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Expanding Democracy
In the election of 1824, there was two different people going for the position of president, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, they embodied the regional differences dividing the country, Adams represented the businessmen of the East, and Jackson represented the farmers of the West. There were some complications but, Adam ended up winning the election on March of 1825. -
Expanding into Native American Lands
In 1830, Jackson approved of a law called the Indian Removal Act, which ended U.S. governments policy from before of respecting the rights of Native American's, because of the policy, they were forced to move. -
The Second Great Awakening
In the early 19th century, people started talking about religion which inspired others to reform problems in society. The temperance movement was one of the social reform efforts. The movement was against the overuse of alcohol, in 1830, the average American drank 7 gallons of alcohol per year. People were motivated to stop drinking because of the Second Great Awakening since it was a sin to them. -
Fighting for Better Pay
People found it unfair about all the hard work they had to do for little pay. It didn't matter how old or how young you were, everyone had to work around large machines without any sort of safety gear. Many workers had lost their lives while on the job, if they got injured during shifts, they received no payment at all. There was a women and her female coworkers who talked about this problem. She gave speeches and after she stopped working at the mill, she published stories of her experiences. -
Economic Crises
After the Second Bank closed, people started to go to Jackson's Pet Banks, it was easy to take out loans which led to inflation, everyone panicked which became known as the Panic of 1837. Many banks closed, businesses collapsed, and many people lost their jobs and land. -
The Lure of America
Around the mid-1800's, millions of people moved from their homelands to the United States. Some of the many reasons for this were crop failures, overpopulation, religious persecution, and wars. From 1840-1870, more than 7.5 million immigrants came to the United States. These people came to the United States looking for better lives for them and their family. -
A New Party System
In 1834, senators Clay and Webster had formed a new political party called the Whig Party which was a British political party that had judged the monarchy. The Whig Party decided to run in the 1840 presidential election and believed they had a pretty good chance of winning it, they won by nominating William Henry Harrison as president and John Tyler as his running mate. Just after 32 days of being president, Harrison died so Tyler replaced him but received little support from his party. -
The West Trails
From 1841 to 1860, around half a million of American's followed the West Trails for new lives such as the Santa Fe Trail, the Old Spanish Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and many more. -
Annexation of Texas
James K. Polk won the election of 1844, he supported Manifest Destiny and believed that the United States should have complete control of Oregon Territory up to the latitude of 54 40. -
The Pull of the West
The West inspired ideals of independence which attracted many immigrants. There were fur trapper and explorers named mountain men. Every summer from 1825-1840, trappers met with fur traders at rendezvous to sell and buy goods and supplies, trade opportunities like this drew people to the West. It was also said in 1845 that American's had a Manifest Destiny which reflected that one day the US would stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, people were interested in this. -
Tensions with Mexico
The annexation of Texas unbalanced the ratio of free states and state slaves which later led to the Mexican-American War. -
The United States at War
The United States went marching to Santa Fe which was the capital of the New Mexico Territory, but the city was unguarded, for unknown reasons, Santa Fe's governor decided not to fight so the United States claimed the New Mexico Territory without having to fight. -
Consequences of the War
The war officially ended in 1848 when both the US and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in exchange for $15 million, Mexico gave up its northernmost territories. The US has now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You would think that getting more land would be a good thing, but it wasn't, it worsened conflict over slavery. -
The Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered by a few workers. It was supposed to be contained a secret but word soon got out. The following year, around 80,000 had moved to California in search of gold. The Gold Rush increased California's population from less than 1,000 people to nearly 100,000. -
Women's Rights and Seneca Falls
Women played important roles in social reform and abolition movements but were always second place to men in society. Women's pay was much lower than men even when exact same job. Married women couldn't purchase land and single women were but they had to pay for taxes. Since women were limited to an education, the only stable path for women was marriage. In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded. The campaign for women's continued from the 1800's through the 20th century.