1840's

Question 1

Charles Wilkes

Answer 1

An American explorer who led a global circumnavigation from 1838 to 1842, exploring Antarctica and claiming “Wilkes’s Island” for the United States. His behavior led to two convictions by court-martial, one stemming from the massacre of almost 80 Fijians on Malolo in 1840.

Question 2

United States v. The Amistad

Answer 2

(1841) A Supreme Court case which found that the Africans who seized control of the slave ship the Amistad had done so legally, as their kidnapping itself was illegal.

Question 3

Armed Occupation Act

Answer 3

(1842) A law signed by President Tyler to encourage armed population of Florida.

Question 4

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

Answer 4

A treaty which resolved the Aroostook War and established the boundary between the United States and Canada. Granted the U.S. navigation rights on the St. John River, provided for extradition, and established a joint naval system for suppressing the slave trade off the African coast.

Question 5

Aroostook War

Answer 5

(1838-39) An international incident involving the boundary between Canada and Maine. When the Maine Legislature and the British Royal Army had both occupied land in Maine, Pres. van Buren negotiated a temporary ceasefire, which kept the peace until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

Question 6

Oregon Trail

Answer 6

One of the two main emigrant routes to the American West in the 19th century, the other being the Santa Fe Trail. Flourished from the 1840s into the 1860s. Crossed varied and difficult terrain including Indian Territory. In the 1810s and 20s the west was dismissed as the Great American Desert. In the 1840s the myth was dispelled by explorer John C. Frémont, and Western immigration picked up. Most traveled in a wagon company with friends. Most also walked alongside their wagons despite popular belief. Roughly 4-10% of supposed settlers died. Most Indians were helpful and friendly, tensions only worsened in the 1850s as native hostilities grew. The Transcontinental railroad killed the Trail in 1869.

Question 7

The Great Disappointment

Answer 7

Thousands of Millerites, some of whom had given away all of their possessions, waited expectantly for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in 1844.

Question 8

Walden

Answer 8

“Walden; or, Life in the Woods,” 1854 essays by Henry David Thoreau which established transcendentalism. The book was a record of Thoreau’s experiment in simple living on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Walden is viewed as a philosophical treatise on labour, leisure, self-reliance, and individualism.

Question 9

Manifest Destiny

Answer 9

Phrase coined by John O’Sullivan in 1845, served as a rallying cry and rationale for the foreign policy of the Polk Administration. Disputes over slavery ended Manifest Destiny in 1853, with the Gadsden Purchase.

Question 10

Crawford Long

Answer 10

An American doctor who was the first to anaesthetize patients in 1842.

Question 11

The Annexation of Texas

Answer 11

1) Texas became an independent nation in 1833 after fighting a revolutionary war with Mexico.
2) Texans voted twice for American annexation, and were rejected by Jackson and Van Buren.
3) The British didn’t want the Americans to annex Texas, which turned the tide of opinion in America towards annexation.
4) In 1846, Texas became a U.S. state, sparking war with Mexico.

Question 12

Brigham Young

Answer 12

American religious leader, second president of the Mormon church following the murder of Joseph Smith, and colonizer who significantly influenced the development of the American West.

Question 13

Bear Flag Revolt

Answer 13

(June-July 1846) American settlers in California declare independence and establish the California Republic, with John C. Fremont as head of state.

Question 14

Elias Howe

Answer 14

American inventor of the practical sewing machine in 1846.

Question 15

Samuel Colt

Answer 15

American firearms inventor, manufacturer, and entrepreneur who popularized the revolver.

Question 16

Donner Party

Answer 16

1846-47, A California wagon train which became snow trapped and had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Question 17

Whitman massacre

Answer 17

An 1847 incident in which Native Americans slaughtered a group of missionaries, sparking the Cayuse War.

Question 18

Cayuse War

Answer 18

(1847-55) A war between the United States government and the Cayuse people of Oregon, allegedly in response to the Whitman Massacre, the Cayuse’s numbers were greatly reduced, they were put into reservations, and the government began using treaties to resolve disputes in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to warfare.

Question 19

California Gold Rush

Answer 19

(1848-55) After gold was discovered in Sutter’s Mill, a mass migration was began to California. It resulted in eventual statehood for California, attacks on Native Americans, and railroad development. They were called “forty-niners”

Question 20

Revolutions of 1848

Answer 20

A year of numerous political upheavals in over 50 countries in Europe and Latin America, it resulted in an influx of immigration.

Question 21

Phineas Gage

Answer 21

An American railroad man who survived an improbable 1848 brain injury and fueled interest in neurology and psychology.