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Cotton Gin Invented
The cotton gin sped up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. Cotton had become America’s leading export in the mid-19th century. -
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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. The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y and Z for the names of French diplomats Hottinguer, Bellamy, and Hauteval in documents released by the Adams administration. -
Louisiana Purchase
America purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for only $15 million. This practicly doubled the size of America at the time. -
Agreement of 49th Parallel
Set the boundary between the United States and British North America along the 49th parallel of north latitude from Minnesota to the "Stony Mountains. -
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. -
Missouri Compromise
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. -
Monroe Doctrine
In a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs. -
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Trail of Tears
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. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. -
Indian removal act/Trail of Tears
Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, was a forceful proponent of Indian removal. In 1814 he commanded the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Creek nation. In their defeat, the Creeks lost 22 million acres of land. 4,000 Cherokee’s died on the forced March, becoming the Trail of Tears. -
The battle of Alamo
On February 23, 1836 a Mexican force in the thousands attacked. The Texan soldiers survived for 13 days before the Mexican army defeated them. For Texans the Battle of the Alamo was a symbol of their resistance. -
Texas claims and Independence
During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been prohibited by Mexican law. -
Texas annexed to U.S.
The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico. At the time the vast majority of the Texian population favored the annexation of the Republic by the United States. The leadership of both major American political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, opposed the introduction of Texas, a vast slave-holding region, into the volatile political climate of the pro- and anti-slavery sectional controversies in Congress. -
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Mexican-American war
The Mexican–American War also known as the Invasion of Mexico was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Ended the Mexican-American War. The treaty added 525,000 miles to the U.S. territory. -
California becomes a state
California became the 31st state of the United states. California became territory to the United States in 1848 when Mexico agreed on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico thought that California wasn't going to be a big loss when they gave it up. -
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Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico at that time. -
Kansas-Newbraska 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.
