CHAPTER 11EXPANDING WEST

SECTION 1AMERICANS MOVE OUT WEST

Early 1800s – Americans moved out west by traveling on horseback, canoes, and wagon trains

Companies moved west in search of more beaver fur (beaver population killed off in East)

Mountain men – western fur traders and trappers from the Rocky Mountains hired by eastern companies

Beaver fur went out of fashion and demand fell in the 1840s

WESTWARD EXPANSION MAP

OREGON TRAIL

1840s – easterners embarked on a trail that stretched 2,000 miles and lasted 6 months

Trail stretched through the Great Plains from western Missouri to the Oregon Territory

Pioneers had to deal with shortages of food and water, rough weather and geographic barriers (rivers and mountains)

Many Native Americans were messengers and guides and traded food with the pioneers

OREGON COUNTRY AND TRAIL MAP

SANTA FE TRAIL

An important trade path to the West that ran from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico

American traders exchanged cloth for horses, mules, and silver with Mexican traders

Lure of high profits encouraged traders to travel through hot deserts U.S. government sent troops to protect the traders from Native

American attacks

SANTA FE TRAIL MAP

MORMONS

Joseph Smith founded Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York (Mormons)

Mormons were persecuted because of polygamy (one man married to several women at the same time)

Mormons moved out West seeking religious freedom 1844 – anti-Mormon mob killed Smith Brigham Young became new leader and the Mormon Church settled

in Salt Lake City, Utah

SECTION 2FATHER MIGUEL HIDALGO Y COSTILLA

Mexican priest led a rebellion of 80,000 poor Indians and mestizos His rebellion failed, but it inspired the Mexican independence

movement 1821 – Mexico became independent Empresarios – agents hired by the Mexican government to bring

settlers to Texas **Texas was part of Mexico at this time

FATHER MIGUEL HIDALGO Y COSTILLA (in a glorious pose)

STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

He was an empresario who started a Texas colony on the lower Colorado River in 1822

Many people who lived in this colony disobeyed Mexican laws, such as bringing slaves

Capital of Texas is named after Austin

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA

Mexico’s leader Suspended Mexico’s republican constitution and turned his attention to

the growing unrest in Texas

TEXAS DECLARES INDPENDENCE

March 2, 1836 – Texas declared independence from Mexico Texas is known as the “Lone Star State” Sam Houston led the Texas army Santa Anna was angry about the declaration and assembled a force of

thousands

THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO

February/March 1836 – 200 Texan rebels fought a huge force of Mexican troops at an abandoned mission called The Alamo near San Antonio

Texan rebels led by Colonel William Travis and James Bowie proclaimed, “Victory or death!”

Davy Crockett, a famous American folk hero, frontiersman, and Representative from Tennessee, fought and died at the Alamo

Despite heavy Mexican losses, all the Texan defenders were killed

THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO (Painting)

THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO (Painting)

HEROES OF THE ALAMO

Colonel William Travis

Davy Crockett Jim Bowie

THE ALAMO (MODERN-DAY PHOTO)

BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO

Texans led by Sam Houston April 1836 – Houston’s forces gained victory by surprising Mexican

troops at San Jacinto (Texas) while they were sleeping Houston’s forces shouted the famous line, “Remember the Alamo!” as

they attacked Santa Anna’s army was utterly destroyed in 18 minutes Mexican losses = 630 killed, 208 wounded, 730 captured Texan losses = 9 killed, 30 wounded

BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO (Painting)

AN INDEPENDENT TEXAS

Santa Anna was captured at the Battle of San Jacinto and traded his life to sign a treaty that gave Texas its independence in 1836

Sam Houston became President of Texas President Jackson refused to annex Texas as a state because he didn’t want

to upset the balance between free and slave states Texas would have entered as a slave state

1840s – President John Tyler wanted to allow slavery in Texas, so his party, the Whigs, stopped supporting him

June 1845 – Texas annexed as a state

MAP OF TEXAS

MANIFEST DESTINY

Many Americans believed it was their destiny, or obvious fate, to settle all the way to the Pacific Ocean

They believed they were destined to expand their control over the continent in order to spread democracy

There were debates if slavery should be allowed in the new territories

MANIFEST DESTINY PAINTING

JAMES K. POLK

11th President Belonged to the Democratic Party He wanted to annex the Oregon Country

Merchants would benefit from a Pacific port for trade with China He disagreed with Britain over how to draw the U.S.-Canadian border American expansionists created the slogan, “Fifty-four forty of fight!” 54°40' north latitude was the line they wanted their northern territory to

extend to

CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICO

Mexico controlled present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, and California

They changed Spanish policy in California by terminating the mission system (Spanish religious and trading settlements)

Californios – Mexican colonists living in California

SECTION 3MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR (1846-1847)

U.S. stated our border was farther south than the Mexicans claimed it was March 1846 – General Zachary Taylor crossed the Rio Grande, and a battle

between U.S. and Mexican forces occurred As a result, President Polk said Mexican forces invaded our territory, so

Congress declared war on Mexico U.S. Army was outnumbered, but had much better weapons and equipment 200,000 volunteers answered Polk’s call to fight because they wanted an

adventure in a foreign land

RIO GRANDE MAP

MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR PAINTING

BEAR FLAG REVOLT

A small group of Americans seized the town of Sonoma in June 1846 and fought Californios

These Americans defied Mexico by claiming California was independent

Fighting ended in 1847, but California was annexed as a state in 1850 and did not become an independent country

TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO

General Taylor’s forces crushed the Mexican military in Buena Vista in 1847

General Winfield Scott crushed the strongest fortress in Mexico at Veracruz and captured the capital of Mexico City on September 14, 1847; Santa Anna fled

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in February 1848 and it officially ended the war and it increased the size of the U.S. by almost 25 percent

GASDEN PURCHASE

U.S. paid Mexico $10 million in exchange for the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico (Southwest)

It secured a southern route for a transcontinental railroad on southern soil

MEXICAN CESSION

Cession = the act of giving up property or territory rights Some Mexican-Americans were very confused when white settlers

poured into the Southwest since Mexican land laws were very different The different cultures did influence each other since Mexican and

American holidays were celebrated in the Southwest

SECTION 4CALIFORNIA TRAIL

1830s and 1840s American and Mexican merchants would meet in California to trade

factory-made goods for precious coins, hides, and tallow (fatty tissue of animals used to make soap, candles, food, etc.)

CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

January 1848 - gold discovered in California 1849 – about 80,000 “Forty-niners”, who were gold-seekers from

America and abroad, migrated to California Many came to “get rich quick” and stayed to build a stable frontier

society

FORTY-NINERS PHOTO

CALIFORNIA ADVERTISEMENT

GOLD’S IMPACT ON CALIFORNIA

“Gold fever” – the population explosion made California eligible for statehood in 1850

Population of San Francisco grew to more than 25,000 The transcontinental railroad gave California’s economy the means

to grow by connecting the state to the rest of the country Railroad completed in 1869