1. Territorial Expansion
Manifest Destiny
Section 2
Territorial Expansion
What were the effects of the Mexican-American War and the California Gold Rush?

2. What was happening
in America during
the early/mid 1800's?

3. Political Events Presidents: Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler
Harrison is first to die in office (pneumonia)
States: 26 (Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan)
Democratic-Republicans dissolve
Democrats & Whig Party arise

4. Social Changes - Immigration
Growing movement of people to America
Britain, Ireland, Germany, China
Many ‘Push/Pull Factors’ bring people to America
Overcrowding in cities leads to prejudice
“The Know-Nothing Party” enjoys brief success

5. Social Changes – Literature & Philosophy
The movement in European art called Romanticism stressed the individual, imagination, creativity, and emotion.
James Fenimore Cooper – Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Noah Webster – American Dictionary (1828)
Henry Thoreau – Walden (1854)
Louisa May Alcott – Little Women (1868)
Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass (1855)
Ralph Waldo Emerson – transcendentalism (people can find truth within themselves through feeling and intuition – “GUT FEELING”)

6. America Achieves Manifest Destiny
March 1848 – Mexicans made peace with the U.S. with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
U.S. Army left Mexico City
U.S. paid Mexico $15 million
U.S. got New Mexico, California
Rio Grande River was the southern boundary of Texas
Mexicans disgusted and humiliated
Polk upset because U.S. got so little

7. America Achieves Manifest Destiny
In Gadsden Purchase of 1853 U.S. purchased another 26,640 square miles in southern New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico for $15 million (to build a railroad)

9. An America Free, or Slave?
Several attempts made to deal with slavery – NONE ARE SUCCESSFUL
Southerners see their slaves as property, which could be moved with them to new lands
The Missouri Compromise (1820) – Maine (FREE) and Missouri (SLAVE) enter the Union
The Compromise of 1850 – California (FREE) and Congress makes no laws regarding territories won in M/A War
Wilmot Proviso & Kansas-Nebraska Act further divide the country

10. The Wilmot Proviso (1846)
Before Mexican War was over, future of SW lands caused strong debate in the U.S.
1846: Pennsylvania Whig congressman David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot Proviso
Slavery banned in any land won from Mexico
Proposal broke up parties along sectional lines
Failed to become law

11. Kansas-Nebraska Act
I. The Nebraska Territory was divided into two parts: Nebraska (NE) and Kansas (KS).

12. Kansas-Nebraska Act
II. The people of each territory voted on whether or not to allow slavery. (popular sovereignty)

13. The Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the Missouri Compromise
* The Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the Missouri Compromise. Both territories were north of 36 , 30’ N and should NOT have been allowed to have slaves.

14. “Bleeding Kansas”
Before the vote on slavery:
• Northerners crossed the border to keep KS a free state.
• Southerners crossed the border to make KS a slave state.
• Both sides claimed victory on the vote!

15. The Kansas-Nebraska Act illegally repealed the Missouri Compromise.
What effect did the Kansas-Nebraska Act have on the Missouri Compromise?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act illegally repealed the Missouri Compromise.

16. What was the result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Civil war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers – over 200 people died

17. What adjective was used to describe Kansas in the mid-1850s?
“Bleeding Kansas”

18. Wilmot Proviso & The Kansas-Nebraska Act will be the issues on which the Republican Party will be founded.

19. Discovery of gold in
California tips the
balance of power!

20. The California Gold Rush
John Sutter was a Swiss immigrant to California in 1839 – owned 1000’s of acres, cattle, and many people working for him
In late 1847 Sutter hired James Marshall to build a saw mill
on the American
River to provide
lumber for Sutter’s
growing ranch

21. The California Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848 with the sawmill almost finished Marshall looked down and …"I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another."

22. California Gold Rush
News of the gold was not spread by Sutter or Marshall
News was spread by San Francisco merchant Samuel Brannan
News spread to the
east coast and was
published in
newspapers

23. The California Gold Rush
Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune: "Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as plentiful as the mud in our streets. We look for an addition within the next four years equal to at least One Thousand Million of Dollars to the gold in circulation."

24. The California Gold Rush
By 1849 the country was gripped in gold “fever”
Farmers left their fields, merchants closed their shops, soldiers left their posts – and all made plans to go to California

25. The California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was a mass migration of people from the eastern U.S. and around the world looking for easy riches
Called forty-niners, the gold seekers swelled the population of California from 14,000 in 1847 to 225,000 in five years

26. The California Gold Rush
Early miners able to pan for gold along the rivers of northern California – called placer mining
Conditions hard in the mining camps – no law, no sanitation, prices for food and supplies very high
Cholera, dysentery rampant

27. The California Gold Rush
Towns that started were accurately named
Hangtown, Gouge Eye, Rough and Ready, Whiskeytown – places to avoid, if not for the gold
Few miners got rich – merchants and service people got rich
When mining in the rivers played out, hard rock mining started

28. San Francisco
More than half of the forty-niners came to California by ship – through San Francisco
Miners needed supplies, San Francisco was where they were bought

29. What were the
effects on
San Francisco?

30. Effect of Gold Rush on SF
Legend spoke that you could walk from here to here without getting your feet wet, due to the number of abandoned ships
SF Bay became choked with hundreds of abandoned ships

31. More Ship Masts Demonstrate the Abandonment in SF Bay

32. Effects of the Gold Rush
American miners forced out Mexicans and Chinese miners to reduce competition,
legislature levied a $20/month “foreign miners” tax to discourage miners from other countries.
Discouraged Chinese miners moved to San Francisco and formed Chinatown.
Native Americans either died from European diseases or were hunted down by miners –
In 1870, their population declined from 150,000 in 1860 to 58,000 in 1870.

33. Effects of the Gold Rush
Californios (Mexican Californians) lost their lands
California applied for statehood as free state
Union comprised of 15 free states, 15 slave
Admission of California in 1850 intensified debate over slavery

34. The Gold Rush
upset the delicate
balance between
free & slave - everyone
was affected, and no
one was spared
from its effects!

35. The 1848 Presidential Election Results
Winner

36. Territorial Growth to 1853