Pre Andrew Jackson
Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1804, this official military unit led by Lewis and Clark was tasked with exploring and mapping the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.
What is the Corps of Discovery?
Authorized by Andrew Jackson in 1830, this legislation led to the forced, brutal relocation of tens of thousands of Native Americans along the "Trail of Tears."
What is the Indian Removal Act?
James Marshall's 1848 discovery at Sutter's Mill sparked this massive migration event, sending hundreds of thousands of settlers rushing to the Pacific Coast.
What is the California Gold Rush?
Coined by journalist John O'Sullivan in 1845, this two-word phrase described the belief that America was divinely ordained to expand across the continent, directly driving the territorial acquisitions that reopened the slavery debate.
What is Manifest Destiny?
Passed in 1862 to promote northern-style agrarian capitalism, this landmark federal act accelerated post-bellum migration by offering 160-acre plots of public domain land to individual settlers.
What is the homestead act
Signed in 1819, this hyphenated treaty saw Spain officially cede Florida to the United States in exchange for the U.S. dropping territorial claims on Texas.
What is the Adams-Onís Treaty?
This collective term refers to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes, who had adopted many European customs before being forced off their ancestral lands.
Who are the Five Civilized Tribes?
Led by Brigham Young following the murder of Joseph Smith, this religious group fled persecution in Illinois to establish a new settlement in the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Who are the Mormons?
This sweeping legislative package attempted to defuse sectional tensions over territories acquired from the Mexican-American War by admitting California as a free state while enacting a highly controversial, stricter Fugitive Slave Act.
What is the Compromise of 1850?
Driven by nativist labor anxieties on the pacific coast following the completion of the transcontinental rail road, this 1882 statute marked the first time the federal government barred an immigrant group from entering the west.
What is the chinese exclusion act
Acting as a vital bilingual guide and diplomat, this Shoshone woman was the most important non-military member of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Who is Sacagawea?
Completed in 1825, this 363-mile engineering marvel connected the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, triggering a massive boom in western settlement and trade.
What is the Erie Canal?
Rallying behind the aggressive expansionist slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", Polk successfully negotiated with Great Britain to secure the southern half of this Pacific Northwest territory.
What is the Oregon Territory?
Nicknamed the "Little Giant," this Illinois Democratic leader heavily championed the controversial concept of popular sovereignty allowing western settlers to vote on slavery in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Who is Stephen A. Douglas?
Seeking the escape of Jim crow law and subjugation and crop lien system, this large scale migration of African Americans in the late 1870s targeted the great plains, establishing independent farming.
Who are the Exodusters?
Following his decisive victory over the Red Stick Creeks in 1814, Andrew Jackson forced native leaders to sign this treaty, ceding 23 million acres of land in Alabama and Georgia.
What is the Treaty of Fort Jackson?
Named for a prominent Sauk leader, this brief 1832 conflict in Illinois and Wisconsin marked the final armed Native American resistance to white settlement in the Old Northwest.
What is the Black Hawk War?
A border dispute in the disputed strip of land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River directly sparked this major 1846 conflict.
What is the Mexican-American War?
Believing he was an instrument of God sent to strike down slavery, this radical abolitionist led a murderous raid on pro-slavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek during the "Bleeding Kansas" border war.
Who is John Brown?
This series of 1862 federal acts utilized land grants and government bonds to heavily subsidize private corporations, effectively transforming the West into an interconnected national market.
What are the pacific railway acts
Aiming to push American settlers out of Ohio Country, this legendary Shawnee leader formed a massive tribal confederacy before being killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
Who is Tecumseh?
In this landmark 1832 case, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was a distinct political community in which the laws of Georgia had no force.
What is Worcester v. Georgia?
Attached to an 1846 military appropriations bill, this highly controversial proviso sought to completely ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, igniting a fierce sectional debate.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
Driven by the push to organize western territories, this landmark 1857 Supreme Court case ruled that Congress had no constitutional authority to ban slavery in federal territories, effectively rendering the Missouri Compromise line void.
What is Dred Scott v. Sandford?
Presented at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, this influential historical argument posited that the continuous availability of an American frontier had been the primary driver of American democracy and individualism.
What is the Frontier Thesis?