Manifest Destiny

Missouri Compromise

Admitted Maine to the US as a free state along with Missouri as a slave state in 1819, thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South in the Senate.

Compromise of 1850

Agreement that allowed California in as a free state included a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law and banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing Popular Sovereignty and stoking national tensions over slavery, and contributing to a series of armed conflicts known as "Bleeding Kansas"

The Alamo

Fort/mission in Texas that was the site of an attack by Spanish forces on rebelling settlers.

Transcendentalism

Idealistic philosophical and social movement which developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism.

Gold Rush

Began after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill outside Sacramento in 1848 and inspired thousands to head west.

49ers

Nickname given to gold prospectors who headed to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush.

Homestead Act

Law passed by Lincoln in 1862 that gave out free land in the Midwest to settlers.

Manifest Destiny

The term for the belief that began in the 1800's that the US should span from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.