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Period: to
Westward Expansion Timeline
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Cotton
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. The cotton gin is a device for removing the seeds from cotton fiber. -
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 Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams- Onis Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Traety, 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. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and plitical 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. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that futher 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
The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress on May 28, 1830, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. -
The Battle of the Alamo
For the site of this battle, see Alamo Mission in San Antonio. For other uses, see Alamo (disambiguation). The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 - March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. -
Texas Claims Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of the Republic of Texas from Mexio in Washington- on- the- Brazos on march 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after mistakes were noted in the text. -
Trail of Tears
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andew 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 Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears, " because of its devastating effects. -
Texas annexed to U.S
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 loss of approximately half of its national territory in the north. -
U.S Agreement of 49th Parallel
The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846. The Oregon Traety set the U.S. and British North American border at the 49th parallel with the exception of Vancouver Island, which was retained in its entirety by the British. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, limits and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo. -
California becomes a state
Alta California became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican- American War. The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. -
Gadsden Purchase
The treaty to bring parts of present- day Arizona and New Mexico into United States was signed on December 30th, 1853. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas- Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Comprise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36*30'.
