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Missouri Compromise
- An effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted *It was important because it focused on how slavery would be dealt
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Monroe Doctrine
*the policy, as stated by President Monroe in 1823, that the U.S. opposed further European colonization of and interference with independent nations in the Western Hemisphere.
*important because: it was a foreign policy statement originally set forth in 1823 which created sphere of Europeans and American influences -
Battle of the Alamo
*a 13 day siege at a mission in San Antonio that was fought between February 23, 1836 – March 6, 1836 by Mexican forces of about 4000, under President General Santa Anna, against a handful of 180 American rebels fighting for Texan independence from Mexico.
*why is it important: Texans fought for their independence -
Trail of Tears
*a series of forced relocations of Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west that had been designated as Indian Territory
*its important because the migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. -
Sutter's Fort
*a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican Alta California province.
*importance: The fort was the first non-Indigenous community in the California Central Valley. -
Panic of 1837
*a crisis in financial and economic conditions in the nation following changes in the banking system initiated by President Andrew Jackson and his Specie Circular that effectively dried up credit.
* why is it important: profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. -
Pre-Emption Act
*a response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands.
*why is it important: pioneers often settled on public lands before they could be surveyed and auctioned by the U.S. government. -
Bear Flag Revolt
*A small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic
*importance: The republic was short-lived because soon after the Bear Flag was raised, the U.S. military began occupying California, which went on to join the union in 1850. The Bear Flag became the official state flag in 1911. -
US - Mexican War
*An armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848
*importance: the United States received the Mexican Cession which included all of California, Nevada and Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. With this huge land acquisition, the issue of slavery in the new territories was raised. -
Fugitive Slave Law
*A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states.
*importance: the law was highly unpopular in the North and helped to convert many previously indifferent northerners to antislavery. -
Compromise of 1850
*An attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South
Importance: The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Bleeding Kansas
- A series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. *importance: this led up to the Civil War
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Gadsden Purchase
*A 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty
*importance: it settled the main boundaries of United States. -
Dred Scott Decision
*A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man.
*importance: Dred scott was a slave because he was not a citizen being a slave and had no right to bring forth a lawsuit. He was property. Congress had no power to prohibit slavery. -
Harper's Ferry
*An effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
*importance: Abolitionist, John Brown, leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory -
Civil War
*Started
*As a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery, war broke out in April 1861
*importance: this led to the slavery being abolished -
Emancipation Proclamation
- A presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1 *importance: led the way to total abolition of slavery in the United States. With the Emancipation Proclamation, the aim of the war changed to include the freeing of slaves in addition to preserving the Union.
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Gettysburg
- Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North *importance: More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War.
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Gettysburg Address
*A speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln that is one of the best-known speeches in American history.
*importance: dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War -
13th Amendment
*Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
* importance: it created a constitutional amendment that banned slavery in all of the American states -
Civil War
*Ended -
14th Amendment
*granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.”
*importance: "equal protection of the laws" to slaves as well -
15th Amendment
*Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"
*importance: it guarantees voting rights to all American males of all races.