APUSH Unit 5 (1844–1877)

1. Manifest Destiny & Westward Expansion (1844–1850)

• Manifest Destiny – Belief that U.S. was destined to expand westward.

• Texas Annexation (1845) – U.S. annexed Texas, angering Mexico.

• Oregon Trail / Oregon Territory – Migration and boundary dispute with Britain (settled 1846).

• Mexican-American War (1846–1848) – Triggered by border disputes.

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) – Ended the war; U.S. gained Mexican Cession.

• Wilmot Proviso (1846) – Proposed ban on slavery in territory from Mexico (failed).

• California Gold Rush (1848–1849) – Led to rapid population growth.

2. Sectional Conflict Intensifies (1850–1860)

• Compromise of 1850 – California free state, Fugitive Slave Act strengthened.

• Fugitive Slave Act (1850) – Required return of runaway slaves; enraged North.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – Popular sovereignty in territories; repealed Missouri Compromise.

• Bleeding Kansas (1856) – Violent clashes over slavery in Kansas.

• Caning of Charles Sumner (1856) – Violent act on Senate floor.

• Republican Party formed (1854) – Anti-slavery, pro-modernization.

• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) – Supreme Court ruled enslaved people were not citizens.

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) – Debates over slavery expansion.

• John Brown’s Raid (1859) – Attempted slave revolt at Harpers Ferry.

3. The Civil War (1861–1865)

• Election of 1860 – Lincoln elected; leads to Southern secession.

• Secession of South Carolina (1860) – First state to leave Union.

• Confederate States of America (1861) – Southern states form their own nation.

• Fort Sumter (1861) – First shots of the Civil War.

• Border States – Slave states that stayed in the Union (e.g., Kentucky, Maryland).

• Anaconda Plan – Union strategy to blockade and divide the South.

• Emancipation Proclamation (1863) – Freed slaves in Confederate territory.

• Battle of Gettysburg (1863) – Turning point in the war.

• Gettysburg Address (1863) – Lincoln redefined war aims around equality and union.

• Sherman’s March to the Sea (1864) – Total war strategy.

• Appomattox Court House (1865) – Lee surrenders to Grant; war ends.

• 13th Amendment (1865) – Abolished slavery.

4. Reconstruction (1865–1877)

• Lincoln’s 10% Plan – Lenient approach to readmitting Southern states.

• Wade-Davis Bill – Radical Republican alternative (vetoed by Lincoln).

• Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) – Aid to freed people and poor whites in the South.

• Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan – Lenient toward former Confederates.

• Black Codes – Laws to restrict African Americans’ rights post-emancipation.

• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – Granted citizenship to African Americans.

• 14th Amendment (1868) – Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection.

• Reconstruction Acts (1867) – Divided South into military districts.

• 15th Amendment (1870) – Voting rights regardless of race.

• Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868) – Conflict with Radical Republicans.

• Carpetbaggers / Scalawags – Northern Republicans in the South / Southern white Republicans.

• Ku Klux Klan (1866) – White supremacist group resisting Reconstruction.

Compromise of 1877 – Ended Reconstruction; Hayes becomes president