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Period: to
Dates
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Cotton Gin invented
A cotton gin is a device for removing cotton from seeds, machines like it have existed for centuries. Eli Whitney's cotton gin was the first to clean short-staple cotton and could produce up to fifty pounds of cleaned cotton in a day. -
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident between France and America, which led to an undeclared, limited war named "the Quasi War." -
Louisiana Purchase
A land deal negotiated by Thomas Jefferson and Napolean, where the U.S. gained 870,000 acres of land for 15 million dollars. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
A treaty that ceded Florida into the U.S. and defined the boundary between America and New Spain. It also renounced any claim the U.S. had to Texas, fixing the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri compromise was triggered when Missouri wanted to be admitted as a slave state, which would upset the balance between the slave states and free states; in the end, Missouri was allowed its request, but Maine was admitted to the free states. -
Monroe Doctrine
A U.S. foreign policy stating that any more European efforts to colonize or interfere with North or South America would be viewed as acts of agression which "required U.S. intervention." -
Indian removal act / trail of tears
An act passed by Congress that authorized the president (Andrew Jackson) to negotiate with the Native Americans for their removal to Federal territory West of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancesteral homelands. -
Battle of the Alamo
Lasted from the time above to March 6 of the same year.
The defendants of the Alamo held out for thirteen days before being overpowered by Mexican invaders, it was seen as an enduring symbol of their heroic resistance to oppression and struggle for independence, which they achieved later that year. -
Texas Claims Independence
After the Battle of the Alamo where Texas was defeated, a large Texan army under Sam Houston, shouting "Remember the Alamo," defeated Santa Anna's troops and captured Santa Anna, forcing the Mexican dictator to recognize Texas' independence and withdraw his forces South of the Ryo Grande. -
Trail of tears
Named by the indians that survived the terrible, forced march from their homelands to Oklahoma, the Trail of Tears killed one fourth of the total Cherokee indians out of the sixteen-thousand that it was forced upon. It also gave Americans valuable indian land and eliminated some, who could create trouble for them in the future. -
Texas Annexed to the U.S.
A state constitution was drawn up, ratified by the popular vote, and allowed Texas to be accepted as part of the Union. The formal transfer of authority from republic to state was not made until a ceremony on February 19, 1846, at which Anson Jones stated "The final act in this great drama is now performed; the Republic of Texas is no more." -
Mexican- American war
From time above to February 2, 1848.
A border skirmish along the Rio Grande (Red River) triggered the fighting, followed by a multitude of U.S. victories. -
Agreement of 49th Parallel
Both Britain and U.S. agree on the fourty-ninth parallel as the main North-west boundary in the Oregon Treaty. "Fifty four fourty or fight" was the phrase adopted by U.S. citizens in 1845. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
A treaty of peace/friendship between the United States and the Mexican Republic. -
California becomes a state
Mexico had reluctantly ceded California and much of its Northern territory to the U.S. during the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, not knowing that a gold nugget had been discovered nine days earlier. They had pictured sleepy little mission towns, but instead the greatest gold rush in history had begun. -
Gadsden purchase
The U.S. payed Mexico ten million dollars for a 29,670 acre area of land that later on became a part of both New Mexico and Arizona. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A bill that mandated popular sovereignty to decide the allowance of slavery within a new state's borders. It may be one of the single most significant acts leading to the Civil War.
