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Cotton Gin Invented
Eli Whitney's patent[edit] Eli Whitney's original cotton gin patent, dated March 14, 1794. The modern mechanical cotton gin was invented in the United States of America in 1793 by Eli Whitney (1765–1825). -
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the administration of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. -
Louisiana Purchase
the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. -
Indian Removal Act/Trail of Tears
Indian policy caused the President little political trouble because his primary supporters were from the southern and western states and generally favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. -
The Battle of the Alamo
On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. -
Texas Claims Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. -
Trail of Tears
as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. -
The Annexation of Texas,
the Mexican-American War, and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 1845–1848. During his tenure, U.S.President James K. Polk oversaw the greatest territorial expansion of the United States to date. -
Mexican-American War
:A war between the U.S. and Mexico spanned the period from spring 1846 to fall 1847. The war was initiated by Mexico and resulted in Mexico's defeat and the loss of approximately half of its national territory in the north. -
Agreement of 49th Parallel
An isolated patch of land along the Lake of the Woods, called the Northwest Angle, wound up in the U.S. despite being north of the 49th Parallel. -
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. -
California becomes a state
California, a western U.S. state, stretches from the Mexican border along the Pacific for nearly 900 miles. It's known for its dramatic terrain encompassing cliff-lined beaches, redwood forest, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Central Valley farmland and the arid Mojave Desert. Its cities include sprawling Los Angeles, seat of the Hollywood entertainment industry, and hilly San Francisco, home to the Golden Gate Bridge. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,640-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed on December 30, 1853 by James -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.
