-
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The Northwest Ordinance, officially titled "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio," was adopted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787. Also known as the Ordinance of 1787, the Northwest Ordinance established a government for the Northwest Territory, outlined the process for admitting a new state to the Union, and guaranteed that newly created states would be equal to the original thirteen states. Considered one of the most imp -
Louisiana Purchase
A treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The United States purchased Louisiana from France in 1803. The huge part of the land west of the Mississippi River was completely unknown to Americans and needed to be examined first before it could be settled. President Jefferson decided to send an exploratory expedition west so he appointed his own private secretary, Meriwether Lewis as a Commander in charge of the expedition and finding appropriate guides for it. Lewis invited William Clark. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was an armed conflict between the United States and the British Empire. The British restricted the American trade since they feared it was harmful for their war with France and they also wanted to set up an Indian state in the Midwest in order to maintain their influence in the region. That’s why 10,000 Native Americans fought on the side of the British in this war. -
Purchase of Florida from Spain
American troops already in Florida (Andrew Jackson had captured Pensacola in 1818), the Spanish government recognized that the United States would likely conquer Florida and agreed to sell it to the United States, as well as give up its rights to the Oregon Territory. -
Missouri Compromise
Agreement put forward by Henry Clay that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter the Union as a free state. The Compromise also drew an imaginary line at 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, dividing the new Louisiana Territory into two areas, one north and one south. All of the Louisiana Territory north of this line was free territory, meaning that any territories that became states from this area would enable African-Americans to be free. -
Erie Canal
An artificial waterway built across New York state in the early nineteenth century, linking Lake Erie and the Hudson River. The canal opened trade between New York and the midwestern states and aided in the growth of New York City as a port. -
Indian Removal Act
A law signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 providing for the general resettlement of Native Americans to lands W of the Mississippi River. From 1830 to 1840 approximately 60,000 Native Americans were forced to migrate. Of some 11,500 Cherokees moved in 1838, about 4,000 died along the way. -
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of the Cherokee Native American tribe to the Western United States, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokee Indians. In the Cherokee language, the event is called Nunna daul Isunyi - "the Trail Where We Cried." The Trail of Tears resulted from the enforcement of the Treaty of New Echota, an agreement signed under the provisions of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. -
Annexation of Texas
On March 1, 1845 the United States Congress passed a "Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States" and Texas was subsequently admitted it to the Union as the 28th state. The Texas border dispute with Mexico quickly led to the Mexican-American War during the presidency of James Polk. -
Mormon Movement
The Mormons started their movement into the West in 1846 due to their persecutions in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, for their strong religious beliefs. The Mormons had numerous reasons for moving there, the West was mostly unsettled and free from those who opposed polygamy, they could freely practice their religion without being punished and ridiculed from everyone around them, and finally, they wanted a land where they could start their own Mormon society. -
California Gold Rush
The Calfornia Gold Rush is when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. As news of the discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing ship and in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Peace treaty between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican War. Negotiations were carried on for the United States by Nicholas P. Trist. The treaty was signed on Feb. 2, 1848, in the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, just outside Mexico City. It confirmed U.S. claims to Texas and set its boundary at the Rio Grande. -
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon existed from August 1848 until February 1859. That period ended when Oregon became an American State on February 14, 1859. The Territory of Oregon encompassed the segments of present-day Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Montana as well as parts of British Columbia which is now a Canadian province. -
Gadsden Purchase
1853 agreement to buy a strip of land in what is now the southern United States so that a railroad line could be built to the Gulf of California. James Gadsden was the U.S. Minister to Mexico and the man responsible for the deal. This was only five years after the end of the Mexican War and the delivery of the Mexican Cession. He agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for 45,535 square miles of territory that was almost as big as Pennsylvania. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The act of Congress in 1854 annulling the Missouri Compromise, providing for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and permitting these territories self-determination on the question of slavery. -
Homestead Act
A law passed in the 1860s that offered up to 160 acres of public land to any head of a family who paid a registration fee, lived on the land for five years, and cultivated it or built on it. -
Transcontinental Railroad
A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah. -
The Dawes Act
Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored a landmark piece of legislation, the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act) in 1887. It was designed to encourage the breakup of the tribes and promote the assimilation of Indians into American Society. It will be the major Indian policy until the 1930s. Dawes' goal was to create independent farmers out of Indians, give them land and the tools for citizenship. -
Spanish-American War
The immediate origins of the 1898 Spanish-American War began with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894. The American tariff, which put restrictions on sugar imports to the United States, severely hurt the economy of Cuba, which was based on producing and selling sugar. In Cuba, then a Spanish colony, angry nationalists known as the insurrectos began a revolt against the ruling Spanish colonial regime.
