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
What was the Dred Scott Decision (1857)?
-Established that Dred Scott was a slave and not a citizen and had no right to sue in a federal court
-Congress cannot deprive citizens of their property (and slaves were property)
What did the Republican Party believe in (born in 1854)?
Argued that slavery should not be able to spread into new territories
How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act affect the Whig Party?
It divided and weakened it
How was the Democratic Party divided by the slavery question?
Northern Democrats:
-Wanted slavery question answered by popular sovereignity
Southern Democrats:
-Wanted slavery in new territories protected by federal slave code
When did South Carolina secede?
December, 1860
Why did states secede from the Union during this time?
To protect the institution of slavery
What were the advantages the South had in the Civil War?
-Fought a defensive war
-More experienced military leaders (Lee and Jackson)
What were the advantages the North had in the Civil War?
-4x population
-Had a robust navy
-Had economic advantage (control of banks, manufacturing, and railroads)
-Central government
How did both sides of the Civil War raise money for it?
North: modernizing productive capacities
South: tariffs and taxes on exports
What was the New York City Draft Riots (1863)?
Working class rebelling against the draft exemption of the rich
What was the Union’s strategy of the Anaconda Plan?
Block Southern ports and control the Mississippi River, which would split the Confederacy in half
What did the Southern strategy rely on?
Foreign help, especially from Britain and France
What was the Emancipation Proclamation (1862)?
Lincoln freed enslaved peoples in the Confederacy
What were the Border States?
Slave states part of the Union
How did the Emancipation Proclamation change the scope of the war?
It wasn’t just about protecting the Union; it was about eradicating slavery
How was the Emancipation Proclamation successful?
-Prompted enslaved workers in Confederacy to escape plantations and run to safety of Union line
-Closed door on British involvement
How was the Battle of Vicksburg significant?
Granted the Union control of the Mississippi
How was the Gettsburg Addess significant?
-Unify the nation
-Portray the struggle against slavery as the fulfillment of America’s founded democratic ideals
What was Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan?
Established a minimum test of political loyalty for southern states to return to the Union
What were Black Codes?
Restricted the freedom of southern black folks
What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
Helped newly emancipated people get back on their feet
What was the Civil Rights Act of 1866?
Protected the citizenship of black folks and gave them equal protection under the laws
What did the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 do?
-Divided the South and put them under military occupation
-Increased requirement for the states to rejoin the Union
What did the Tenure Act of 1867 do?
Made it illegal for a president to fire a member of his cabinet without congressional approval
What was sharecropping?
Land owners provided seed and farm supplies to the worker in exchange for a share of the harvest
What did the Ku Klux Klan do?
Among other disgusting things, facilitate the lynching of freedpeoples
What was the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction?
-Democrats agreed to concede election to Hayes
-Republicans removed federal troops from the South
