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American Settlement of California
American settlers traveling the Oregon Trail also settled in Mexican California. Americans settled in California for either coastal trading or interior farming, primarily in the Sacramento Valley. Many Americans settlers married into wealthy Mexican rancher families called Californios. Others abstained from Californio culture and hoped that California would one day become independent like Texas. -
Texan Independance from Mexico
On March 2, 1836, American immigrants living in Texas declared Independance from Mexico in order to retain slavery which went against the newly adopted Mexican constitution of 1835 that outlawed it. Their declaration later led to famous battles with the Mexican Army such as the Alamo and San Jacinto, which firmly established the Texans Independance. Texas’s Independance is significant because it opened the possibility to further expansion of U.S. ideals and slavery into Mexican Territory. -
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American Settlement of Oregon
With the American dream of expansion and manifest destiny, the fertile land of Oregon on the west coast became a prime destination for many farmers seeking new economic opportunity. American interest in Oregon was spurred in 1842 with reports of good natural harbors for trade, fertile land for farming, and an already booming fur trade. Many migrations of settlers came to Oregon on a route called the Oregon trail, and by the 1860s, around 250000 Americans had traveled the trail to the West. -
Annexation of Texas into the Union
The annexation of Texas into the Union was the first in a list of countries and territories to be quickly annexed by the U.S. during the early 1800s through the expansionist movement. Having gained Independence in 1836 many southerners wanted Texas to be admitted into the Union immediately as a slave state, but the North would not allow it. However, with the proslavery and expansionist views of both Presidents Tyler and Polk, in 1845, a treaty of annexation was narrowly passed to annex Texas. -
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Mexican American War
The Mexican American War was spurred by the secession of Texas from Mexico and President Polk’s aggressive expansionist plan to attain Mexican land from Texas to California. When Mexico would not sell the lands to the U.S., Polk quickly got ready for war which was officially declared Apr. 25,1846. The U.S eventually won the war by invading Mexico City where they brokered the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which gave the U.S. all the land they wanted from Texas to California. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a bill that, would it have been passed would have put a ban on the expansion of slavery into the lands that were newly acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American war. The Wilmot Proviso was first introduced by David Wilmot, an anti slavery Democrat, on August 8 1846, but was immediately rejected by a predominantly southern Democrat Congress who wanted all of the land purchased from Mexico to eventually become slave states. -
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California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush first began when some workers building a mill dam came across flakes of gold in 1848 luring more than 80000 gold seekers to California by 1849. These goldseekers were mostly men and set up crude systems of laws to keep order as they harassed Native Americans and other foreigners, faced rampant diseases, and soon realized that there wasn’t that much gold. After the gold rush, many miners decided to stay in California, removing Native Americans and Mexicans in the process. -
Compromise of 1850
With the rapid population growth from the Gold Rush, California was now applying for statehood as a free state. The South didn’t want California to be free and the North didn’t want slavery, so they needed a compromise. Drafted by Henry Clay, Dan Webster, and Stephen Douglas, the Compromise was passed in five separate bills which are as follows: California is a free state, Utah and New Mexico Ter. organized, Texas border refined, Fugitive Slave Law strengthened, and Slave Trade outlawed in D.C. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico that gave the U.S. a 29670-square-mile area of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. The trade was orchestrated by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James Gadsden between Mexican President Santa Anna for U.S. President Franklin Pierce. The U.S. purchased this land for the expansion of slavery and to build a transcontinental rail line in the South, going from New Orleans to San Francisco, while Mexico sold it to gain a profit. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska was a very contraversal act supported by Senator Stephen Douglas and President Franklin Pierce to transform unorganized Indian territory West of the Mississippi into two new territories, one being free and the other possibly slave to appease the south. This caused tension because the south saw it as a northern attempt to get more free states while the northern states saw it as an advance on the Missouri Compromise. The Act barely passed and Kansas and Nebraska became violent.
