Chapter 12
Territorial Expansion, 1820-1854
From Sea to Shining Sea
 After the U.S. acquired the Louisiana
Territory, Americans looked forward
to a country that extended from coast
to coast
 The government worried that it may
not be able to protect and provide
services to a country that large
 We already had:
 Louisiana Purchase - 1803
 Adams-Onis Treaty - 1819
 Spain ceded Florida and any claims in
Oregon to U.S.
 The U.S. was to give up claims to Texas and
pay Spain $5 million
 What about slavery in these new
territories?
 Because of the Missouri Compromise,
slavery was prohibited from the areas
of Kansas to Oklahoma
 But what about any new territories?
 That would be faced later
 Whigs were against expansion
 Democrats were for it
 In the 1840s opportunities to acquire
more land arose
 Map, p. 337
 For example -- Texas
Texas
 The great plains of the American
continent extended into Texas and
Mexican Territory
 Moses Austin thought he could make
money raising cattle there; it was
also near a water source for
transportation
 Austin also felt the land would be
good for cotton
 Moses Austin died leaving his idea to his
son, Stephen Austin
 So Stephen Austin made a deal with
Mexico:
 Allowing 300 American families to settle in Texas
 Each household would receive 177 acres to farm
and 1300 acres for grazing
 Austin promised that settlers would follow
Mexican law, learn Spanish, and observe
Catholicism
 But 20,000 whites and 2,000 slaves
had come by 1834
 Texas became American in culture
and custom and also became very
prosperous
 Then in 1831, Mexico abolished
slavery
 In 1833, General Santa Anna became
president
 Santa Anna worked to centralize the
powers of his government
 He then canceled foreign trading
rights
 And he ended much of the autonomy
Texans enjoyed
 Some Anglo and Hispanic Texans
rebelled and seized the Alamo in San
Antonio
 Santa Anna would not negotiate and
led 6,000 troops to the fort
 Only 200 Texans were at the Alamo ,
including Jim Bowie and Davy
Crockett
 Sam Houston was off in the east
trying to raise an army to help those
at the Alamo
 Santa Anna waited for 10 days for the
Alamo to surrender
 Texans were waiting for Sam Houston
to arrive
 When Santa Anna realized this, he
attacked and ordered all prisoners
killed, except for some women
 The executions got Texans mad
 Then at San Jacinto, Houston
defeated the Mexican army and took
Santa Anna captive
 Santa Anna agreed to give
independence to Texas in order to win
his freedom
 After Santa Anna’s release, he
refused to recognize this
independence
 Santa Anna could no longer fight
because his demoralized army had
had enough
Lone Star Republic
 In October 1836, Sam Houston
became president
 Texas set up a government like that
of the U.S.
 It then legalized slavery
 Texans hoped for annexation to the
U.S.
 Andrew Jackson like the idea, but
Congress didn’t
 Congress didn’t like the idea of
slavery in Texas
 So Jackson delayed recognition of
Texas
 When Martin Van Buren became
president in 1836, he opposed
annexation
 Later, statehood was secured by
President John Tyler and approved of
by President James Polk, his
successor
Oregon Country
 Oregon Country was shared by Britain and
the U.S.
 It was peopled by fur trappers and
mountain men
 Jeremiah Johnson (liver-eatin’)
 Jim Beckwourth (discovered a pass
through
Sierra Nevadas)
 Jedidiah Smith (opened South Pass in Wyoming)
 Jim Bridger (explored Rockies & was first to see
Great lake
 These men met every year to trade,
tell stories, and give geography
lessons
 They said it was possible to cross
overland to Oregon
 And so established the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
 Map, p. 342
 Missionaries were the first to use it
 The trail began at Independence,
Missouri
 In 1843 the first wagon train left
 The people swore to observe rules of
behavior and cooperation
 Mountain men were hired to lead
 The trail crossed Kansas to the Platte
River, to Fort Laramie and South Pass
in Wyoming, through the Rockies, to
the Snake and Columbia Rivers, to
the Pacific
 Today we find trail ruts
 Members of the wagon train made 20
miles a day -- on a good day
 Native Americans didn’t bother them
because they weren’t staying to take
their land
 There were deaths from accidents
and from disease
 Children got lost forever in the grasses
 Grave markers were placed by the side
of the trail and let people know they
were on the right trail
 In July 1843 the Oregon Territory was
divided between Britain and the
United States at its present boundary
Santa Fe Trail
 In 1609, Santa Fe was established by
Spanish adventurers and there were
restrictions on trade with the U.S.
