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Spain settles New Mexico
- New Mexico was the oldest colony along New Spain's northwestern frontier. -One factor discouraging furthur settlement was teh threat of war with nomadic Native Americans in surrounding areas.
- The Nomads began to acquire firearms from French traders.
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Missions Thrive in California
- The Spanish extended their northern buffer zone to the west by colonizing the Californian coast.
- Lacking colonists, the Spanish leaders sought to convert Indians to Christianity.
- By the time of Father Serra's death in 1784, California had two agricultural towns, four presidios, and nine missions.
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Americans trade with Mexico
- The traders launched a growing commerce along what became known as the Santa Fe Trail.
- In exchange for American manufacutred goods, the New Mexicans offered horses, mules, furs, an silver.
- Mexican independece was the cause of spurred American trade.
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Mountain Men Cross the Rockies
- Restless in pursuit of furs, the Mountain Men thoroughly proved the Rockies, making important discoveries.
- Mountain Men were young American trappers who hunted for beaver pelts in the Rockies.
- Smith's trade and migration route became the California Trail, linking the United States with the Pacific coast.
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Americans Migrate to Texas
- Led by Stephen F. Austin, American emigrants began to settle east of San Antonio, founding the town of Austin.
- By 1835, Texas was home to about 30,000 American settlers. -These settlers were known as Anglo- Texans.
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Alamo
- On February 23, 1836, a Mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort.
- The Alamo’s 200 defenders were outnumbered by the Mexicans.
- For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their heroic resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year.
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Oregon Trail
- The Whitman compound served as a magnet and way station for farm families bound farther west to the fertile Wllamette Valley.
- In 1847, the Whitmans were killed by Native Americans who blamed them for a deadly measles epidemic.
- The Oregon Trail was mostly farmers.
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John C. Fremont Expedition
- John followed trails blazed by the Mountain Men and the Whitmans.
- His vivid and romantic reports gave wider publicity to the fertility of the Far West.
- In the next couple of years, the overland trails drew thousands of settlers west to California and Oregon.
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Expansion Debate
- Texans elected Sam Houston as their first president.
- Texans continued to apply in vain for annexation.
- Houston tried to pressure Congress by pretending to consider joining the British Empire.
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Mexican- American War
- In May 1846, a Mexican patrol clashed with AMerican soldiers, killing eleven.
- The Mexicans lacked the industries that so quickly and abundantly supplied the Americans with arms and ammunition.
- Americans had a larger and better navy and more advanced artillery.
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Wilmot Proviso
-Wilmot introduced legislation in the House that boldly declared, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in lands won in the Mexican-American War.
- Wilmot and other northerners were angered by President Polk.
-They felt that the entire Cabinet and national agenda were dominated by southern minds and southern principles. -
Mormons move west
- Brigham Young, led the Mormons across the Great Plains and the Rockies to establish the colony of New Zion. -Through hard work the Mormons were able to make the arid land bloom by diverting water from mountain streams.
- By 1860's, about 40,000 Mormons lived in the West.
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Forty- Niners rush to California
- Forty- Niners traveled by land trails and others went by ship around South America.
- The golden news also attracted miners from around the Pacific Rim.
- 25,000 laborers migrated from China to California during the 1850s.
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Indians and Mexicans Face Discrimination
- White miners terroized and killed Native Americans by the thousands.
- Indians became workers on farms and ranches.
- Contraty to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the courts ignored land titles created under Mexican law.
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California Seeks Statehood
- The new Californians wanted quickly to organize a state and enter the union.
- The leaders held a convention and drew up a state constitution.
- Most of the new Californians were northerners who did not want to compete with southern slaveholders who could use slave labor to seek gold.
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