MANIFEST DESTINY: MATCHER AND CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER WORKSHEETS

Use the slides in order to figure out how to arrange the events listed in chronological order.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery explored this region from 1804 – 1806, claiming all of the land along the Missouri River for the United States, and making an American claim to the Oregon Country as well. Against his own “strict constructionist” principles, Thomas Jefferson had bought the territory from Napoleon. Americans were not the only nation to claim the land: Russia, Spain, England, and all of the Native American tribes of the Great Northwest did as well.

THE GADSDEN PURCHASE - 1853

In 1853, the United States purchased this tiny stretch of land in present day Arizona and New Mexico as part of an arrangement to construct a railroad.

THE TREATY OF PARIS OF 1783 From its very foundation, the United States always had more land than it could occupy. The treaty which gave the nation its independence also granted the United States all of the territory to the Mississippi River. From the beginning in the United States, the west signified the future!

THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE-HIDALGO This Treaty ended the Mexican-American War when it was agreed to by both sides in 1848. It established the southern boundary of the United States with Mexico at the Rio Grande River, and it forced Mexico to sell most of its northern territory – the Mexican Cession – to the United States for $20 Million.

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS BY THE UNITED STATES, 1845 Americans refused to bring this state into the Union when it first applied for statehood in the 1830s, because they were fearful that the state would tilt the balance of power in the Senate to the slaveholding states. But in 1840s, while pro-slavery President John Tyler was in power, and the ambitiously pro-slavery President James K. Polk was President-elect, a treaty was signed to bring Texas into the United States. It would become a state later in the year.

THE OREGON TREATY

Even though he had run for President in 1844 with the campaign slogan “54° 40’ or Fight!,” President Polk decided to negotiate a treaty with England over this territory. The United States took the Southern portion of the territory; England took the northern reaches. The line of demarcation was set between the United States at England at the 49° N Latitude line. The Oregon Treaty was signed by both England and the United States just before the outbreak of war between the US and Mexico in 1846.

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820 -21 Maine became a free state. The following year, Missouri became a slave state. A line starting at the southernmost boundary of Missouri was measured going West. To the south of the boundary line at 36° 30’, slavery would be legal. To the north of the line, slavery would be forbidden. The Missouri Compromise was the law of the land until it was superseded by two future laws: The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

CALIFORNIA STATEHOOD – THE COMPROMISE OF 1850After gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, hundreds of thousands of speculators flooded into the West. These so called 49ers were joined by Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants who were also hoping to strike it rich in America. Formal status within the United States was achieved as a part of the Compromise of 1850.

DESERET – THE MORMONS

Just before the start of the Mexican-American War (and before the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846), members of the Mormon faith created this community in modern day Utah. They were led to the Great Salt Lake Basin by Brigham Young – after the founder of the faith, Joseph Smith – had been lynched by an angry mob in Nauvoo, IL. At the time, the Mormons still practiced polygamy. Later in history, the United States would claim the land which Mormons had sought for themselves, and a standoff ensued between Americans and Mormons. In the late 1850s, under James Buchanan, armed conflict took place in the Utah Territory.

Sam Houston forced Santa Anna to sign a treaty giving up his northern provinces after capturing him at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. For the next nine years, the Lone Star Republic existed as an independent nation. Later, it would be annexed by the United States of America. Mexico believe that Texas’ independence and later the annexation of Texas by the United States were illegitimate. They still claimed Texas when it was taken over by the United States, and would fight a war over the boundaries of the region they formerly controlled from 1846 – 1848.

INDEPENDENCE FOR TEXAS,1836