refuge for battered women neighbors, held strong beliefs about violence against women. In an address to the 1852 convention, she condemned the role of alcohol in spousal abuse and attempted to build support for divorce reform. In addition, Amelia Bloomer, another participant at the convention, stated that no woman should have to be the recipient of a drunken husband's abuse. This convention, which held that women deserve the right to life and happiness the same as any man, also marked the first time that women publicly denounced marital rape. Stanton and Anthony continued to work for women's rights within the temperance movement, focusing their efforts on a married woman's right to own and control property. Despite attempts to remove themselves from issues of divorce reform, the issue persisted, and in 1855 and 1856 New York state legislators introduced new divorce reform bills in the Senate. The Declaration of Sentiments is a document that was signed at the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Largely written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the document formed the basis for the movement seeking equality for women. The Declaration of Sentiments was the Seneca Falls Convention's manifesto that described women's grievances and demands. Written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, it called on women to fight for their Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality as U.S. citizens

explain the oregon trail

The Oregon Trail played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century. The trail, which extended from Independence, Missouri, to the Columbia River and the Oregon Territory, originated with fur traders but soon became a main route for settlers migrating west. The 2,000-mile route usually took settlers about six months to complete by wagon train. During the mid-19th century, particularly during the California gold rush, travel on the trail was so heavy that deep ruts marked a clearly defined road. Even today, the ruts can be seen in many remaining patches of the trail. All told, in the mid-19th century, more than a half million settlers used the trail in search of farmland or gold and helped settle the West. It was also an arduous trip. Everyone but the very old, the very young, or the infirm walked. The wagons only offered a space four feet wide and about 10 feet long for provisions, clothing, and any "treasure" the family might want to take along. Usually, the prized bedstead, grandmother's piano, or whatever was discarded by the time it reached South Pass, as the animals began to tucker out. The nicer persons left notes on their discards offering them to anyone who followed. The more crass destroyed their discards to keep them selfishly for themselves, if only in memory. The trail was marked by the skeletons of dead animals, the graves of dead people, and the litter of overloaded wagons. A lot of dreams died, too, left unmarked along the way. The heyday of the Oregon Trail finally came to an end in 1869, with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

what did the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo provide the u.s. with

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo added 1.2 million square miles of territory to the United States—land that is now the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and parts of four others. The treaty also recognized U.S. sovereignty over all of Texas north of the Rio Grande River. The United States agreed to pay $15 million to Mexico in exchange for the ceded land and assumed the $3 million in claims its citizens held against the government of Mexico.

why were there tensions between great britain and america post-revolution which sparked jay's treaty

The Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War, left several issues unresolved. For example, the British agreed to withdraw all of their military forces from the territory ceded to the new United States; however, they continued to man posts in the North and West that Americans claimed were encouraging Indian hostility. Another unfulfilled provision was a treaty pledge that Americans would pay their pre-Revolutionary War debts to British creditors. Local and state courts had routinely protected U.S. citizens at the expense of foreigners. Some Southerners, meanwhile, demanded compensation from the British government for the 3,000 slaves that its armies had freed during the conflict. The 1783 Treaty also did not establish any sort of commercial agreement. Although Americans could trade directly with English importers and exporters, access to lucrative markets in the British West Indies was denied. To replace that, Americans took advantage of loosening French and Spanish restrictions on trade with their Caribbean colonies, especially after war broke out between Great Britain and France in the early 1790s. British authorities reacted by issuing a series of orders-in-council that caused Royal Navy vessels to stop, seize, and even sink U.S.-owned ships that were conducting what they considered to be illegal trade. Americans in all sections of the United States had reasons for concern. Northeasterners protested British interference with U.S. ocean-going trade. Westerners objected to what they saw as British provocation of Indian raids on their settlements. Southerners remained upset at the "theft" of their property in the form of slaves.

what did the war of 1812 mark the end of. how did it help america into the future

The War of 1812 marked the end of the Jeffersonian insistence that a militia was the only way to defend republican liberty. It marked the end of the first American party system, the Federalists. It also marked the end of American introversion and insecurity and ushered in an age of expansion and optimism. It provided the country with proof of American resilience. Many people charged with patriotic enthusiasm would describe the War of 1812 as a second war of independence and would dub the period after it the Era of Good Feelings.

what was the war of 1812

The crisis between the countries erupted into war as a result of British interference in U.S. trade and expansion and both countries' tensions with France: the Napoleon Wars with Britain and the Quasi-War with the U.S. After three years, major losses and growing tensions in the U.S. and the exhaustion of the British military led both countries to sign a peace treaty. Thus, the War of 1812 ended in 1815 with the Treaty of Ghent.

who was in control of the louisiana territory before the purchase

The land mass was first claimed by France, ceded to Spain in 1762, and then ceded back to France nearly 40 years later

explain the texas revolution

Throughout the 1820s, the Mexican government had welcomed U.S. settlers to its province of Texas and encouraged farmers and ranchers to populate the region. By the early 1830s, however, so many Americans had become established in the region (some estimates as high as 25,000) that the Mexican government began to pass laws to limit U.S. immigration and confine the spread of African American slavery. Officials were also alarmed at the Americans' unwillingness to assimilate into Mexican society. Many of the Americans who had settled in Texas had done so in the hope that the region would one day become a part of the United States.

when on their trip what did lewis and clark do to keep track of their findings? what were their findings

Throughout the trip, Lewis kept multiple copies of his maps and notes of observations of the climate, vegetation, and people. Both Lewis and Clark kept diaries with complex scientific observations of the animal and plant life encountered by the expedition. they then traveled all the way to the pacific coast by reaching oregon and then returned home. they were praised as heroes

why did george washington and other federalists want a settlement with britain jay's treaty

