Creating America (Survey)

Transcription

1 Creating America (Survey) Chapter 13: Manifest Destiny, Section 1: Trails West Main Idea: Thousands of settlers followed trails through the West to gain land and a chance to make a fortune. Jedediah Smith and Jim Beckwourth were two famous mountain men, or fur trappers and explorers, who helped open up the West during the early 1800s. Under the rendezvous system, trappers met with traders at agreed-upon sites to trade furs for supplies. In 1840, silk hats replaced beaver hats, and the fur trade died out. Mountain men blazed trails used by pioneers moving west. Many people went west to make money. Land speculators bought huge areas of land, which they divided and sold to settlers. Manufacturers, merchants, and traders also went west. One trader, William Becknell, opened the Santa Fe Trail, a route that avoided the mountains. Each year hundreds of prairie schooners, or covered wagons, traveled this route from Missouri to New Mexico. Many settlers also used the Oregon Trail, which ran from Independence, Missouri, to the Oregon Territory. Some were missionaries. Others were attracted by reports of rich land. For safety, settlers joined wagon trains. The Mormons went west for religious reasons. They belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some people reacted angrily to the Mormon practice of polygamy, which allows a man to have more than one wife at a time. In 1844, an anti- Mormon mob in Illinois killed Joseph Smith, the Mormon leader. Brigham Young moved the Mormons to Utah, which was then part of Mexico. In 1847, about 1,600 Mormons settled by the Great Salt Lake in Utah. 1

2 Section 2: The Texas Revolution Main idea: American and Tejano citizens led Texas to independence from Mexico. The Spanish land called Tejas bordered the U.S. territory called Louisiana. In 1821, only about 4,000 Tejanos lived in Texas. Tejanos are people of Spanish heritage who consider Texas their home. The Spanish government had trouble attracting settlers to Texas. It therefore gave permission to Moses Austin to start a colony there. However, Moses soon died. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, so Moses son Stephen asked Mexico for permission to start the colony. Mexico granted his request. Stephen promised that the settlers would become Mexican citizens and Roman Catholics. By 1830, Americans in the colony outnumbered Tejanos. But the Americans resented Mexican laws. Mexico also upset American slave owners by outlawing slavery in Finally, the Mexican government closed Texas to further settlement by Americans. It also began to tax Texans. In 1833, Austin presented a petition to the Mexican president, General Santa Anna. At first, he agreed to Austin s requests, which were supported by both Americans and Tejanos. Then Santa Anna learned that Austin would support breaking away from Mexico if the requests were not granted. Santa Anna jailed Austin and sent troops to Texas. In 1836, Texas declared its independence. Sam Houston took command of the small Texas army. One company was stationed in southeast Texas. A second company, headed by William Travis, stood at the Alamo, an old San Antonio mission. In addition, Juan Seguín led a group of Tejanos who supported the rebellion. At the Battle of the Alamo, Mexicans killed all but five Texans. Then they executed the survivors. In April 1836, Houston s forces captured Santa Anna and forced him to give Texas independence. 2

3 In September 1836, Texans adopted the nickname Lone Star Republic. They elected Houston as president. In 1836, the Texas government asked Congress to annex Texas into the Union. Many Northerners objected because Texas would be a slave state. Others feared war with Mexico. Congress voted against annexation. Section 3: The War with Mexico Main Idea: The United States expanded its territory westward to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Manifest destiny the idea that the United States was meant to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean became government policy after Americans elected James K. Polk as president in Polk had talked of taking over all of Oregon. Instead, the United States and Britain divided Oregon at the 49th parallel in This became the boundary between the United States and Canada. In 1845, Congress admitted Texas as a slave state. However, Mexico still claimed Texas. While Texas claimed the Rio Grande River as its southern boundary, Mexico insisted on the Nueces River. Polk sent army General Zachary Taylor to blockade the Rio Grande. When a Mexican cavalry unit killed some American soldiers, Congress declared war. In May 1846, General Taylor led his troops into Mexico. General Stephen Kearny and his soldiers took New Mexico without a fight. In the Bear Flag Revolt, rebels declared California independent of Mexico. The U.S. army supported the rebels. Soon, Americans controlled all of California. Taylor marched south to the Mexican city of Monterrey. He met 15,000 Mexican soldiers led by Santa Anna and forced them to retreat. 3

4 In southern Mexico, a second force led by General Winfield Scott landed at Veracruz and moved toward Mexico City. The city fell to Scott in September The war ended in February 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Texas became part of the United States, and the Rio Grande was recognized as the border between the two countries. Mexico ceded almost half its land in the Mexican Cession. With the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the United States bought more land from Mexico. Section 4: The California Gold Rush Main Idea: Gold was found in California, and thousands rushed to that territory. California quickly became a state. Starting in 1849, people called forty-niners went to California to find gold. Before that, California had about 150,000 Native Americans and 6,000 Californios California settlers of Spanish or Mexican descent. John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant, persuaded the governor of California to grant him land in the Sacramento Valley. In 1848, Sutter employed a carpenter named James Marshall, who found gold nearby. This started the California gold rush people moving to the site where gold had been found. Some forty-niners traveling from the East sailed around South America and up the Pacific coast. Others sailed to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed overland, and then sailed to California. Still others traveled across North America. Life in the mining camps was hard. Miners faced exhaustion, poor food, and disease. They paid high prices for supplies. Gamblers and con artists often swindled them. Few miners grew rich. 4

5 Most forty-niners were Americans, although Native Americans, free blacks, and enslaved African Americans also worked the mines. Miners also came from Mexico, Europe, South America, Australia, and China. Through hard work, Chinese miners yielded profits from sites abandoned by Americans. American miners resented their success. California soon passed the Foreign Miners tax, which required foreign miners to pay $20 per month. Most foreigners left the mine fields. The gold rush ended in 1852, but the huge migration to California changed the state permanently. San Francisco became a center of banking and manufacturing, Sacramento an important farming region. Many Native Americans died from diseases brought by newcomers. The miners killed thousands more. By 1870 the Native American population had fallen from 150,000 to 58,000. In 1850, the United States admitted California as a free state. As a result, free states outnumbered slave states. 5