Manifest Destiny
This phrase described the belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across North America.
Manifest Destiny
The primary overland route of roughly 2,000 miles from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest is known as this.
Oregon Trail
This river did the United States insist was the southern border of Texas, a point of dispute that helped spark war with Mexico.
The Rio Grande.
The 1846 proposed amendment intended to ban slavery in any territory gained from Mexico was called this.
Wilmot Proviso.
The Confederate attack on this federal fort in April 1861 marked the start of open hostilities in the Civil War.
Fort Sumter
Name two different meanings of "manifest destiny" as used in the mid-19th century.
(1) Individual movement west (settlement) (2) Political extension of U.S. territory/power.
The nickname for the large wave of migrants who arrived in California in 1849 is this.
49ers
The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War and ceded large territories to the United States is called this.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This doctrine, proposed by Lewis Cass, would leave the question of slavery in new territories up to their inhabitants.
Popular sovereignty
This 1863 proclamation declared freedom for slaves in rebel-held territories as of January 1, 1863.
Emanicipation Proclamation
Explain why most individual prospectors could not sustain long-term gold mining after the easily accessible gold ran out.
Westward Migration 300: Because surface gold was quickly exhausted; further mining required expensive machinery and capital (e.g., hydraulic mining), beyond reach of individual prospectors.
List three present-day states (or parts of states) that were included in the Mexican Cession.
California, Nevada, Utah (also parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming)
Name the compromise package of 1850 that admitted California as a free state and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law.
Compromise of 1850.
Name the three part Union strategy commonly referred to by a reptile's name.
The Anaconda Plan (blockade of southern ports; control Mississippi River; capture Richmond)
Identify one major political leader who used expansionist promises to win the presidency in 1844 and name the territory most associated with his campaign pledge.
James K. Polk; Texas/Oregon (Polk promised Texas annexation and a resolution of the Oregon boundary).
Name and briefly describe two federal laws or acts passed in 1862 that encouraged settlement, education, or transportation in the West.
Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862) — land grants to states for public colleges; Pacific Railroad Act (1862) — government bonds and land grants to railroad companies; Homestead Act (1862) — free land to settlers willing to farm it
Explain the role of the Nueces–Rio Grande border dispute in precipitating armed conflict between the U.S. and Mexico in 1846.
Mexico claimed Nueces River border, U.S. claimed Rio Grande; U.S. troops in disputed zone led to skirmishes; Polk declared that shed blood on American soil justified war.
Explain the components of the Compromise of 1850 that attempted to balance northern and southern interests (name at least 2 provisions).
Admit California as free state; tougher Fugitive Slave Law; territorial status for New Mexico and Utah with popular sovereignty; Texas boundary settlement; ban on slave trade in D.C.
Define "sharecropping" and explain how it limited economic independence for many freed people after the Civil War.
Renting land and paying rent with a share of the crop-led to cycles of debt, dependence, limited wealth accumulation.
Evaluate how the ideology of manifest destiny contributed to conflicts with Native American nations and with other countries (two specific examples).
Forced removal and reservation policies vs. treaties leading to conflict with tribes
Assess the political consequences in the U.S. of acquiring the Mexican Cession—how did it intensify sectional debates over slavery? Provide a specific developments.
Rising tensions over whether new territories would be slave or free—Wilmot Proviso, sectional disputes, growth of Free Soil movement, eventual Compromise of 1850, and political realignments
Discuss how the Dred Scott decision affected the status of the Missouri Compromise and the legal standing of African Americans in the United States.
Dred Scott invalidated congressional limits on slavery in territories like Missouri Compromise, ruled African Americans not citizens—intensified sectionalism and national crisis.
What was Lincolns 10 percent plan?
It proposed that a state could reform its government and rejoin the Union when 10% of its 1860 voters took a loyalty oath and accepted the emancipation of enslaved people.