With calls for war with Great Britain coming from all quarters, President George Washington decided to try to defuse the tension by negotiating a settlement. The Federalist faction, headed by Alexander Hamilton, favored such an approach. It viewed good relations with Great Britain and maintenance of active Anglo-American trade as essential to the prosperity of the new nation. Rather than send the ambitious Hamilton, however, Washington dispatched Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay as his emissary.

abolitionist movement

With the growth of humanitarian feeling during the age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, some people began to criticize slavery, saying it was a violation of the rights of man. The Quakers and other religious groups condemned it as incompatible with Christ's teachings. Many of the American colonists, as well, were troubled by the contradiction between demanding freedom for themselves while holding others in slavery. At the time, in 1763, there were about 400,000 slaves in the American colonies, and 75% of those were in the South working on cotton plantations. At the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, 25% of the total population of the colonies was living in total bondage. Indeed, the Constitution (ratified in 1789) promised an end to foreign slave trade but still left the question of slavery to the individual states. By 1804, all of the states north of Maryland had abolished slavery. And in 1807, the United States officially prohibited the importation of slaves, but widespread smuggling continued until about 1862. Slavery was absolutely integral to the social and economic base of the cotton plantations in the 11 Southern states, and Southerners were determined to safeguard their way of life. Nevertheless, antislavery sentiment was on the rise, and the abolition movement was under way. The main activist arm of the abolition movement, the American Anti-Slavery Society, was founded in 1833. Its leader and foremost spokesperson was William Lloyd Garrison. Its cause was the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States. A primary tool for the society was its newspaper, The Liberator. Its columns spread antislavery propaganda, and its subscriptions helped fund other activities. In 1841, Garrison hired Frederick Douglass, a former slave, as an agent for the society. Douglass was an immediate success on the lecture circuit, first in the North and later on a six-month tour of meeting halls throughout the American West. Within seven years, the society's membership had swelled to a total of almost 200,000, and its growing attacks on the slave trade could not be ignored. The Southern press, eager to preserve the status quo in the South, launched a proslavery propaganda campaign. In response to the abolitionists claims about the evils of slavery, the Southern writers told the world that most slaves were content with their easy life. Supposedly, the slaves worked only until noon, dressed and ate better than most poor whites, and enjoyed job security that would be envied by most Northern factory workers. Many Northerners were taken in by these mostly fictitious accounts; after all, communication was quite limited at the time and they knew little, if anything firsthand, about the treatment of slaves in the South. By the election year of 1860, Americans were divided into three groups: the radicals who supported the complete abolition of slavery, the moderates who were against the expansion of slavery, and those who were proslavery. Abraham Lincoln was the presidential candidate of the Republican Party, whose platform was "free soil, free men, and free labor." When Lincoln was elected, the South saw him as a threat to Southern institutions and resorted to secession. And the Civil War began. The North fought to preserve the Union. The South fought for the right to secede and establish a nation that guaranteed a person's right to own slaves. Nevertheless, as far as Garrison, Douglass, and other abolitionists were concerned, the Civil War was a battle to end slavery. And indeed, the North's victory brought an end to slavery in the United States. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in the Southern secessionist states free. Two years later, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude" shall exist in the United States, was ratified, and the abolitionists finally had their victory.

polk was an ____ president in terms of land

expansionist

reform movements

temperance movement, asylums to help the mentally ill, education reform, utopian societies movement. The temperance movement was a widespread effort in the 19th and early 20th centuries to control, limit, or prohibit the use of alcohol. Within the movement there were several disparate groups working for different goals: some wanted society to use alcohol more responsibly, while others wanted to ban hard alcohol, and still others wanted to ban all forms of alcohol. The 1830s and 1840s were characterized by a wave of various reform movements. During the mid-19th century, it was popular for members of the upper and middle classes to join and support these movements. Motivated to cure social ills and to better American society, many reformers took up the cause of abolition. Other reformers, such as Louis Dwight and Dorothea Dix, sought improved prison conditions or better care for people confined to mental institutions. Some reformers worked in the temperance movement, trying to stop drunkenness and the related physical and moral evils. They also tried to reform prostitutes and to promote sexual abstinence before marriage. Moral reform was dominated by women. Women joined various reform movements in an effort to aid those in need and improve American society. This time period also saw the development of the women's rights movement. Led by women frustrated with the discrimination they faced in the antislavery movement, women began to organize for the acquisition of their own civil rights. The reform movements of the 19th century inspired women to participate in society in roles long denied to them. Borne out of Protestant evangelism, reformers began campaigning for an alcohol-free society in the early 19th century. These reformers believed alcohol to be the cause of the many social problems they sought to solve, such as crime and domestic violence. At its outset, the movement was confined to local organizations whose members pledged to give up alcohol. However, by the 1840s in the East and the 1870s in the West, the movement's goal broadened to prohibit all alcohol consumption in the nation. Subsequently, temperance activists became involved in politics, creating the Prohibition Party in 1869. Prohibitionists continued to participate in politics until the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 that banned alcohol. Forming organizations such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, women actively participated and led the movement against alcohol. They orchestrated protests such as the Woman's Crusade, where women petitioned and organized prayer vigils targeting those involved in the alcohol industry. With social norms assigning men to the role of breadwinner and leaving women dependent on men for financial resources, women had a vested interest in trying to keep men from squandering their income on alcohol. The temperance movement, along with many of the other social reform movements of this time, provided a pathway for women to participate in politics and the public sphere.