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Thomas Jefferson is Inaugurated
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Marbury v. Madison
Established the principle of judicial review in the United States. American courts have the power to strike down laws, statutes, and some government actions that they find to violate the Constitution. -
Louisiana Purchase
The United States agrees to pay France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, which extends west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and comprises about 830,000 sq mi. -
Lewis and Clarks Expedition
Lewis and Clark, along with a Native American guide, Sacagawea, explored the newly expanded United States and reach the ocean in 1805. They documented their experiences. -
War of 1812
The U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion. Britain would not stop destroying the U.S. ships. -
Treaty of Ghent is signed
Ended the War of 1812 -
National Bank was developed
McCulloch v. Maryland: Landmark Supreme Court decision upholds the right of Congress to establish a national bank, a power implied but not specifically enumerated by the Constitution. -
Missouri Compromise
To maintain the balance between free and slave states, Maine was admitted as a free state so that Missouri can be admitted as a slave state. -
Monroe Doctrine
President Monroe shut off all further settlements by European people. -
Indina Removal Act
Andrew Jackson during his presidency forced the removal of Native Americans living in the eastern part of the country to lands west of the Mississippi River. -
Trail of Tears
More than 15,000 Cherokee Indians are forced to march from Georgia to an Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Approximately 4,000 die from starvation and disease. -
Mexican War
The U.S. declares war on Mexico in an effort to gain California and another territory in the Southwest. Ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. -
Women's Convention
Women's rights convention is held at Seneca Falls, N.Y. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congress. Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, the bill overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territories. -
Period: to
Civil War
Began in 1861, after decades of tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights, and westward expansion. Southerners were scared for their jobs -
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified
Abolished slavery. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” -
Fourteenth Amendment is ratified
Granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War.
