Unit 5 Flashcards
What is Manifest Destiny?
-To possess the whole continent from sea to shining sea
-Providence supports Manifest Destiny
Why were Americans interested in westward expansion?
-Americans needed more access to mineral and natural resources (think California Gold Rush prompted by the discovery of gold in the region 1848)
-More economic and homestead opportunities
-Religious refuge (think Mormons because of their polygamy)
Which president was a big believer in Manifest Destiny?
James K. Polk
What regions was President Polk looking to add to the nation?
Texas and Oregon
In 1829, what requirements did the Mexican government impose on people living in their borders?
-Convert to Roman Catholicism
-Outlawed slavery
Who led the fight for Texas to be independent from Mexico?
Sam Houston
Why did Jackston and Van Buren hesitant to grant Texas statehood?
Because it could cause a war with Mexico, which didn’t recognize Texas’ independence
What did Polk do to get Oregon?
Made a treaty with Britain in which the Oregon Territory was divided at the 49th parallel
What were the causes of the Mexican-American War?
-Texas wanted to be annexed by the United States
-Mexico wasn’t willing to negotiate with Slidell on selling more Mexican land and determining the southern border of Texas
What were the effects of the Mexican American War/provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
-Established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas
-Outlined the Mexican Cession (Mexico ceded California and New Mexico to the U.S.)
What was the Wilmot Proviso (1846)?
Proposed that any lands gained from victory in the Mexican-War would be off limits for the expansion of slavery
What was the idea of free soil?
The acquirement of additional land for homesteaders to settle on without competition from the system of slavery;
More economic than a moral issue
How did the South view slavery?
As a consitutional right;
Had been decided in the Missouri Compromise
What did the Free Soil Movement mean?
(Composed of Northern Democrats and Whigs)
Wanted new territories acquired to be the dominion of free laborers
How was the Free Soil Movement divided?
-People who just wanted new lands to be lands of white opportunity
-Abolitionists who wanted slavery gone
What is popular sovereignty?
Argued that the people living in each territory should decide the slavery question for themselves
What was the Compromise of 1850?
-Mexican Cession divided into Utah and New Mexico territories and would practices popular sovereignty
-California, a free state
-Slave trade, no no in Washington D.C.
-Stricter Fugitive Slave Law
What was the response the Irish and German immigrants coming in before the Civil War?
Anti-Catholic nativists movement
What was the Know-Nothing Party?
Concerned with limiting immigrants’ cultural and political influence
Why did the North generally oppose slavery?
It was largely economic grounds;
Job competition would increase for free wage laborers when a new state is added
What was the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”?
Depicted the dehumanization and brutality of slavery in graphic detail
What was the Underground Railroad?
A series of trails and safehouses through which enslaved people in the South could be free in the North
What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)?
Overturned the Compromise of 1820 by having sections above the line use popular sovereingty to decide their status
What was Bleeding Kansas?
In which people fled to Kansas and engaged in violence over the slavery question
