Expansion and the Slavery Debate Continue

How Did the US get Texas?  1 st - Mexico declared it’s independence from Spain.  Mexican Republic included present day Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.  2 nd - Texas declared it’s independence from Mexico.  Many Mexican officials did not accept that Texas was independent.  3 rd - After years of struggle, the US annexed Texas in 1845.

Mexican War  Mexico continued to claim Texas and dispute its southern border  President James Polk sent US soldiers to protect the Rio Grande, and Mexico attacked General Taylor’s soldiers.  May 13, Congress declared war

Mexican Cession and Oregon Country  September After more than a year, the war finally ends  February Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo  Mexico gave nearly 500,000 square miles to the US called the Mexican Cession.  The US paid Mexico $15 million dollars and forgave $3 million in Mexican debts  US and Britain agree to extend the 49 th Parallel and the US gets the Oregon Country

United States, 1848

Compromise of 1850  Polk and others want to extend the Missouri Compromise Line and divide the Mexican Cession into free and slave territories  Sectionalism divides the nation and states enforce their rights  “The Great Compromiser” proposes a plan called the Compromise of It has 5 provisions.

Provisions of the Compromise of 1850  California enters Union as a free state  Rest of the Mexican Cession would be divided into Utah and New Mexico, and popular sovereignty would decide the slavery status  Settled a border dispute between Texas and New Mexico  End slave trade in the country’s capital  Enforce a tougher fugitive slave law.

United States, 1850

Kansas-Nebraska Act  In 1853 the US bought the rest of our country from Mexico- The Gadsden Purchase.  Stephen Douglas devised a plan to open the rest of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into two territories and said that slavery would depend on popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas  Northerners and Southerners fought for control of Kansas  2 governments- 2 constitutions  1855 John Brown came to fight slavery.  Pro slavery attack on Lawrence- one death  Charles Sumner (anti slavery) Beating  Pottawatomie Massacre led by abolitionist John Brown and anti slavery followers  Lasted until total deaths  Kansas becomes a free state in 1861