The Gold Rush
This is the nickname given to the massive wave of gold-seekers who arrived in California.
What are forty-niners?
This powerful rallying cry was adopted by the Texas army following the slaughter of nearly 180 volunteers at an old Spanish mission.
What is "Remember the Alamo!"?
This famous mountain man survived a brutal grizzly bear attack in 1824 and had his ear stitched back on by a fellow hunter.
Who is Jedediah Smith?
Coined in 1845, this term described the belief that it was the "God-given right" of Americans to expand across the continent.
What is Manifest Destiny?
This 2,000-mile route began in Independence, Missouri, and ended in Oregon City.
What is the Oregon Trail?
This city’s population exploded from a small town to a major city almost overnight.
What is San Francisco?
He was the commander of the Texas army who led a surprise 18-minute attack at San Jacinto to win independence.
Who is Sam Houston?
This annual trading arrangement allowed mountain men to swap their beaver pelts for essential supplies like gunpowder and coffee.
What is the Rendezvous System?
While the U.S. claimed the Texas border was the Rio Grande, the Mexican government insisted the true historical border was this river.
What is the Nueces River?
To time their journey correctly, overland travelers had to leave in the spring when this was long enough to feed their livestock
What is Grass?
While the average prospector faced a cycle of debt, this group grew wealthy by capitalizing on a "Scarcity Economy," selling five-cent loaves of bread for $2 and collecting gold dust as guaranteed payment for their services.
Who were the merchants (or shop owners)?
These were the first 300 hardworking, hand-picked families chosen by Stephen F. Austin to settle his new colony in Texas.
Who were the "Old Three Hundred"?
While searching for beaver streams through unknown canyons and mountain passes, this group of rugged trappers "accidentally" earned this title in American history.
Who are the greatest explorers?
This 1848 treaty forced Mexico to give up a vast region known as the "Mexican Cession" in exchange for $15 million.
What is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
This mining technique used high-pressure water hoses to blast away entire mountainsides, causing massive silt buildup in rivers.
What is hydraulic mining?
Miners from the Eastern U.S. who chose the sea route had to sail 18,000 miles around this treacherous southern tip of South America.
What is Cape Horn?
Though requested by Texas in 1836, this political process was delayed for nearly a decade because Northerners feared it would upset the balance of power by adding a new slave state.
What is annexation?
This wide, flat gap in the Wyoming Rockies was discovered by Jedediah Smith and became the only route flat enough for heavy wagons to cross.
What is the South Pass?
He was the expansionist "underdog" candidate who won the election of 1844 by promising to annex Texas and take over Oregon.
James K. Polk
This "shortcut" to California involved sailing to Central America and crossing through jungles, though it carried a high risk of tropical disease.
What is the Panama Shortcut (or Isthmus of Panama)?
To reduce competition, the California legislature passed this law in 1850 requiring non-citizens to pay a massive $20 monthly fee to mine.
What is the Foreign Miners Tax?
In February 1847, this future U.S. president led a force of only 4,800 troops to a stunning victory against General Santa Anna’s 15,000 soldiers at this specific battle.
What is the Battle of Buena Vista? (or Who is Zachary Taylor?)
Brigham Young led this group on a journey to the Great Salt Lake in Utah to find peace and escape religious persecution.
Who are the Mormons?
In 1846, President James K. Polk avoided a potential second war with Great Britain by agreeing to divide the Oregon Territory at this specific line of latitude.
What is the 49th parallel?
He was the Missouri trader who pioneered the 800-mile Santa Fe Trail for commercial profit in 1821.
Who is William Becknell?