APUSH: Antebellum Period (1800-1863) timeline

The ideology of manifesting destiny became popular in the early 1800s in America, during this time America had begun growing itself and exploring westward. Manifest Destiny is the idea that America expanding and spreading influence is not only right, but inevitable. American colonists and leaders were the main supporters of “Manifest Destiny”. Many American settlers and leaders felt that it was a god given right for America to explore lands and spread their way of life across the world.

The Louisiana Purchase was made by the president at the time, Thomas Jefferson, in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase was signed and resided lands in America. Thomas Jefferson sought to grow America into a model country where colonists work in agriculture living grounded lives, so he made the Louisiana Purchase to provide the land for his plan.The purchase doubled the size of America, buying 530,000,00 acres of land west of the Mississippi River for 15 million dollars from France.

Under President Jefferson’s command, Lewis and Clark began their expedition in 1804. In 1804 President Jefferson had been president for 3 years and had completed the Louisiana Purchase just a year prior. Jefferson wanted the lands west of Mississippi River, recently gained from the Louisiana Purchase, to be scouted in hopes of gaining cultural and geographical information so Jefferson tasked Lewis and Clark with the job of exploring the western lands.

The Oregon Trails were a set of routes located from Missouri to Oregon. The trail provided people in the east a way to travel to the westward lands. The trails beginning in 1811, were previously laid out by Lewis and Clark. The Oregon Trails were used by pioneers, families seeking to settle west, and religious people seeking to convert Native Americans in the west. The Oregon Trail journey was brutal and eventually stopped being used when a railroad was introduced in 1869.

Year 1812, tired of the British constantly overstepping on America's stance on remaining neutral, America in relation declared war against Britain. Both sides, using America as a battlefield, attacked each other with great might, however the war eventually fizzled out in 3 years, with the Treaty of Ghent ending the war. The treaty ended the war, but did not establish any premise on which party was responsible/liable for the war. The war enlisted much national pride within America.

The Missouri Compromise was made in 1820, the compromise introduced the slave state Missouri. With the implication of the slave state Missouri the North felt that the South was growing too powerful and threatening the equilibrium of the country, so the North decided to counteract by adding the free state of Maine and drawing a horizontal line that runs under Missouri to limit the range of future slave states could be added in the future.

With America growing, President Monroe began to fear European Nation interference in American prosperity, so he introduced the Monroe Doctrine In 1823. The Doctrine warned European nations that the USA would protect the Western Hemisphere, and that the U.S. would remain in a neutral state, not interfering in European affairs. At first, European Nations were not intimidated by the doctrine, but as America grew into a national powerhouse, European Nations began to feel stepped on by the doctrine.

America had discovered valuable gold on the eastern Native Americans land, so in response to the discovery the Indian Removal act was proposed, passed by congress, and signed by the current president at the time, Andrew Jackson, in 1830. The act would force all the Native Americans residing in the east of America to move to the western lands in America. The Native Americans would be subjugated to walk a long brutal journey to the west, an event referred to as “The Trail of Tears".

Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836, however problems about the territorial borders of the Republic Texas would lead into a dispute between Mexico and America, which resulted in the Mexican-American War. The Mexican American war began in 1846 and the war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The treaty recognized America as the winner and made Mexico surrender a large portion of northern Mexican land to America in 1848.

Gold was first discovered in California in 1848, but it wasn't until the following December, when the president confirmed that gold was indeed in California that the Gold rush began. California started off as a barren state but as the gold rush began to bloom settlers from all over America came rushing to California hoping to strike gold and make major profit. Some got lucky, while most ended up not finding a lot of gold. With the gold all extracted, the rush eventually stopped in 1955.

The Compromise of 1850 was proposed by infamous compromiser, senator Henry Clay. The compromise, passed in 1850, was a group of proposals that sought to end the tense dispute between North and Southern states. For the North, the compromise would enlist California as a free state and organize the Southwest territories without slavery; for the south, the Fugitive Slave Act was enforced, an act that would make all African Americans, runaway or free, susceptible to being returned back to slavery.

In 1954, Stephen Douglas, trying to end the slave state vs free state dispute lingering from the Missouri Compromise, introduced the idea of “popular sovereignty”. Douglas’ idea of popular sovereignty would settle the dispute by allowing the people residing in southwest territories, Kansas and Nebraska, to decide for themselves. Northerners and Southerners rushed to the territories hoping to sway the votes in their favor. In the end, both Kansas and Nebraska ended up voting to be free states.

America, wanting to transform the country into domesticated labor, proposed The Homestead Act. The Homestead Act would provide 168 acres of free land to western settlers/farmers who would agree to use and take care of land, providing economic and agricultural propensity for America. The Homestead Act was passed in the middle of the Civil War,1862, however the act didn’t actually start to gain traction from settlers until after the Civil War. The Homestead succeeded, lasting all the way to 1976.

Before the transcontinental railroad was invented, long transportation was expensive and dangerous. President Lincoln realized for the country to prosper the transportation problem would need to be fixed, so Lincoln signed the Pacific Act in 1862. The act would begin the construction of the railroad, a railroad that would connect the west and east of America together through a railroad. The railroad was completed in 1869, and successfully started a new era of affordable safe transportation.