 When an independent Mexico
abandoned these Spanish restrictions,
an American named William Becknell
blazed an 800-mile trail to Santa Fe
 Becknell was a businessman from
Independence, Missouri
 He brought goods to the 7,000
inhabitants of Santa Fe who were
starved for goods
 Santa Fe was too far away from the
center of Mexico to feel connected to
it
 Becknell made lots of money
 Other merchants followed
 Inhabitants felt more linked to U.S.
Push to the Pacific
 James Polk won the Presidential
Election of 1844
 Chart, p. 345
 In his inauguration speech he stated:
 He would serve only 1 term
 He would finalize Texas’ admission to US
 He would acquire New Mexico and
California from Mexico
 He would get Oregon
 Texas’ admission to U.S. had been
secured by Inauguration Day
 Oregon had also been settled by that
day
 Then Polk offered Mexico $30 million
for California and New Mexico
 Mexico refused
 Polk finagled a war
War with Mexico
 Map, p. 349
 Santa Anna was president, and he
moved cautiously with U.S.
 Polk was determined to go to war, so
he asked Congress for a Declaration
of War against Mexico because of bad
debts
 To help Congress decide, Polk then ordered
Zachary Taylor to take 1,500 men from the
Nueces River in Texas to the Rio Grande in
Mexican Territory
 This resulted in a skirmish where 16
American soldiers were killed in April of
1846
 However, Polk declared Mexico the
aggressor and got his declaration of war
 Within 2-years time, the United
States conquered most of this
western territory
 Mexicans were ill-equipped and
demoralized from incessant civil wars
 Summer 1846 – Santa Fe was taken
without resistance; California was
also taken
 September 1846 – Zachary Taylor
took Monterrey
 February 1847 – Taylor took Buena
Vista
 September 1847 – Mexico City was
taken
 Many in U.S. believed expansion was
inevitable, pre-ordained, and just
 John O’Sullivan, a New York
journalist, had coined the phrase
“Manifest Destiny” in 1840s
 Americans felt it had come to be
 The Mexican/American War was
settled by the Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo, signed in February 1848
 In this treaty:
 Mexico ceded to the U.S. the Rio Grande,
California, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona,
and Nevada
 The U.S. paid Mexico $15 million and
assumed Mexico’s $3 million debt to U.S.
