Studied by 9 people
Manifest Destiny
Concept popularized in the 1840s that the US's God-given mission was to expand westward
Mexican-American War
A war between Mexico and the United States over Texas gave the US the northern part of Texas and New Mexico and California
Compromise of 1850
This measure allowed California to join the Union as a free state but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, temporarily easing North-South tensions
Fugitive Slave Act
Commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he/she was not
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Compromise that allowed Kansas and Nebraska settlers to vote on joining the Union as free or slave states
Dred Scott case
Critical Supreme Court ruling that slaves were property and could not sue in court
1836
Texas territory rebels against Mexico; independent republic of Texas created
1841
Beginning of expansion into Oregon territory
1844
James K. Polk elected president
1845
Texas becomes a state of the United States
1846
Oregon Treaty with Britain gives most of Oregon to United States
1846
War with Mexico begins
1846
Wilmot Proviso passed
1
Zachary Taylor elected president
1848
Formation of Free-Soil party
1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1848
Gold discovered in California; beginning of California Gold Rush
1850
Passage of Compromise
1852
Franklin Pierce elected president
1852
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published
1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
1854
Formation of the Republican party
1856
Democrat James Buchanan elected president
1857
Dred Scott decision announced
1858
Lincoln-Douglas debates
1858
Freeport Doctrine issued by Stephen Douglas
1859
Harpers Ferry raid of John Brown
1860
Abraham Lincoln elected president
1860
South Carolina secedes from the Union (December)
1821
Mexico gained independence from Spain, but political instability ensued.
Catholicism
Mexican officials encouraged American settlers to become Mexican citizens and convert to __________ in exchange for large land grants.
1836
There were 30,000 American settlers in Texas.
Texan independence
On March 2, 1836, the rebels declared ________, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna led an army into Texas.
General Antonio López de Santa Anna
On March 2, 1836, the rebels declared Texan independence, and ___________ led an army into Texas.
March 2, 1836
Texan independence
March 6
De Santa Anna’s troops defeated a 180-250-man Alamo garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.
April 21
Houston’s army surprised and routed Santa Anna’s command at San Jacinto.
Lone Star Republic
Sam Houston led the ___________ after Texas declared independence. Mexico, which refused to recognize Texas's independence, would also clash with Texas's admission to the Union.
Martin Van Buren
President Andrew Jackson sympathized with the Texans, but he didn't want to hurt his protégé __________'s chances in the fall election.
John C. Calhoun
The American annexation of Texas remained a political nonstarter until 1844. President John Tyler and his Southern secretary of state, _________, negotiated a treaty to admit Texas as a slave state.
James K. Polk
He was the first American dark horse to win a major party nomination after being nominated at the Democratic convention. He was a protégé of Andrew Jackson and served as Speaker of the House and Tennessee governor. He wanted Texas and Oregon Territory annexed.
Walker Tariff
Polk signed the 1846 _____, which lowered import tariffs, angering Northern manufacturers.
James Birney
In 1844, the new anti-slavery Liberty party nominated _________ for president. The Liberty party's presence on the ballot likely cost Clay New York's electoral votes and the election, despite its low support.
March 1845
John Tyler, the outgoing president, used an unusual joint resolution of Congress to annex Texas before Polk's inauguration in __________.
Rio Grande River
Polk wanted to achieve his expansionist goals with Mexico through diplomacy. He wanted the Mexicans to accept the ___________ as Texas' southern border instead of the Nueces River.
Pacific Ocean
Polk wanted San Francisco's great harbor and all of California Territory for _______ trade.
John Slidell
In October 1845, Polk sent diplomat _____ to Mexico with a proposal to buy the territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers for $5 million, California for $25 million, and Mexican lands between Texas and California for $5 million.
May 13, 1846
The United States declared war against Mexico
July 4, 1846
Bear Flag Republic
Bear Flag Republic
On July 4, 1846, the rebels declared California independent as the _________, backed by a small army under John C. Fremont.
March 8, 1847
Scott oversaw the first major amphibious landing in American military history.
September 13, 1847
Scott's army took Mexico City. Though Mexican partisans harassed American troops, this ended the war.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
On February 2, 1848, Mexico signed the __________, ending the Mexican War.
