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Missouri Compromise
This legislation admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, so as not to upset the balance between slave and free states in the nation. The Missouri Compromise was accepted because it: maintained congressional balance in the Senate, allowed for certain new territories to be slave states, and allowed certain new territories to be non-slavery states. -
Texas Annexation
Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 and became the 28th state. Until 1836, Texas had been part of Mexico, but in that year a group of settlers from the United States who lived in Mexican Texas declared independence. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States is destined by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. -
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Mexican–American War
The Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848 marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a “Manifest Destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. A border skirmish along the Rio Grande that started off the fighting was followed by a series of U.S. victories. -
Compromise of 1850
The acts called for the admission of California as a "free state," provided for a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, established a boundary between Texas and the United States, called for the abolition of slave trade in Washington, DC, and amended the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. -
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. -
Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860 in a four-way contest. Although Lincoln received less than 40% of the popular vote, he easily won the Electoral College vote over Stephen Douglas, John Breckenridge , and John Bell. -
Battle at Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia. It ended with the surrender by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War. -
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Southern Secession
After Abraham Lincoln was declared the winner of the election, Southern states were outraged. Southern states were concerned that the Republican government would attempt to abolish slavery. The abolition of slavery would devastate the Southern economy and made Southern states fearful that their states' rights would be violated. The first state to secede was South Carolina. After South Carolina, ten additional states voted to secede in 1861