Manifest Destiny
What phrase described the belief that Americans were destined to spread across the continent?
Manifest Destiny
What was the Missouri Compromise (Compromise of 1820) intended to resolve?
The spread of slavery into the Louisiana Purchase / balancing free and slave states.
After Mexico won independence from Spain, Americans settled in which Mexican province that later fought for independence?
Texas
Which president was known for strongly supporting U.S. expansion and led the nation during the Mexican War era (1845–1849)?
James K. Polk.
What major event in 1849 caused a large migration to California?
The California Gold Rush
Name two economic reasons Americans moved west during the era of Manifest Destiny.
farmland (cheap land), natural resources (gold, timber, fur), new markets, or transportation improvements (railroads)
Which line was used in the Missouri Compromise to limit slavery in future states?
The 36th parallel (slavery banned north of it in the Louisiana Purchase except Missouri).
Name one cause of the Texas War for Independence.
Causes include cultural/political conflicts with Mexican government, Mexico’s limits on U.S. immigration and slavery, and Texans’ desire for independence.
What territory did the United States gain as a direct result of the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
Mexican Cession (present-day California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming) — ceded by Mexico in 1848.
Who were the “forty-niners”?
Gold-seekers who traveled to California in 1849.
How did the idea of Manifest Destiny affect U.S. relations with Native American peoples?
Displacement, violence, broken treaties, loss of land/culture for Native Americans
What were the main provisions of the Compromise of 1850? Name two.
California admitted as a free state; territorial governments in UT and NM with popular sovereignty; slave trade ended in D.C.; Fugitive Slave Act strengthened.
Who were two famous leaders associated with the Texas fight for independence and what role did each play?
David Crockett — frontiersman and defender at the Alamo; Sam Houston — military leader and later president of the Republic of Texas who led forces at San Jacinto.
How was the Oregon boundary dispute between the U.S. and Britain settled under President Polk? Give the boundary that was agreed on.
Settled at the 49th parallel for the U.S.-Canada border west to the Pacific.
Name one social effect and one economic effect of the California Gold Rush.
Social: population boom, increased diversity (including Asian immigration), and displacement of Native Californians. Economic: rapid growth of towns, business opportunities, and California’s quick admission as a state.
Give one political and one social effect of Manifest Destiny on the development of the nation.
Political: expansion of U.S. territory and sectional disputes over slavery. Social: increased nationalism, migration, and displacement of Native peoples.
How did the Fugitive Slave Act, part of the Compromise of 1850, increase tensions between North and South?
It required citizens and officials in free states to return escaped enslaved people, which many Northerners resisted and which increased abolitionist activity.
Name two major overland routes settlers used to move west.
Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail (also California Trail, Mormon Trail).
What was the Rio Grande controversy about as a cause of the Mexican War?
Dispute over whether Texas’s southern border was the Nueces River (Mexico’s claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim); battles near the Rio Grande led to war.
What was the Gadsden Purchase (1853)? Give one reason the U.S. wanted it.
The Gadsden Purchase was a small land purchase from Mexico (southern Arizona and New Mexico) to secure a southern route for a transcontinental railroad and settle boundary issues.
Explain how Manifest Destiny influenced the United States’ acquisition of new territory between 1840 and 1860. Include at least two specific examples.
Manifest Destiny justified annexations and wars (e.g., annexation of Texas, Mexican Cession after Mexican-American War, Oregon settlement), increasing U.S. territorial reach and sparking sectional conflict.
Explain the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s principle of “popular sovereignty” and one major consequence it caused.
Popular sovereignty let settlers vote on slavery; led to violent conflict in Kansas (“Bleeding Kansas”) and weakened national compromises.
Describe the significance of the Alamo in the Texas War for Independence.
The Alamo became a rallying symbol for Texan resistance after the defenders’ defeat; “Remember the Alamo” inspired recruits and support for independence.
Explain two major outcomes of James K. Polk’s presidency for U.S. territorial expansion.
Polk oversaw Texas annexation, the Mexican Cession, and settlement of the Oregon boundary, greatly increasing U.S. territory.
Summarize the Dred Scott decision and explain how it affected tensions between North and South
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) — Supreme Court ruled that people of African descent were not U.S. citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories; it invalidated parts of the Missouri Compromise and deepened sectional divisions.