February 2, 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
$15 million
The US paid Mexico __________ for Texas north of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California.
David Wilmot
In 1846, Pennsylvania Democratic representative _________ sparked a political uproar. He added a slavery ban to a military appropriations bill.
John C. Calhoun
________ persuasively argued that an institution legal in many American states could not be prohibited in federal territories shared by all states.
Missouri
President Polk tried to compromise by extending the __________ Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.
General Zachary Taylor
In 1848, the Whigs nominated __________ to repeat their war hero strategy.
Lewis Cass
In 1848, The Democrats nominated Michigan senator __________ because they had no famous general.
Free-Soil
Liberty party members and dissident Whigs and Democrats formed the _________ party to oppose western slavery.
Gold Rush
In January 1848, gold was discovered in California. Over 80,000 "forty-niners" arrived in California during the "__________" within a year.
John C. Calhoun
He spoke for many Southerners when he declared, “I trust we shall persist in our resistance until restoration of all our rights or disunion, one or the other, is the consequence.”
Henry Clay
The Great Pacificator
Compromise of 1850
The _________ granted California statehood, allowed New Mexico and Utah residents to choose slavery, ended slave trading in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.
Fugitive Slave Act
The Compromise of 1850 granted California statehood, allowed New Mexico and Utah residents to choose slavery, ended slave trading in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the _________.
Stephen Douglas
Following Taylor’s unexpected death, his successor Millard Fillmore expressed support for the compromise. Senator __________, an Illinois Democrat, led the compromise through Congress with moderate Southern Whigs and Northern Democrats.
black people
In the North, the Fugitive Slave Act expanded the federal government's role in capturing runaway slaves. The new federal system discriminated against ________ by denying escaped slaves due process.
Fugitive Slave Act
Thisinflamed Northern abolitionist sentiment, hurting Southern interests.
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
A novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that powerfully depicted slavery's evils.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Author
General Winfield Scott
In the election of 1852, The Whigs nominated yet another war hero, ___________.
Franklin Pierce
In the election of 1852, The Democrats turned to another dark horse candidate, __________.
James K. Polk
Pierce reverted to the expansionist policies of __________.
Gadsden Purchase
Pierce’s administration negotiated the ___________ from Mexico to help build a transcontinental railroad through the South.
Know-Nothing Party
Following its failure in 1852, the Whig Party fell apart. Many Whigs joined the anti-immigrant American or _________.
Stephen A. Douglas
He reignited sectional conflict because of his dream of running a transcontinental railroad from Chicago to California.
1854
President Pierce signed Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act into law.
1854-1859
Bleeding Kansas
James Buchanan
He won the 1856 Presidential Election.
John Brown
In retaliation, the fiercely antislavery fanatic ________ led a gang that butchered five proslavery settlers.
Dred Scott
He was a slave in Missouri who went to court and sued for his freedom.
African Americans
In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott was still a slave. The Court majority declared **__________**inherently inferior and unfit for citizenship.
Lecompton Constitution
Buchanan urged Congress to recognize Kansas as a slave state despite the illegality of the ___________ and a growing majority of free-soil settlers.
Abraham Lincoln
In 1858, Stephen A. Douglas ran for reelection to the Senate. He was opposed by _______, the candidate of the Republican party.
Freeport Doctrine
At the Freeport, Illinois debate, Lincoln asked Douglas how he could continue to promote popular sovereignty after Dred Scott. Douglas replied with what came to be known as the ______.
John Brown
He returned to the East to lead a slave uprising. He persuaded a few wealthy Northern abolitionists to fund his scheme.
Harpers Ferry
On October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 followers attacked the federal arsenal at __________, Virginia. He hoped to use the rifles that he captured there to arm slaves.
Colonel Robert E. Lee
Brown and his men were quickly surrounded and then captured by federal troops led by ____________.
Henry David Thoreau
He called Brown “the bravest and most human man in all the country.”
December 20, 1860
South Carolina led the way in seceding from the Union on ________.
Confederate States of America
In February 1861, representatives from the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama. They formed the ___________.
Jefferson Davis
He was elected Confederate president at Montgomery.
Note 
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