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Westward Expansion
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Texas Becomes an Independent Nation
After promoting trade between Texas and the USA, settlers persuaded Texans to delcare independence from Mexico. This forced Mexican President Santa Ana to rally troops against the Texan rebellion. After suffering a loss as the Alamo, Sam Houston led a succesful set of counter-attacks and captured Santa Ana in San Jacinto, forcing him to end the war. -
James K. Polk Elected President
James Polk Was a Democratic polotician born in Kentucky. He was nominated as the Democratic candidate after Martin Van Buren didn't gain two-thirds supoermajority and Polk emerged as a "dark horse" in the democratic convention. Polk supported slavery and pushed for the statehood of Texas as well as many other expansion trails throughout his presidency. His notable actions include "taking" Oregon from Great Britian and launching a war against Mexico. -
John L. O'Sullivan Promotes Manifest Destiny
In the July-August edition of The Democratic Review, O'Sullivan published an essay called "Annexation," which discussed the Texas Independence and possibility of joining the union. The initial use of the term did not garner mainstream use or effect. O'Sullivan used the term again on December 27th when discussing the Oregon territry, only this time, the term was massively influential and found its way into the mainstream. "Manifest Destiny" was a term used to decscribe westward expansion. -
Polk Pushes for 54-40th Parallel
After long debating, Britain agreed to split the Oregon Territory along the 49th parallel. President Polk wanrted all of Oregon, along with the majority of Union Americans. The public started the rally chant, "54-40 or fight." In 1846, Polk lifted the Agreement of 1818 with Britain and the threat of war loomed over Great Britian. Fearing another defeat, the British gave into Polk's demands, with certain land exception and waterways. -
Texas Joins the Union
One of the primary reasons which Polk was the Democratic candidate, he supported the western expansion and the annexation of Texas. His first day in office, he encouraged the independent nation to accept former President John Tyler's proposal to join. On December 29th, Texas became the 28th state in the Union. -
The Wilmot Privoso is Introduced
David Wilmot proposed this plan in order to ban slavery in any new territories gained from the Mexico-American war. The privoso initailly passed in the House of Representatives but failed to pass in the Southern heavy Senate. He reintroduced it in February 1847 where it had similar results. He then tried to negotiate it in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo but also failed. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was also known as the "Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic," because it ended the 2 year long war between Mexico and the United States. It established the Rio Grande RIver as a boundary for Texas, and granted the United States, Claifornia, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wyoming. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of 5 bills passed passed by congress in September of 1850. The bills discussed certain territorial gains from the Mexican-American war. It reinforced popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico. It also abolished slavery in Washington D.C. and made California a free state. -
Gadsden Purchase
This purchase gave the United States land in southern Arizona and New Mexico. This land was essential in completing railroad systeks into southern California. The area to the north of it was too mountainous and rocky to safely construct a railroad, so the purchase provided easier land to develop and use for railroads. The Purchase was officially signed on June 8th 1854 by Franklin Pierce. -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
This act created two new territories of Kansas and Nebraska based on the idea of popular soverfignty. This idea was proposed by Illinois senator Stephen Douglas. Popular sovereignty allowed certain territories and states to vote and decide whether or not it wanted slavery or not. This idea cuased many pro and anti-slavery settlers to move into these territories. This massive difference in political ideas caused a series or border wars to break out in 1855 called " Bleeding Kansas."
