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Louisiana Purchase
U.S. acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 for $15 million. The purchase secured American control of the Mississippi river and doubled the size of the nation. -
Acquisition of Texas
In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into U.S. hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by U.S. citizens against Spain. -
Missouri Compromise
The issue was that Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state, therefore unbalancing the Union so there would be more slave states then free states. The compromise set it up so that Maine joined as a free state and Missouri joined as a slave state. Congress also made a line across the southern border of Missouri saying except for the state of Missouri, all states north of that line must be free states or states without slavery. -
Annexation of Texas
U.S. made Texas a state in 1845. Joint resolution - both houses of Congress supported annexation under Tyler, and he signed the bill shortly before leaving office. It was part of John Tyler's presidential campaign -
Acquisition of Oregon
Between England and the US- signed in DC. Treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling US and British claims to the Oregon country. ... Polk completed goal of territorial expansion of US to pacific coast. Resulted in Mexican cession in exchange for 15 million. -
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Donner Party
Pioneer settlers traveling to California in wagon train. Snowbound winter 1846-1847 in Sierra Nevada mountains. Some of emigrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating those who had died of starvation and sickness. 48 of 87 members survived to reach Sacramento .... historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history and in the record of western migration. -
Discovery of Gold in California
Gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing boat and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 is a group of five laws passed in September of 1850. These laws made concessions to both free and slave states in an attempt to placate both sides of the slavery debate and preserve the union. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was the treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Southerners wanted this land in order to build southern transcontinental railroad, it also showed the American belief in Manifest Destiny. The heated debate over this issue in the Senate demonstrates the prevalence of sectional disagreement. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
These states were made Popular Sovereignty, thus nullifying the Missouri Compromise. This created greater tension between pro-slavery and anti-slavery voters and ultimately led to the Civil War. Also, the Republican party was organized in response to this act. -
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Ended Mexican-American War; Mexico gave up all claims to land from Texas to California for $15 million