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Texan Defeat at the Alamo
The brutal siege of the Alamo by Mexican President Santa Anna inspired many Texans to join the Texan Army. This shifted the tide of the Texas Revolution towards the Texans and Santa Anna was defeated at San Jacinto on April 21st. -
Start of California Gold Rush
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California brought over 300,000 prospectors to the territory. This influx of people was what California needed to move from a territory to statehood. The Gold Rush caused a rapid development of California, such as the city of San Francisco. The Gold Rush put California on the map and led to economic stimulation around the world and in the US (Transcontinental Railroad). -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treaty ended the Mexican-American War and ratified the annexation of Texas as well as California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. The treaty recognized the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico. -
Compromise of 1850
A package of bills brockered by Henry Clay that difused the situation between the slave and free states. First, California was admitted as a free state. To balance this, new territories would decide about slavery via a popular vote (Popular Sovereignty). A harsher fugitive slave law was enacted and required the return of all escaped slaves. -
Homestead Acts
Applicants could apply for ownership of land, referred to as a "homestead", at little or no cost. Homesteads were usually 160 acres and any US citizen could settle and farm the land for at least five years. These laws spurred American movement into the West and the development of the newly acquired land. -
First Transcontinental Railroad
Railroads made it possible for people to live in the West. First, it provided an easy way to transport goods and products to market, bringing down costs. Second, it provided the people of the West with the technologies and luxuries of the modernized East. -
Decline of the Buffalo
The army of the United States had always been warring with the American Indians. General Philip H. Sheridan set out to destroy the Indians' way of life, similar to total war, by killing off buffalo and burning homes. The plains tribes were unable to survive and all Native Americans were eventually defeated by 1890 and moved to reservations. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act broke up tribes as a social unit and ended the communal holding of property. This act was the "culmination of the American attempt to destroy tribes and to open Indian lands to settlemnt by non-Indians." Indians lost 65% of the land they used to own by 1934. The Dawes acted completed the assimilation process by forcing Indians to accept the idea of smaller, nuclear families. Furthermore, the Dawes acted eliminated hunting as a means of subsistence for the Indians. -
Acquisition of the Panama Canal
The United States, using Gunboat Diplomacy, secured the independence of Panama from Colombia. In return, the United States was allowed to administer and defend the Panama Canal Zone indefinetly which some felt was an infrigement of Panama's soverignty. The Panama Canal is essential for int'l maritime trade as it was shorter, faster and safer. The United States controlled the canal for almost 100 years. -
Roosevelt Corollary
An addition to the Monroe Doctrine that would reinforce the idea of the United States as a international police power. The United States would intervene in conflicts between European countries and Latin American countries. While the Monroe Doctrine wanted to prevent European involvement in the hemisphere, the Corollary was used to justify U.S. intervention throughout the hemisphere.
The Corollary was used in 1904 in the Dominican Republic and led to the American control of the DR's finances. -
Election of 1912
A four-way contest for the seat of President. 1) William Taft (Republican); 2) Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose); 3) Eugene Debs (Socialist); 4) Woodrow Wilson (Democrat).
The ideas of the Bull Moose party would have created a modern welfare state but Roosevelt split the Republican votes with Taft, allowing Wilson the Democrat to win.
Wilson's plan regulated the economy and the FTC investigated monopolies. The FED was also created. -
Sixteenth Amendment
This amendment allowed Congress to collect taxes on incomes.
This allowed for the replacement of the traditional government income, liquor taxes. The income tax meant that the 18th amendment, Prohibition, could go through. Prohibition was part of the late stage of the Progressive Era, and many thought that alcohol caused ill problems in society. -
Truman Doctrine
The United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations that were fighting the communism or authoritarian governments. The Truman Doctrine set the United States' foreign policy against the spread of communism, an idea called containment. The Truman Doctrine would be used to justify the support of Greece and Turkey and the intervention into Korea and Vietnam. -
Marshall Plan
Communism was spreading into a ravaged post-WWII Europe. Secretary of State George Marshall created a plan to rebuild Europe and would send $12 billion towards Western Europe. The Marshall Plan created a resurgence of industrilaization in Europe and brought investment. The Marshall Plan also aimed to create markets for the American goods (America couldn't sell to communist markets). The Marshall Plan set the precedent for and legitimized U.S. foreign aid programs. -
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NATO was a military alliance between nations of Europe, Canada and the United States to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. Under the treaty, an attack against one member was considered an attack against all members. NATO would counter any advances by the Warsaw Pact in Europe. NATO still exists as the largest peacetime military alliance and has several operations today, such as the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. -
Interstate Highway System
The system started off as a list of roads essential to the Army for national defense. Eisenhower championed the idea of a national defense system and noted that ground transport routes were necessary for troop and supply movement in case of emergencies. Support for the system increased during the Cold War for fear of an invasion or nuclear attack during the Cold War era. Now, the system is used for a large volume of residential traffic.
