Apush Territoral Expansion

● What is Manifest Destiny?

• 19th century belief, US destined to expand across North America - ideology that fueled westward expansion  - led to (Mexican American War, removal of natives)

● How did expansionism lead to a rise of tension/sectionalism within the US?

• Increased questions/debates on if slavery would be in the new territories, north thought south wanted expansion only for increasing slavery.

● What event was considered the start to the question above?

• Missouri Compromise/Mexican American War (unsure)

● reasons for Moses Austin and his settlement of Texas

• for his own financial gain after becoming bankrupt, and to establish the first Anglo-American colony under Spanish permission (Spain wanted people to act as buffer against American & to strengthen its claim).

● Why did Texas not immediately join the US after its independence?

• US had conflicts on slave/free states & on if Texas would be one + fear war with Mexico

● What does the Free Soil Party believe?

• Northerners who opposed slavery and wanted to prevent the extension of slavery, Abraham Lincoln

● Dred Scott decision

• RESULTS: Dred Scott v. Sandford resulted in court deciding that Scott is not free, African Americans aren’t citizens, property rights (slaves = property), Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional

o parts of the decision

• Dred Scott: Missouri slave who was taken into free states by owner, owner dies while they are in free states

• Scott argues that he should be free because he was living on free lands

● Uncle Tom’s Cabin- author, themes, impact

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by old white lady who experienced the true horrors of slavery

• Themes included violence and slavery, showed the truth of slavery 

• IMPACT: The book grew extremely famous, especially in the North. It showed them what slavery actually is and how horrible it was. It led to a rise in abolitionism.

● Wilmot Proviso

• David Wilmot proposed slavery should be banned in all new territories gained from Mexico, which was deeply opposed by Southerners.

• The debate following the rejection of the Wilmot Proviso sparked deep divisions, leading to Civil War

● Antebellum Reform

• Education Movement - The desire to spread education further, educate society and women

• Women’s Rights Movement - Gender equality for women, Declaration of Sentiments and Seneca Falls Convention

• Abolitionism: aimed and end slavery and promote racial equality through tactics like the underground railroad and moral suasion 

• Temperance: Focused on reducing alcohol consumption, which was seen as a source of social problems like poverty and domestic violence 

• Prison and Asylum Reform: sought to improve inhumane conditions in prisons and create state-supported mental hospitals with Dorothea Dix being a prominent leader 

• Labor Reform: 

o causes - include 2nd Great Awakening

• 2nd Great Awakening - Instilled a sense of moral responsibility and desire to perfect society

• Market Revolution - Social and economic upheaval, boom in industrialization, led to new problems like poverty and urbanization

• Changing social hierarchies and a sense of democratic individualism 

o Thoreau - transcendentalism 

• Philosophical and literary movement that emphasized the importance of intuition, individualism, and spiritual connection to nature

• Believed that humans were fundamentally good but corrupted by society, therefore should strive to be independent

● 1860 election

•  Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell.

• electoral split between Northern and Southern Democrats was emblematic of the severe sectional split, particularly over slavery

● John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry

• Brown and 21 men seized the federal armory and arsenal believing they could arm enslaved people to fight for their freedom 

• Scared the Southerners because they thought North was about to take physical action against slavery (Give slaves weapons and start fighting) They’re attempting to arm the slaves

• The raid and its aftermath significantly deepened the sectional divide in the U.S. 

Southerners saw Brown as a fanatic and felt their fears of slave rebellions were justified leading to increased paranoia and resistance to abolitionist movements 

Abolitionists in the North viewed Brown as a martyr for the anti slavery cause 

● why admission of California into the United States was a divisive national issue

• After the war and discovery of gold, California wanted to apply to the union as a free state. This led to a national division because of slavery debate

● result of the gold rush

• Influx of immigrants looking for opportunities in California led to conflict and anti-immigrant sentiments

• Absence of law and protection to large numbers of wicked people (Not enough laws to protect the people)

• Native Americans expressed bitterness towards new white settlers after losing land, political importance, rights, and customs

● Abraham Lincoln–Stephen Douglas debates- viewpoints of Lincoln on slavery

• Both applied for state congress, Douglas won over Lincoln but led to Lincoln becoming a national political figure

• Lincoln attacked Stephen Douglas’s indifference on slavery

• Lincoln not abolitionist but didn’t want slavery to expand

• “A House Divided” speech: Either 100% slavery or 100% freedom

● reasons for Mexican American War

• Started due to the U.S. expansionism

• Annexation of Texas and President Polk’s desire to acquire California and the Southwest

• Mexican unwillingness to recognize Texas independence

• The desire to Texans for statehood 

• American desire for westward expansion  

● Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Ended the Mexican American War

• Resulted in the United States acquiring over 525,000 square miles of Mexican territory 

• Present-day California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming 

• The treaty expanded the U.S. and led to the California Gold Rush

● Compromise of 1850

• Series of 5 bills passed to temporarily settle disputes over slavery and Civil war 

• Concerning the status territories gained from the Mexican-American War 

● Fugitive Slave Act

• In the Constitution that stated runaway slaves must be returned to their owners. If a Northerner saw a slave, they must return them to the South.

● Kansas Nebraska Act

• Allowed settlers to decide whether to permit slavery through popular sovereignty 

• Led to Bleeding Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces

● popular sovereignty

• Popular sovereignty, the idea that settlers of a territory should vote on whether to allow slavery

• intended to solve sectionalism, but made it worse

• leading to violence like "Bleeding Kansas" and increasing tensions

● critics of territorial expansion

• Northerners opposed b/c they thought it was to expand slavery to the new territories

SAQ topics: various compromises 

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

• Made process for northwest territories in governing/becoming a state

• Statehood process: The ordinance set a three-step plan for territories to apply for statehood. A territory could organize a local government with 5,000 free adult males and then become a state after reaching a population of 60,000.

• No slavery in Northwest Territories

• Gave rights to settlers

• For Lincoln, this 1787 ordinance was a constitutional basis for opposing the spread of slavery

Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Maintained the balance between slave and free states ( allows Missouri to enter as slave maine as free)

• Drew line across Louisiana purchase territory 36-30 latitude

Acquisition of Mexican territory (1848)

• refers to the territorial cession to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War

• ceded approximately 55% of its territory

• California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming

• $15 million and the assumption of Mexican debts to U.S. citizens, granted citizenship to Mexicans in ceded regions

Kansas Nebraska Act 

• Kansas and Nebraska wanted to repeal Missouri Compromise, which said they were free states b/c above Louisiana Territory cutoff, to become slave states

• They argued popular sovereignty to allow them to become slave states

• Created republican party and led to further sectionalism because reopened discussion of slavery