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Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio, killing the Texan and immigrant occupiers. Santa Anna's cruelty during the battle inspired many Texans, both legal Texas settlers and illegal immigrants from the United States, to join the Texan Army. Texans defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, ending the rebellion. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny was a widely held belief in the 19th-century United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny:
The virtues of the American people and their institutions should spread, The mission of the United States to remake the west in the image of agrarian America, and an irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty (many tying it to religion). -
Oregon Dispute (54-40)
The Oregon Dispute was a contest between the Americans and British over the Oregon Territory. Extreme British claims went down to the 42nd parallel, and Americans up to the 54th. The Oregon Treaty settled the border at the 49th Parallel in 1846. -
Mexican-American War
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered Mexican territory. In the 1844 United States presidential election, James K. Polk was elected on a platform of expansionism. Polk sent troops to the Texas; and a diplomatic mission to Mexico to negotiate the sale of territory. Mexican forces attacked U.S. forces occupying Texas, and Congress declared war. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the peace treaty signed between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The treaty came into force on July 4, 1848. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills passed by Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states. It settled the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War. It also set Texas's western and northern borders and included provisions addressing fugitive slaves and the slave trade. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase, is a 29,670-square-mile region that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla. The purchase included lands south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande where the U.S. wanted to build a transcontinental railroad. The purchase also aimed to resolve other border issues with Mexico. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, or Bloody Kansas, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States which emerged from a political debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and retributive murders carried out in Kansas and neighboring Missouri by pro-slavery forces and anti-slavery counter-forces. -
Election of 1860
In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin (VP) emerged triumphant. The election of Lincoln served as the primary catalyst of the American Civil War. -
Anaconda Plan
The Anaconda Plan was the name of a Union Army strategy for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized a Union blockade of the Southern ports and called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862 near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest day in United States military history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, and effective as of January 1, 1863. It changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states from slave to free. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia by Major General William Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta and ended with the capture of Savannah. His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets, industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy's economy and transportation. -
Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws governing the conduct of African-Americans after the American Civil War. They restricted African-Americans' freedom, and to compel them to work for low wages. -
The Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. Later, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. -
The Reconstruction Acts
The Reconstruction Acts were four statutes passed during the Reconstruction Era by Congress addressing requirement for Southern States to be readmitted to the Union. Fulfillment of the requirements of the Acts was necessary for the former Confederate States to be readmitted to the Union from military and Federal control imposed during and after the American Civil War. -
Sharecropping
Sharecropping became widespread in the South as a response to the end of slavery during and after Reconstruction. Sharecropping was a way for poor farmers, both white and black, to earn a living from land owned by someone else. The landowner provided materials on credit. At harvest time, the sharecropper received a share of the crop. The cropper used his share to pay off his debt to the merchant. -
Civil RIghts act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended to protect the rights African-Americans. This legislation was passed by Congress in 1865 and vetoed by United States President Andrew Johnson. After a second Veto, a two-thirds majority in each chamber overrode the it allowing it to become law without presidential signature. -
Andrew Johnson's Impeachment
Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the former slaves. This led to conflict with Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. -
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America until 1877. In the United States the Panic was known as the "Great Depression" until the events of the early 1930s set a new standard. The Panic had several underlying causes: American inflation, speculative investments, the demonetization of silver in Germany and the US, and ripples from the Franco-Prussian War (1870).
