The Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created an orderly procedure for establishing territories and applying for this political status.
What is Statehood?
In 1803, President Jefferson paid France $15 million for this massive acquisition, significantly adding to U.S. territory.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
The annexation of this republic by President James K. Polk in 1845 was a major underlying cause of the U.S.-Mexican War.
What is Texas?
The massive California Gold Rush was triggered by the unexpected discovery of gold at this specific location in 1848.
What is Sutter's Mill?
Completed in 1825, this vital waterway extended from Albany to Buffalo, essentially connecting the Atlantic Ocean at New York City to the Great Lakes.
What is the Erie Canal?
A devastating agricultural famine in the 1840s served as a major 'push factor' that encouraged massive immigration primarily from this European nation.
What is Ireland?
The Northwest Ordinance and the Land Ordinance of 1785 required a section of each new township's land to be set aside to support this institution.
What are public schools?
This philosophical concept was used to justify the aggressive expansionist policies of the U.S. government from coast to coast.
What is Manifest Destiny?
Mexico and the U.S. violently disagreed over the southern boundary of Texas, with the United States claiming it was this river.
What is the Rio Grande?
The population boom and economic transformation in California during the Gold Rush led to the rapid growth of this major coastal city.
What is San Francisco?
The Lewis and Clark expedition's route was heavily dictated by physical geography as they followed the paths of these two major rivers.
What are the Missouri and Columbia rivers?
Drawn to the West Coast by the Gold Rush, many Chinese immigrants subsequently found extensive work building these vital transportation structures.
What are railroads?
Congress initially needed the Northwest Ordinance to address competing land claims west of this major mountain range.
What are the Appalachian Mountains?
The slogan '54 40 or Fight' reflected American demands for control of this territory up to a specific northern latitude.
What is the Oregon Territory?
Signed in 1848, this pivotal document officially ended the U.S.-Mexican War and granted the Mexican Cession to the United States.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Because of the exceptionally rapid population growth resulting from the Gold Rush, California bypassed territorial phases and directly achieved this political status in 1850.
What is Statehood?
The need to bypass the steep terrain of this major mountain range for a southern transcontinental railroad led directly to the Gadsden Purchase.
What are the Rocky Mountains?
The Homestead Act of 1862 was designed to settle the plains by granting adult heads of families this specific amount of surveyed public land for a minimal fee.
What is 160 acres?
According to the Northwest Ordinance, a territory could apply for statehood once its population achieved this specific number.
What is 60,000?
This 1853 acquisition from Mexico provided the relatively flat land necessary to build a southern transcontinental railroad.
What is the Gadsden Purchase?
The vast territories acquired from Mexico brought this contentious national issue back into the spotlight when California requested admission as a state.
What is slavery?
California's proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the lure of gold led to a significant increase of immigration primarily from this region.
What is East Asia?
President Jefferson sought to acquire the Louisiana Territory primarily to ensure free access to this crucial port city for western farmers.
What is New Orleans?
Under the Homestead Act, claimants were strictly required to 'improve' their granted plot of land by building a dwelling and doing this specific activity.
What is cultivating the land (farming)?
Before reaching the population required for statehood, a territory could elect a self-governing representative body when it reached this population.
What is 5,000?
Originally ridiculed as 'Seward's Folly,' this territory was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million.
What is Alaska?
As part of the Compromise of 1850, Texas agreed to establish its current western borders in exchange for the U.S. government doing this.
What is paying its debts to Mexico?
In 1848, California's non-Native population was fewer than 15,000, but fueled by the Gold Rush, it had surged to this approximate number by 1860.
What is 380,000?
This physical feature served as the primary barrier to westward expansion up to 1790.
What are the Appalachian Mountains?
Despite the intent of the Homestead Act, of the 500 million acres dispersed by the government, the vast majority actually went to railroads, lumbermen, cattlemen, and this group.
Who are speculators?