Making of America Flashcards
who were the 5 civilised tribes?
Cherokee, echota, choctaws, chicksaws, seminoles
what was Washington’s approach to the natives ?
he wanted to make them more civilised
what was an example of assimilation ?
tribes opening schools and dressing like white people
how did the creek and seminole tribes resist assimilation?
they went to war with the southern settlers
what resistance did the Native Americans put up between 1830 - 1837
the Cherokees started a 7 year war from 35-42 which ended when their leader was called for fake peace talks and then arrested
what was the treaty of greenville?
the treaty in which allowed the USA to take control of vast areas in the north west meaning even more white settlers moved there.
eventually these lands became know as the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama
what did Thomas Jefferson (3rd president) believe ?
he believed before he was president that the ideal democrat was a farmer who could easily provide for himself and depended on the right democratic decisions being made. Not someone who was struggling and could afford to vote for extreme ideas.
he set up the division of land in the north and south west. he divided the up into 640 acre sums that farmers could buy for 1-2 $ per acre.
what did ‘land speculators’ do ?
they bought up the cheap 640 acre sums of land from the government to sell at a higher price to the farmers in 1 acre increments (say they bought the 640 acres for 1200) they would sell 1 acre for 3$)
this played into the hands of the wealthy and in Illinois 500,000 acres was bought by just 68 men
this overall meant that farmers could not raise the money in time and had to go back east
give a reason for the rapid increase in slavery in the 1790s
- the cotton gin
this was a new machine that speeded up the cleaning and production of cotton by 50 times.
it meant plantation owners could now process cotton as fast as they picked it. more slaves were employed to pick cotton because the trade sky rocketed.
what was the Louisiana purchase ?
Thomas Jefferson sent 2 men to Napoleon in France to negotiate the purchase of the new Orleans land, however, there was much more on the table. Napoleon was in desperate need of funds for his wars and decided to sell the whole Louisiana territory back to the US for 15 million in 1803
this also vastly expanded cotton production and slavery expanding into these regions meant many more resources aswell as the Mississippi river.
what was the Missouri Comprimise
in 1819 a battle began over wether states from the Louisiana purchase would allow slavery or not.
the North and South were concerned that if there were more slave states than free, the slave states would have a bigger say in democracy and control the government through increased votes.
in 1820 the Missouri comprimise was issued:
- slavery was to be allowed in the state that became Missouri
- any new states that were to be created to the north and west would not allow slavery and any new ones to the south and east would allow slavery.
after this compromise new states were genrally added in pairs 1 non slave, 1 slave
what was the Indian Removal act?
Andrew Jackson was very unimpressed by the civilisation idea of Native Americans.
in 1830 Jackson persuaded congress to pass the Indian removal act. This declared that any Natives in the east were to move to lands further west granted to them by the US government. It was made clear that this was a voluntary act for Natives ,however, any disputes would be favoured towards white poeple.
what were the Seminole wars ?
the first Seminole war was held in 1816
- the second was when a small group of Seminoles signed the Indian removal act. however, not all tribal chiefs agreed to this as they believed this group did not speak for all the tribes. this meant there was a rejection of the treaty , there was conflict and the second war began. this war lasted from 1835-1842 and cost the USA 60 million
the Seminoles were finally victorious and their leader went for peace talks where he was captured and thrown in prison, where he alter died. This basically ended all Seminole resistance and they moved west.
what was the Lakota Sioux?
they were a tribe who followed the religion of the buffalo. they lived in temporary villages and went were the buffalo went.
Migration to the far west of Oregon and California
Many white settlers decided to move to the west to explore their territories and within 20 years the number of people who had migrated was up to 450,000.
they did this because:
- in the east the banks collapsed
- the migrants hoped to build better lives on rich farming soil
- people began to say it was a settlers destiny to settle in the whole of North America
