Unit 4, Chapter 11: Imperial Ambitions, 1820-1848

Slave society

A society in which the institution of slavery affects all aspects of life.

Republican aristocracy

The Old South gentry that built impressive mansions, adopted the manners and values of the English landed gentry, and feared federal government interference with their slave property.

Alamo

The 1836 defeat by the Mexican army of the Texan garrison defending the Alamo in San Antonio. Newspapers urged Americans to "Remember the Alamo," and American adventurers, lured by offers of land grants, flocked to Texas to join the rebel forces.

Secret ballot

Form of voting that allows the voter to enter a choice in privacy without having to submit a recognizable ballot or to voice the choice out loud to others.

Gullah dialect

A Creole language that combined words from English and a variety of African languages in an African grammatical structure. Though it remained widespread in the South Carolina and Georgia lowcountry throughout the nineteenth century and is still spoken in a modified form today, Gullah did not take root in the Cotton South, where lowcountry slaves were far outnumbered.

Manifest Destiny

A term coined by John L. O'Sullivan in 1845 to express the idea that Euro-Americans were fated by God to settle the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Oregon Trail

An emigrant route that originally led from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, a distance of some 2,000 miles. Alternate routes included the California Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Bozeman Trail. Together they conveyed several hundred thousand migrants to the Far West in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s.

Californios

The elite Mexican ranchers in the province of California.

"Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"

Democratic candidate Governor James K. Polk's slogan in the election of 1844 calling for American sovereignty over the entire Oregon Country, which stretched from California to Russian-occupied Alaska and at the time was shared with Great Britain.

Bear Flag Republic

A short-lived republic created in California by American emigrants to sponsor a rebellion against Mexican authority in 1846. The army of the Bear Flag Republic was quickly absorbed into the California Battalion of the U.S. Army under the command of John C. Frémont.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Mexican General and President who tried to crush the Texas revolt and who lost battles to Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War (1795-1876)

James K. Polk

Elected President in March 1845. He wanted to settle The Oregon Boundary dispute with Britain. He wanted to aquire California and wanted to incorperate Texas into the union.

Zachary Taylor

(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election. Surprisingly did not address the issue of slavery at all on his platform. He died during his term and his Vice President was Millard Fillmore.