Mid-19th Century U.S. History: Immigration, Expansion, Gold Rush, and War

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering mid-19th-century immigration (Chinese, Irish, German), the California Gold Rush, Oregon settlement, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican-American War.

Taiping Rebellion

A major civil war in China, serving as a severe push factor for Chinese emigration.

Gum Shan ("Gold Mountain")

The name given to California by Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush, news of which reached the Pearl River Delta around Christmas Day in 1848.

Central Pacific Railroad

The railroad company that employed approximately $12,000$ Chinese laborers to construct the western leg of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Anti-Coolie Acts

Discriminatory laws passed in California and Washington D.C. driven by xenophobic hostility and economic scapegoating of Chinese workers.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Federal legislation passed in 1882 that halted Chinese labor immigration to the United States following decades of anti-Chinese political rhetoric and labor disputes.

Great Potato Famine

An agricultural crisis in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 caused by potato blight, resulting in emigration of over $2.7\text{ million}$ Irish people.

Five Points

A notorious slum district in New York City that became a primary staging ground for Irish immigrant mutual aid societies, parish networks, and Democratic Party political machines.

Philadelphia Bible Riots

Violent 1844 anti-Catholic nativist riots in Philadelphia that predated the peak of the Great Potato Famine migration wave.

Know-Nothing Party

A mid-19th-century nativist political party formed in response to heavy Irish and German immigration, advocating anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic policies.

Tammany Hall

The political machine of the New York City Democratic Party that was heavily influenced and eventually dominated by assimilated Irish immigrants.

Forty-Eighters

German liberal intellectuals, dissidents, and reformers who fled to the United States after the failed European revolutions of 1848.

Homestead Act of 1862

A federal law offering $160\text{ acres}$ of public land to settlers who agreed to live on and cultivate it for at least $5\text{ years}$, encouraging German settlement in the Midwest.

Sutter's Mill

The sawmill in California where James Wilson Marshall discovered gold on January 24, 1848, initiating the California Gold Rush.

Convention of 1818

A treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain establishing the 49th parallel boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains and permitting joint occupation of the Oregon Country.

54-40 or Fight!

The popular 1844 Democratic campaign slogan asserting U.S. claims to the entire Oregon Territory up to latitude $54^\circ 40'$ North.

Donation Land Claim Act of 1850

A law that granted $640\text{ acres}$ of land in Oregon Territory to married couples who agreed to reside on and cultivate the land for $4\text{ years}$.

Independence, Missouri

The major outfitting hub along the Missouri River where wagon trains gathered to begin the overland journey along the Oregon Trail.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine asserting that U.S. expansion across the American continent was inevitable, divinely ordained, and intended to spread Protestant Christianity and Jacksonian democracy.

Adams-Onís Treaty

An 1819 agreement in which Spain ceded Florida to the U.S., defined the Sabine River as the eastern border of Texas, and relinquished Spanish claims to Oregon.

Stephen F. Austin

An American empresario granted land by the Mexican government to lead the initial organized settlement of Anglo-American families into Texas.

Battle of San Jacinto

An April 21, 1836 victory by Texian forces under Sam Houston that resulted in the capture of Mexican President Santa Anna and led to the Treaty of Velasco.

Slidell Mission

A pre-war diplomatic mission sent by President Polk offering up to $30 million to Mexico to resolve the Texas border dispute and purchase California and New Mexico.

Thornton Affair

An April 25, 1846 engagement near the Rio Grande where Mexican troops attacked a U.S. patrol under Captain Seth Thornton, killing $16$ soldiers and leading to President Polk's request for war.

Wilmot Proviso

An 1846 proposed amendment seeking to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War.

Battle of Buena Vista

A February 1847 battle where General Zachary Taylor's outnumbered U.S. forces successfully repulsed General Santa Anna's attack in northern Mexico.

Bear Flag Revolt

An 1846 uprising in Sonoma in which American settlers, supported by John C. Frémont, declared California an independent republic from Mexico.

General Winfield Scott

The U.S. general who commanded the 1847 amphibious landing at Veracruz and marched inland to capture Mexico City, effectively ending major combat in the war.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The February 2, 1848 peace treaty ending the Mexican-American War, in which Mexico ceded $525,000\text{ square miles}$ ($55\%$ of its territory) to the U.S. for $15 million and the assumption of $3.25 million in debts.