Mexico had lost 1/3 of its territory
The partition of their country in this way
left a bitter taste in the mouths of
Mexicans
Opposition
 The Mexican War was generally
popular in the United States
 It was an easy fight
 Only 1,700 died in battle and 11,000
died of disease
 But there were critics of the war
 Many Whigs, including Abraham
Lincoln, voted against it
 New England clergymen were against
the war
 Intellectuals like Ralph Waldo
Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
felt the war was unjust
 Thoreau refused to pay taxes because he
felt it was that money which would pay
for that unjust war; he went to jail
 Some military were against the war
like Ulysses S. Grant who said it was
an unjustifiable war
 After the war, Polk said he wanted
more of Mexico, plus Cuba, the West
Indies, Hawaii, and Canada
 He didn’t get them
Railroads
 Map, p. 351
 Railroads built during the 1840s and
the 1850s truly transformed America
 With technology from England our
first 2 railroad systems took off
 The Charleston & Hamburg in S. Carolina
 The Baltimore & Ohio in Maryland
 Later several other lines developed
 They carried passengers and freight
into areas without canals
 Railroads expanded so that by 1860
all the states east of the Mississippi
had service
 Initially, canals were cheaper to use
for freight
 By the 1850s, many railroads had put
some canals out of business
 Because of the use of iron, railroads
helped develop an iron industry in
America as well as others
 Railroads helped to develop towns
 Towns invested in railroads
 Governments provided land grants
Industry
 Industry began expanding into other
areas besides the textile industry
 Bringing all the processes under one
roof was new to many areas
 Products had been made in homes
previously
 This was cottage industry or the puttingout system
 Work was also done in small workshops
 As industry grew, work life became
more impersonal
 Even though the use of machines had
increased by 1860, we still could not
be called an industrialized nation
 But we were changing
 New inventions kept on coming
 List, p. 355
Immigration
 The original reason for mechanizing
was because America had a labor
shortage
 But that changed quickly
 Between 1820 and 1840, about
700,000 immigrants arrived in the
U.S. mainly from the British Isles and
Germany
 During the 1840s, immigration
increased
 4.2 million came between 1840 and
1860
 They came from Ireland mainly where
there was a potato famine
 1.5 million arrived from Ireland fron
1845 to 1854
 They were Catholic and many in U.S.
didn’t like Catholics
 They put signs in business windows
saying “No Irish Need Apply”
 Also during that time about 1 million
Germans arrived
 Artisans
 Farmers
 Those who wanted democracy
 All wanted economic opportunity and
a better life
 The majority worked for wages
 Those without much money stayed in
the cities
 Others who could buy land, moved on
 Chart, p. 356
Religious Movements
 Religious movements took hold in the
first half of the 18th century
 Mormons
 One of the more controversial religions
to develop
 Known as the Church of Latter day
Saints or the Mormons
 Became controversial in the 1820s &
1830s
 Founded by Joseph Smith of New York
 Searched for a faith that made sense to
him
 Claimed an angel led him to a buried
book of revelations and special stones to
help translate it
 It became known as the Book of Mormon
 This book spoke of Mormons being the
descendents of ancient Hebrews who
came to America
 It placed America at the center of
Christian history and it appealed to
many
 Joseph Smith and his followers
moved west to Nauvoo, Illinois and
built a model city
 People around Nauvoo didn’t like the
Mormons’ claim that they had new
revelations from Christ
 In 1843, Smith said he received
another revelation from God
sanctioning polygamy and he saw
himself as a prophet of God
 Smith announced his candidacy for
president in 1844
 The state of Illinois charged him with
treason and jailed him
 He and his brother were murdered
there in Carthage, Illinois by an angry
mob in June 1844
 Mormons continued to make converts
in England, and then they came to
America
 In 1840 there were 6,000 Mormons
 By 1870 there were 200,000
 Brigham Young led the Mormons after
Smith’s death and led them to Salt
Lake City, Utah
 At that time it was still under Mexican
control
 They established the Republic of
Deseret
 Map, p. 342
 Picture p. 343
 They lived apart from American
society and still practiced polygamy
 They were industrious, disciplined,
and committed to the welfare of other
Mormons
 They transformed the Salt Lake Valley
into a productive area
 They appealed to the downtrodden
 They went against accepted religious
standards
 They used the Bible and the Book of
Mormon
 They practiced polygamy
 They worked to have economic
cooperation rather than competition
 Shakers
 Name comes from their convulsive
dancing that was part of their rituals
 Their founder was Mother Ann Lee from
England
 They formed a tightly knit community in
New Lebanon, New York
 They were artisans (Shaker furniture)
 They were hostile to materialism
 Members had to reject sex and teach of
its evils
 They thought the end of the world was
near
 They believed the second coming of
Christ would be in the form of a woman
 They had to keep making converts to
survive since they rejected “natural
increase”
 Around 1850 there were 6,000 Shakers
in 8 states
 They lived apart from society
 There are perhaps 5 or 6 Shakers today