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Conflicts Over Texas, Maine, and Oregon
U.S. interest in pudhing its borfers southward into Texas and westward into the Oregon Territory. The result of American pioneers migrating into these lands. -
Texas
Texas won its national independence from Spain, Mexico and hoped to attract settlers.
-to farm its sparsley populated northern frontier province of Texas. -
Texas
Americans outnumbered the Mexicans in Texas by three to one.
-both white farmers and black slaves -
Period: to
Territorial and Economic Expansion, 1830-1860
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Revolt and Independence
Mexico's government intensified the conflict.
-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna made himself dictator of Mexico.
-abolished the nation's federal system of government. -
Revolt and Independence
A group of American settlers led by Sam Houston revolted and declared Texas to be an independent republic. -
Annexation Denied
Houston applied to the U.S. government for his country to be annexed, or added to, the U.S. as a new state. -
Boundary Dispute in Maine
An issue arose over the ill-defined boundary between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. -
Boundary Dispute in Maine
Canada was still under British rule, and many Americans regarded Britain as their country's worst enemy. -
Annexation Denied
President John Tyler was worried about the growing influence of the British in Texas.
-Worked to annex Texas, but the U.S. Senate rejected his treaty of annexation. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
Americans believed it to be their country's manifest destiny to take undisputed possesion of all of Oregon and to annex the Republic of Texas as well. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
Many Americans believed the election of 1844 to be their country's manifest destiny to take undiputed possession of all of Oregon and to the annex the Republic of Texas as well. -
The Election of 1844
Many northerners were opposed to its annexation because slavery was allowed in Texas. -
The Election of 1844
Henry Clay of Kentucky attempted to straddle the controversial issue of Texas annexation. -
The Election of 1844
The Whig's loos of New York's electoral votes proved decisive, and Polk, the Democratic dark house, was the victor. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
Mexican California had a small Spanish-Mexican population of some 7,000 along with a much larger number of Native Americans. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
The U.S. based its claim on the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792. The overland expedition to the Pacific Coast by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805. The fur trading post and fort in Astoria, Oregon, established by John Jacob Astor in 1811. -
Boundary Dispute of Oregon
Mexican California had a small Spanish-Mexican population of some 7,000 along with a much larger number of Native Americans. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
A far more serious British-American dispute involved Oregon.
-This territory was claimed by four different nations: Spain, Russia, Great Britain, and the U.S. -
Boundary Dispute in Oregon
There were fewr than a thousand Britishers living north of the Columbia River. -
Immediate Causes of the War
A Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande and captured an American army patrol, killing 11. -
Annexing Texas and Dividing Oregon
Jhon Tyler took the election of Polk as a signal to push the annexation of Texas through Congress. -
Annexing Texas and Dividing Oregon
Polk decided to compromise with Britain and back down from his party's bellicose campaign slogan, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" -
War With Mexico
The U.S. annexation of Texas led quickly to diplomatic trouble with Mexico. -
War With Mexico
President Polk dispatched John Slidell as his special envoy to the government in Mexico City. -
Military Campaigns
Zachary Taylor's force of 6,000 men drovbe the Mexican army form Texas, crossed the Rio Grande into northern Mxico, and won a major victory at Buena Vista. -
Military Campaigns
Most of the war was fought in Mexican territory by relatively small armies of Americans. -
Mining Frontier
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 set off the first of many migrations to the mineral-rich mountains of the west. -
Consequences of the War
The war was a military disaster from the start, but the Mexican government was unwilling to sue for peace and concede the loss of its northern lands. -
Farming Frontier
Most pioneer families moved west to start homesteads and begin faring. -
Urban Frontier
Western cities that arose as a result of railroads, mineral wealth, and farming attracted a number of professionals and businesspersons. -
Railroads
The canal-building era of the 1820s and 1830s was replaced in the next two decades with the rapid expansion of rail lines, especially across the Northeast and Midwest. -
Railroads
Cheap and rapid transportation particularly promoted western agriculture. -
Manifest Destiny to the South
Many southerners were dissatisfied with the the territorial gains from the Mexican War. -
Ostend Manifesto
President Polk offered to purchase Cuba from Spain for $100 million, but Spain refused to sell the last major remnant of its once glorious empire. -
The Expanding Economy
The era of territoral expansion coincided with a period of remarkable economic growth from the 1840s to 1857. -
Panic of 1857
The midcentury economic boom ended in 1857 with a financial panic. -
Industrial Technology
Factory production had mainly been concentrated in the textile mills of New England. -
Industrial Technology
The invention of sewing machine by Elias Howe took much of the production of clothing out of the home into the factory. -
Fur Traders' Frontier
Fur trades known as mountain men were the earliest nonnative group to open the Far West. -
Overland Trails
The next and much larger group of pioneers took the hazardous journey west in hopes of clearing the forests and farming the fertile valleys of California and Oregon. -
Expanison After the Civil War
From 1855 until 1870, the issues of union, slavery, civil war, and postwar reconstruction would overshadow the drive to acquire new territory. -
Settlement of the Western Territories
The migration of Americans into these lands began in earnest. The Mississippi Valley and Pacific Coast was known as the Great American Desert.