AP US History Period 5 Terms & Significance

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Gold Rush

migration to California after gold discovery (s: spurred westward expansion and population growth)

John Tyler

10th president of United States; annexed Texas (s: expanded U.S. territory; clashed with Whigs)

“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight”

Polk’s slogan over Oregon, border dispute (s: reflected Manifest Destiny; ended with compromise at 49th parallel)

James K. Polk

expansionist president (1845-49). (s: oversaw Mexican war and westward expansion)

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

agreement with Britain settling the Maine-Canada border dispute (s: improved Anglo-American relations and secured northern boundaries)

Zachary Taylor

U.S. general and later president who became famous for victories in the Mexican-American war. (s: military fame boosted national pride and helped him win the presidency)

Bear Flag Republic

short-lived independence movement in California before U.S. annexation (s: paved the way for California’s admission as a U.S. state)

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

ended the Mexican-American war and ceded vast lands to the U.S. (s: added present-day California, Arizona, and New Mexico)

Wilmot Proviso

proposal to ban slavery in territory gained from Mexico (s: deepened the national debate over the expansion of slavery)

Gadsden Purchase

small land purchase from Mexico for building a southern railroad route (s: completed the continental U.S. boundaries)

Free-Soil Party

political party opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories (s: early forecomer to the Republican Party)

Popular soverignty

idea that settlers in a territory should decide on slavery by vote (s: led to violent conflict in Kansas and increased sectional division)

Compromise of 1850

series of laws admitting California as free (s: temporarily reduced tensions between North and South)

Panic of 1857

economic downturn hitting the North hardest (s: increased Southern confidence in “King Cotton”)

Irish Immigration

mass migration due to famine (s: boosted urban labor but caused nativist backlash)

Tammany Hall

democratic political machine in NYC (s: symbol of urban corruption and immigrant power)

Fugitive Slave Laws

required return of runaway slaves (s: angered abolitionists and increased Northern resistance)

Harriet Tubman

former slave and Underground Railroad leader (s: helped hundreds escape slavery)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel (s: increased Northern opposition to slavery)

“Bleeding Kansas”

violent clashes over slavery in Kansas (s: showed failure of popular sovereignty)

Lecompton Constitution

pro-slavery Kansas Constitution (s: rejected by Congress; deepened divisions)

Kansas-Nebraska Act

allowed popular sovereignty; repealed Missouri Compromise (s: led to violence and birth of Republican Party)

Know-Nothing Party

nativist party opposing immigrants (s: reflected growing anti-immigrant sentiment)

Republican Party

formed to oppose slavery’s expansion (s: became dominant Northern political party)

Dred Scott v. Sandford

declared slaves not citizens (s: invalidated Missouri Compromise; angered North)

House-divided speech

Lincoln’s warning that U.S. couldn’t stay half-slave, half-free (s: strengthened his moral stance on slavery)

Sumner-Brooks incident

Senator Sumner beaten for anti-slavery speech (s: symbolized extreme sectional violence)

John Brown

radical abolitionist who led Harper’s Ferry raid (s: martyr to abolitionists; heightened Southern fear)

Fort Sumter

first shots of Civil War (s: began the conflict between Union and Confederacy)

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy (s: led the South during the Civil War)

Bull Run

first major Civil War battle (s: showed war would be long and bloody)

Anaconda Plan

Union’s blockade strategy to strangle the South (s: key to Union victory)

Robert E. Lee

Confederate general (s: brilliant strategist; symbol of Southern resistance)

Antietam

bloodiest single-day battle (s: allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation)

Gettysburg

turning point of the war (s: major Union victory; Confederacy began to decline)