-
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. -
Monroe Doctrine
Monroe Doctrine is a principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US. It was important because it proposed that the US would oppose further colonization of North and South America by European powers but would not interfere in the affairs of existing colonies. -
Trail of Tears
The Trail of tears is a route along which the United States government forced several tribes of Native Americans, including the Cherokees, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks, to migrate to reservations west of the Mississippi River. The Trail of Tears was one of the many barbaric attempts by the Whites to remove the Native Americans from their homelands by force. -
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. -
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. The Panic of 1837 was important because it made the following changes in the banking system initiated by President Andrew Jackson and his Specie Circular that effectively dried up credit happen. -
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican Alta California province. It was important because it intended to make money by serving needs of growing numbers of pioneers coming to California. -
Pre-Emption Act
The Preemption Act of 1841 permitted "squatters" who were living on federal government owned land to purchase up to 160 acres (65 ha) at a very low price (not less than $1.25 per acre, or $3.09 per hectare) before the land was to be offered for sale to the general public. -
Bear Flag Revolt
The Bear Flag Revolt was a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic. -
US - Mexican War
Mexican-American War, also called Mexican War, Spanish Guerra de 1847 or Guerra de Estados Unidos a Mexico (“War of the United States Against Mexico”), war between the United States and Mexico (April 1846–February 1848) stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim). -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 was a set of laws, passed in the midst of fierce wrangling between groups favoring slavery and groups opposing it, that attempted to give something to both sides.It is important because the south gained by the strengthening of the fugitive slave law, the north gained a new free state, California. Texas lost territory but was compensated with 10 million dollars to pay for its debt. Slave trade was prohibited in Washington DC, but slavery was not. -
Fugitive Slave Law
Fugitive Slave Act is 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. This was important because this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott decision is a controversial ruling made by the Supreme Court in 1857, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.This was important because the United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
Harper's Ferry
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. It was formerly spelled Harper's Ferry with an apostrophe and that form continues to appear in some references. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern" elements in Kansas. The "Bleeding Kansas" is important because this crisis really pushed the North and South apart and had a great deal to do with causing the Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued on January 1, 1863, by President Lincoln freeing slaves in all portions of the United States not then under Union control (that is, within the Confederacy). It was important because it 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. -
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history.It is important because it is a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the November 19, 1863, dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. -
Civil War
The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. After a long standing controversy over slavery and state's rights, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in South Caroline shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "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." It abolished slavery in the US. -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment addresses many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens. "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution 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".