Unit 3: Westward Expansion (Early 1800s-1890s)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering U.S. History Unit 3: Westward Expansion (Early 1800s-1890s), including key treaties, events, legislative acts, and historical figures.

Westward Expansion

The historical movement of the United States expanding its territory and population across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the 19th century.

Manifest Destiny

The belief articulated by John L. O'Sullivan in the God-given mission and right of the United States to overspread, possess the entire continent, and transition the world to democracy and self-government.

John L. O'Sullivan

A popular 19th-century editor and columnist who coined the term 'manifest destiny' in his 1845 writing 'The True Title' to justify American claims to Oregon and continental expansion.

"American Progress"

Painting by John Gast that visually personifies the United States bringing light, education, technology, and civilization westward as Native Americans and wildlife retreat.

Thomas Jefferson

The third U.S. President who doubled the size of the nation by negotiating the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

A major land purchase made from France under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 that doubled the territory of the United States.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

A federal exploration mission commissioned to explore, map, and document the newly acquired territory of the Louisiana Purchase and locate a route to the Pacific Ocean.

Sacagawea

A Native American woman who assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition by serving as an indispensable guide and interpreter.

James Madison

The U.S. President who led the nation during the conflict with Great Britain known as the War of 1812.

Tecumseh & the Shawnee Natives

A Shawnee leader and tribe who formed a Native American confederacy in the early 1810s to resist American westward territorial expansion.

Battle of Tippecanoe

An 1811 military engagement between U.S. forces and members of Tecumseh's Shawnee confederacy, intensifying frontier tensions prior to the War of 1812.

War of 1812 (1812–1815)

A military conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over maritime conflicts and British support for Native American resistance on the western frontier.

Treaty of Ghent

Officially ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain.

James Monroe

The fifth U.S. President whose administration oversaw the acquisition of Florida and the establishment of a foundational foreign policy doctrine warning European empires against colonization.

American System

An economic plan introduced after the War of 1812 aimed at strengthening the U.S. economy and national infrastructure through protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements.

Adams-Onís Treaty (1819)

An agreement signed in 1819 between the United States and Spain that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the border with Spanish North America.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

A congressional agreement that maintained the sectional balance between free and slave states by admitting Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and banning slavery in the Louisiana territory north of latitude 36°30'.

Monroe Doctrine

A key 1823 foreign policy statement by President James Monroe warning European powers that the Western Hemisphere was closed to future European colonization or intervention.

Market Revolution (1815–1840s)

A period characterized by rapid expansion in transportation, industrialization, and trade networks, fundamentally transforming the economic life of the country.

Andrew Jackson

The seventh U.S. President known as the champion of the 'Common Man,' who notably expanded executive power, opposed the National Bank, and implemented federal Indian removal.

King Andrew the First

A famous 19th-century political cartoon depicting Andrew Jackson in royal robes trampling the U.S. Constitution and internal improvements, criticizing his expansive use of executive vetoes.

Jacksonian Democracy

A 19th-century political movement led by Andrew Jackson that expanded voting rights and political participation for ordinary white male citizens while strengthening the power of the presidency.

Spoils System

The political practice popularized by Andrew Jackson of rewarding campaign supporters, friends, and party loyalists with government jobs and appointments.

Tariff of Abominations

An 1828 high protective tariff designed to support northern industry that provoked bitter southern opposition and initiated the Nullification Crisis during the Jacksonian Era.

Whig Party

An American political party founded in the 1830s to oppose Andrew Jackson and his policies, accusing him of acting like a monarch and abusing executive authority.

The Indian Removal Act (1830)

A controversial federal law signed by Andrew Jackson authorizing the forced relocation of Native American nations from their ancestral lands east of the Mississippi to designated lands in the west.

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

A landmark Supreme Court case where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was a distinct community occupying its own territory in which Georgia laws had no legal force.

The Trail of Tears (1831-1850)

The devastating series of forced marches of the Cherokee and other Native American nations from their ancestral homelands to western Indian Territory, resulting in mass casualties from exposure, disease, and starvation.

The Texas Revolution (1835-36)

A military rebellion by settlers in the Mexican province of Texas that successfully broke away from Mexico to establish the independent Republic of Texas.

The Alamo (1836)

A historic mission in San Antonio where Texan defenders were besieged and killed by the Mexican Army in 1836, serving as a famous rallying cry during the Texas Revolution.

The Annexation of Texas (1845)

The formal incorporation of the Republic of Texas as a U.S. state in 1845, which directly provoked border tensions and conflict with Mexico.

The Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

An armed conflict between the United States and Mexico triggered by border disputes following the annexation of Texas and U.S. desires for western lands.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

The 1848 peace treaty that concluded the Mexican-American War, setting the border at the Rio Grande and transferring massive northern Mexican lands to the United States.

Mexican Cession (1848)

The vast southwestern region ceded by Mexico to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of neighboring states.

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

An 1853 agreement in which the United States purchased a strip of land in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico to construct a southern transcontinental railroad route.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed amendment introduced during the Mexican-American War that sought to ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico, sparking intense national debate.

The Oregon Trail (1840s-1860s)

A 2,000-mile overland wagon route traveled by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers heading to the Pacific Northwest during the mid-19th century.

Oregon Country (1846)

A Pacific Northwest region whose joint occupation by the United States and Great Britain ended when the two nations agreed to divide the territory along the 49th parallel in 1846.

49th Parallel

The latitude line established by an 1846 treaty with Great Britain to define the northern boundary between U.S. Oregon territory and British Canada.

California Gold Rush (1848-1855)

A rapid mass migration of hundreds of thousands of prospectors and immigrants to California following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill.

Homestead Act (1862)

A federal law passed in 1862 granting 160 acres of public land in the West to settlers for a small fee, provided they lived on and farmed the land for five years.

Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

The contiguous railway line completed in 1869 that linked the eastern rail network with the Pacific coast, revolutionizing western settlement and national commerce.

The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Federal legislation passed in 1882 that banned the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States, reflecting rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the West.

American Indian Boarding Schools

Government- and church-administered institutions established to forcibly assimilate Native American children into white American culture by stripping away their native languages, customs, and identities.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

An 1876 military confrontation where allied Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces defeated Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry in Montana.

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

A Native American leader and his nation who led an extraordinary fighting retreat toward Canada in 1877 to resist forced removal by the U.S. Army to an Idaho reservation.

The Dawes Act (1887)

An 1887 federal law that sought to assimilate Native Americans by breaking up communal tribal lands into individual private allotments, leading to the loss of millions of acres of tribal land.

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

The tragic 1890 slaughter of approximately 300 Lakota men, women, and children by U.S. Army troops in South Dakota, widely considered the final major conflict of the Plains Indian Wars.