206-237 End of Year Review Terms Flashcards
The belief that the United States was destined, or meant, to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Settlers moved west in an attempt to trade, gain access to free land, and convert Native Americans. Groups faced numerous challenges along the way including disease, geographic barriers, weather, lack of supplies, conflicts with Native Americans, etc.
Manifest Destiny
Fur trappers of the northeast.
Mountain Men
Founded by Joseph Smith, was a religious group based on the religious text Smith created called the Book of Mormon. This group were religiously persecuted and their leader, Joseph Smith was killed by an angry mob. This group fled persecution in the east and settled in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Mormons
To many settlers, Oregon held out the promise of fertile, available farmland and greater freedom. But first, they had to pack their belongings and set off on the very long and difficult trip.
Oregon Trail
First major highway to the west, mainly a trade route but saw its share of immigrants, especially during the California Gold Rush. The trail also became an important route for stagecoach travel.
Santa Fe Trail
In 1819, there were exactly 11 slave states, and 11 free states. Missouri had been asking to join the Union as a slave state since 1817. Northerners, of course, were strongly against this proposition. Therefore, this was created including the 3 parts. The first part was that Missouri would enter the union as a slave state and Maine would enter the union as a free state. The second part was that anything north of the southern border of Missouri, in the Louisiana Territory, was automatically a free state. And lastly, the third part was the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed any slave owner to pursue slaves into a free territory and return them south.
Missouri Compromise
Shortly after Mexico won its independence from Spain, it began allowing Americans to settle in Texas. Stephen F. Austin led nearly 300 American settlers into Texas. The only stipulation was that the American settlers had to follow Mexican laws. Finally in 183, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana took control of Mexico as a dictator. Shortly after, Texas declared independence from Mexico. The first major battle of this event was the Battle of the Alamo. Although Mexico was ultimately victorious in this battle, it was a major turning point of the revolution.
Texas Revolution
A key political figure in the creation of the state of Texas. He led Texan forces against general Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was elected the first president of the Republic of Texas in 1836.
Sam Houston
A frontiersman, legendary folk hero and three time Congressman. He fought in the War of 1812 and died at the Alamo in the Texas Revolution.
Davy Crockett
The first major battle of the Texas Revolution Santa Anna’s forces surrounded the Alamo killing Tejano and American forces inside. Although Mexico was ultimately victorious in this battle, it was a major turning point of the revolution and led many Americans to join the Texan Army.
Battle of Alamo
The 11th president of the United States from 1845 to 1849, the last strong president until the Civil War. He was called the “Dark Horse Candidate” because he intended to run for Vice President but was nominated as president at the convention. He ran against Henry Clay and won. He was also the president of Manifest Destiny.
James K. Polk
James K. Polk knew that the Mexican government needed cash. He offered money to settle the claim for the Rio Grande Border. He also offered to purchase California and the rest of New Mexico. Mexico declined this offer because they didn’t want to give more land to the U.S. American and Mexican forces fought over the Texas border. After a big defeat for Mexico, the Mexican Capital was in America’s hands.
Mexican-American War
An American military war hero best known as the 12th president of the United States. He was sent by President Polk to the Texas border with Mexico to settle disputes over the location of the border. He led American forces in the Mexican-American War.
Zachary Taylor
Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded a lot of territory to the U.S. This territory included present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In return, the U.S. paid $18 million to Mexico. California was acquired after California declared its independence from Mexico in the Bear Flag Revolution.
Mexican Cession
An agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico for a portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. This provided the land necessary for a southern trans-continental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War.
Gadsden Purchase
A plan that would ban all slavery in any territory that might become part of the United States. Although this plan didn’t pass, it scared the South greatly.
Wilmot Proviso
In 1848, James Marshall found a gold nugget while building a saw mill on John Sutter land. In the span of 2 years, the population of California grew from 10,000 to 100,000. There were two main effects of this effect: California became very diverse because people came from all over the world to obtain wealth and new ways to travel were created. Chinese immigrants
California Gold Rush
Owned the land where the first gold nugget was found in California. He tried to keep it a secret, but the news spread fast.
John Sutter
A nickname given to people who came to California in search of gold after the year 1849 when the biggest influx of miners arrived.
Forty niners
A railway that connected the existing eastern train routes on the Missouri all the way to the Pacific seaboard at San Francisco Bay. This allowed for new commerce, trade, and for people to move about the country quicker.
Transcontinental Railroad
Henry Clay’s second compromise. It made Washington DC no longer trade slaves, California was admitted as a free state, harsher Fugitive Slave Act, and all future states were to decide on the allowance of slavery based on popular sovereignty.
Compromise of 1850
A very controversial and inhumane law over the issue of slavery. This law, in essence, allowed people to be pursued into free territory and brought back into a slave territory. The system was corrupt and often times people were brought into the institution of slavery even if they had never been a part of it prior.
Fugitive Slave Act`
A U.S. politician who served in Congress and as secretary of state. He authorized the American System. He is known as the “Great Compromiser”
Henry Clay
A daughter of an abolitionist minister met many, many people that had escaped from the horrors of slavery. After the Fugitive Slave Act, she wrote the famous book Uncle Tom’s Cabin which chronicles the horrors and injustice of slavery.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
