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Louisiana Purchase
Thomas Jefferson bought 800,000 square miles of land from the French that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Jefferson mainly wanted New Orleans, but accepted the French offer of the extra land for only $5 million more. He wanted NO as a center for trade, and the extra land to expand the country. -
Acquisition of Florida
America wanted Florida because they believed it was destined to be a part of the US. Andrew Jackson received permission from Monroe's administration to punish the Seminole and capture the runaway slaves who had taken refuge in Florida in 1819. He was told to respect all settlements, but instead took two over and displaced the governor of Florida. John Adams negotiated the Adam-Onis treaty, giving Florida to the US and setting our border with Spain in return for $5 million -
Missouri Compromise
In 1819 Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a slave state. this caused a problem because there were 11 slave and 11 free states already. Henry Clay solved this problem with the Missouri Compromise, where in exchange for Missouri becoming an unrestricted slave state, Maine was admitted as a free state and slavery was made illegal above the 36° 30° line. -
Annexation of Texas
Americans moved into Texas in 1822, under an agreement with Mexico. Eventually, these people rebelled as this agreement would require them to give up slavery. After gaining independence in 1836, they applied for annexation into the Union as a state. This was originally denied as Texas' admission would upset the balance of slave and free states. In 1845, John Tyler submitted a treaty of annexation to Congress, and it became a Presidential debate issue. The bill was passed in 1845. -
Acquisition of Oregon
Originally, Europeans and Natives lived in Oregon, and Britain used it for its fur trade and access to the sea. US settlers went there for the same reason, and there was a dispute over the border. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed between the US and Britain to settle the boundary dispute. The British gained the land north of the 49th parallel, including the Vancouver Island and the United States received the territory south of the parallel, which is much of the modern Pacific Northwest. -
Donner Party
The Donner Party was a group of almost 90 emigrants, led by Jacob and George Donner, attempted to take a new and supposedly shorter route to California from Illinois. The route was laid out by a guide names Langsford Hastings. After getting sidetracked by Hastings' route at Weber Canyon, they were forced to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains late in the season, where after being trapped in a snowstorm, were forced to revert to cannibalism, or so the story goes. Only 45 of the 89 made it to Cali. -
Mexican American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
The Mexican-American War was fought between the US and Mexico over the border of new state Texas. The US wanted the border to extend to the Rio Grande River, and Mexico disagreed, leading to war under President James K. Polk. The treaty signed added land to the US and settled borders of the Mexican Cession (now much of the southwest) and settled the border of Texas at the Rio Grande. The US paid $15 million in return and settled all claims of US citizens against Mexico. -
Discovery of Gold in California
In 1848, James W. Marshall discovered the first gold in California. It led to a huge rush of people, about 300,000, to settle West in search of gold. They came from America and abroad, and it was a huge step for western population. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 resolved slavery issues in territory gained at the end of the Mexican-American War. It involved laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with slavery in each to be determined by the state, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C. and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves. Last affair involving Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act was an act that allowed popular sovereignty, which allowed settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. Stephen A. Douglas proposed the bill, which overturned the Missouri Compromise’s 36/30 term. The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the aftermath of the act’s passage led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas, and helped lead to the Civil War. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was arranged in 1854 between the US and Mexico. The US paid $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. It was arranged to help solve conflicts brought about by the Mexican-American War and also provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad.