Period 5

  • Centralization Under Santa Anna

    -General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna abolished Mexico's federalist constitution and established more centralized, authoritarian government
    -actions alienated Texans, who believed their local rights were under threat
  • Texan Revolt and Independence

    -Sam Houston led revolt, claimed territory north of Rio Grande
    -key battles became rallying cries
    -Houston requested U.S. annexation after independence
  • Webster-Ashburton Treaty

    -Resolved Maine Canada boundary dispute
    -improved U.S. British relations by ending years of tension over region
    -established clearer cooperation on issues (extradition, anti slave trade patrols)
  • Election of 1844

    -expansion into Oregon=major political issue
    -James K. Polk campaigned on asserting U.S. claims up to 54th parallel
    -slogan, 54 40 or Flight, appealed to expansionists
  • Manifest Destiny

    -popularized by John L. O'Sullivan
    -argued that U.S. had a God given mission to expand its territory across North American continent
    -"divine right" and a natural, inevitable process
    -extension of America's republican institutions, Protestant values, belief in national progress
    -central ideology of 1840s
    -shaped debates over territorial growth and American identity
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    James K. Polk

    -11th president of U.S.
    -aggressive expansionist polices
    -President during Mexican American war
  • Wilmot Provision

    -right at start of American-Mexican war
    -Wilmot proposed banning slavery in all new territory acquired by Mexico
    -passed house twice, failed senate
  • Mexican American War

    -Tensions over Texas border had been growing since U.S. annexed Texas
    -Mexican cavalry unit crossed Rio Grande into disputed territory
    -attacked a U.S. patrol, killed 11 American soldiers
    -Polk declared war
    -Whigs questioned whether clash truly occurred on U.S. soil
    -Congress authorized the war
    -Mexico suffered severe military defeats
    -war increased U.S. territorial size and intensified national debates over expansion of slavery
    -helped develop generation of military leaders
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Didalgo

    -agreement between US and Mexico
    -officially ended Mexican American war
    -Allowed US troops to buy parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas
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    Free Soil Party

    -Antislavery political party
    -opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories
    -Free soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men
  • Fugitive Slave Act

    -required citizens to assist in the capture of runaway enslaved people
    -Omtestified Northern resistance towards slavery
  • Compromise of 1850

    -laws admitted California as a free state
    -strengthened Fugitive Slave Acts
    -allowed for popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico
    -banned slave trade in D.C.
    -settled Texas/New Mexico Border
  • Gadsden Purchase

    -Territory purchase made by U.S.
    -for parts of modern Arizona and New Mexico
    -US gave Mexico $10 million
  • Kansas Nebraska Act

    -created Kansas and Nebraska territories with popular sovereignty on slavery
    -effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise
    -triggered "Bleeding Kansas"
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    Mexican War

    -war between US and Mexico
    -resulted in US acquiring land
  • Dred Scott v. Sanford

    -Scott sued for his freedom
    -claimed that four year stay in northern portion of Louisiana Territory, made free land by Missouri Compromise, made him a free man
    -U.S. Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not citizen
  • Harpers Ferry

    -site where John Brown executed his raid
    -Brown attacked federal armory with goal of starting slave rebellion (unsuccessful)
  • Bull Run

    -first major battle of Civil War
    -Confederacy shattered Northern's hope for a quick war
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    Jefferson Davis

    -president of the Confederate States of America
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    Abraham Lincoln

    -16th president of U.S.
    -assassinated
    -leader during Civil War
    -abolished slavery with Emancipation Proclamation
    -passed 13th Amendment
  • Antietam

    -Bloodiest single day of the Civil War
    -Union strategic victory
    -allowed Lincoln to issue Emancipation Proclamation
  • Appomattox Court House

    -Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant
    -ended Civil War
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    Ulysses S. Grant

    -18th president of the U.S.
    -general for Union during Civil War
    -known for being an aggressive and determined strategist