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150 soliders defending the Alamo against Santa Anna's army. In the end all of the defenders were executed. It was a military defeat, but a pscyhological victory - eight Mexican soliders were killed for every 1 defender killed.
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Sam Houston defeats General Santa Anna's army and forces him to give Texas its independence from Mexico
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Southern members of the House pushed through a gag order that prohibited the discussion of slavery in the House until 1844 in response to the Nat Turner revolt.
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The only important legislation during the Tyler administration where squatters in new territorties were given first dibs to buy the land once it was put on the market.
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After ongoing conflict with Great Britian, Daniel Webster created this compromise where they settled the Maine-Canada dispute, Great Britian apologized for buring thr Caroline, and they both agreed to patrol African seas to prevent slave trading.
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President John Taylor signs off on the annexation of Texas into the union.
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After antagonizing Mexico, Polk finally gets his war with Mexico after General Arista sends Mexican troops across the Rio Grande to meet the American troops Polk ordered to the Rio Grande. Many did not support the war and accused the president of provoking it.
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The U.S. and the British reached a compromise on the Oregon border dispute. The existing US-Canada border extended westward to the Pacific and east of the Rockies. Many Northern Democrats were angry that Polk hadn't failed to secure all of Oregon.
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California ia annexed in the midst of the Mexican War, ending th Bear Flag Revolt.
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Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, California. The population soared in the next year as people rushed into California.
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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War. It included the cession of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada
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The beginning of the modern feminist movement starts at the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Women attended in droves
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Henry Clay proposed a compromise consisting of: California being admitted as a free state, New Mexico would settle its land dispute with Texas, land gained in the Mexican Cession would use popular sovereignty to settle the slavery issue, slave trade would be abolished in D.C., a tougher Fugitive Slave Act would be enacted, the federal government would pay off Texas' debt, slavery was promised to not be abolished, and Congress wouldn't interfere with interstate slave trade.
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Matthew Perry sailed to Tokyo Bay to reestablish a relationship with Tokyo. They signed the Treaty of Kanagawa the next year that created the first foreign naval bases.
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A strip of land in modern day New Mexico was purchased to create a transcontinental railroad that was never funded.
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Stephan A. Douglas proposed a provision that the status of slavery in the new territories be decided by popular sovereignty.
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Dred Scott lived in the free state of Illinois with his owner for a few years and then in a free territory. He was encouraged to sue for his freedom, but the Supreme Court ruled that he was not a citizen, just a slave and had no right to sue. They also ruled that any slave is a slave wherever they go in America.
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In response to Lincoln questioning Douglas on the Dred Scott Decision, he said that people of any territory could just choose not to pass laws that protected slavery.
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Abraham Lincoln defeated Thomas Douglas, John Breckinridge, and John Bell with 40% of the votes and basically no southern votes.
