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California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. All in all, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The Gold Rush exponentially increased the population of California. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Mexican war officially ended with the February 2, 1848, signing in Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. It required captured slaves to be returned to their masters. It also made slavery much more brutal. -
Bleeding Kansas
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern yankees" elements in Kansas between 1854 and 1860, including "Bleeding Congress". This event was called bleeding Kansas because people were moving to Kansas during the election to vote twice. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase 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. -
Ostand Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto, aka Ostend Circular, was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Making Cuba a state would give the US much more power as they would have more land. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln and Douglas Debates was a series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, when both were campaigning for election to the United States Senate from Illinois. Much of the debating concerned slavery and its extension into territories such as Kansas.
