agents who were contracted by the Mexican republic to bring settlers to Texas in the early l800
Empresarios
1848 peace treaty between Mexico and the United States
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Swiss immigrant who started the first Anglo-Californian colony in 1839
John Sutter
Empresario who established the first American colony in Texas
Stephen F. austin
Spanish mission in San Antonio, Texas, that was the site of a famous battle of the Texas Revolution in 1836
Alamo
purchase from Mexico of the southern parts of present-day New Mexico and Arizona in 1853
Gadsden Purchase
A group of western travelers who were trapped crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846–47
Donner party
cowboys
vaqueros
decisive victory that gave Texas independence from Mexico
Battle Of San Jacinto
U.S. president, elected in 1844, whose administration annexed both Texas and Oregon
James K. Polk
gold-seeking migrants who traveled to California in 1849
forty-niners
rebellion of American settlers against the Californios in 1846
Bear Flag Revolt
Mexican leader who came to power in 1830 and suspended Mexico’s constitution
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Spanish colonists and their descendants living in California
Californios
Miners who used pans or other devices to wash gold nuggets from loose rock or gravel
Placer Miners
priest who led the first major Mexican revolt against Spanish rule in 1810
Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
belief that America’s fate was to conquer land all the way to the Pacific Ocean
Manifest Destiny
search for gold
prospect