section 1-5 click the mouse button or press the space bar to display the information. rivalry in the...

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Rivalry in the Northwest• In the early 1800s, four nations claimed

the Oregon country–the huge area that lay between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains north of California.

(pages 356–358)(pages 356–358)

• Those nations were the United States, Britain, Spain, and Russia.


Rivalry in the Northwest (cont.) • The United States wanted to annex the

Oregon country in order to gain access to the Pacific, but this required getting the other three nations to give up their claims.

• Spain’s claim was extinguished in 1819 with the signing of the Adams-Onís Treaty, in which Spain agreed to limit its Pacific coast claims to the area south of California’s northern border.

• In 1824 Russia surrendered its claimto any land south of Alaska.

(pages 356–358)(pages 356–358)


Rivalry in the Northwest (cont.) • Britain refused to give up its claim to

Oregon when President John Quincy Adams proposed dividing Oregon at the 49th parallel in 1825.

• As a result, the United States and Britain agreed to extend an 1818 agreement for joint occupation of the area.

(pages 356–358)(pages 356–358)


Rivalry in the Northwest (cont.) • The first Americans to reach the Oregon

country were trappers and traders looking for beaver furs.

• Because they spent much of their time hunting and trapping in the Rocky Mountains, they were often called mountain men.

• The mountain men lived a rough life, but their wanderings through the wilderness made them very familiar with the mountains, rivers, and trails of the West.

(pages 356–358)(pages 356–358)


Rivalry in the Northwest (cont.) • Some mountain men opened up new trails

through the wilderness.

• After most of the beavers were gone due to extensive hunting, mountain men found new work leading groups of settlers to the West.

(pages 356–358)(pages 356–358)


Settling Oregon• American settlers began traveling to the

Oregon country in the 1830s, lured by reports of abundant, fertile land.

(page 358)(page 358)

• The first large-scale trip west took placein 1843 when more than 1,000 pioneers left Independence, Missouri, for Oregon.

• In the years that followed, tens of thousands of Americans made the trip.


• Among the earliest American settlers in Oregon were Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa.

• They built a Christian mission among the Cayuse people.

• Some settlers at the mission unknowingly infected the Cayuse with measles, which killed many of their children.

• Angered, the Cayuse attacked the mission in November 1847, killing the Whitmans and several others.

• But this tragedy did not stop the flow of settlers to Oregon.

Settling Oregon (cont.)



• Pioneers headed for Oregon began their trip in Missouri and traveled for 2,000 miles along the Oregon Trail.

• The trail crossed the Great Plains, wound its way through the Rocky Mountains following the South Pass, then followed the Snake and Columbia Rivers into the Oregon country.

• Most Oregon-bound settlers traveled in canvas-covered wagons called prairie schooners.

Settling Oregon (cont.)



The Division of Oregon• Most Oregon settlers headed for the fertile

Willamette Valley, south of the Columbia River.

(pages 359–360)(pages 359–360)

• Between 1840 and 1845, the population of American settlers in the area rose from 500 to 5,000.

• The British population remained at about 700.


• While settlers were streaming into Oregon in the 1840s, the idea of Manifest Destiny was taking hold in the United States.

• It held that the United States was blessed by God and destined to overspread the North American continent and expand its boundaries to the Pacific.

• The idea of Manifest Destiny made Americans, including those who emigrated to Oregon, more determined than ever to annex the Oregon country and remove Britain’s claim.

The Division of Oregon (cont.)

(pages 359–360)(pages 359–360)


• Oregon became an issue in the presidential election of 1844.

• James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, ran using the slogan “Fifty-four Forty or Fight.”

• The slogan referred to the line of latitude at 54°40’N, which Democrats thought should be the nation’s northern border in Oregon.

• Polk’s opponent, Henry Clay (a Whig), did not take as strong a stand as Polk on annexing Oregon, and lost the election.


(pages 359–360)(pages 359–360)


• Determined to make Oregon part of the United States, but unable to get Britain to agree to a boundary at 54°40” N–which would have turned over almost the whole territory to the United States–Polk decided to compromise.

• Polk concluded an agreement with Britain in June 1846 that split Oregon at 49°N, with the area south of that line becoming a territory of the United States.


(pages 359–360)(pages 359–360)


A Clash of Cultures • In the early 1800s, few people lived in

Texas, which was part of Mexico’s northern frontier.

(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)

• But the Spanish, who controlled Texas, wanted to promote settlement there.

• As a result, they offered huge tracts of land to people, called empresarios, who offered to bring families to Texasand settle them there.


• The first Texas land grant went to Moses Austin in 1821.

• He agreed to bring a number of settlers to Texas, but died before he could organize the project.

• After Moses died, his son Stephen F. Austin recruited 300 settlers to live on land along the Brazos and Colorado Rivers in Texas.

A Clash of Cultures (cont.)

(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)


• Mexico wanted to encourage settlers from many places, not just the United States, to settle in Texas.

• To attract new settlers, Mexico passed laws giving cheap land to people who promised to learn Spanish, convert to Catholicism, and obey Mexican law.

• But most Texas settlers continued to be Americans who declined to adopt Mexican ways.


(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)


• By 1830 there were more Americans than Mexicans in Texas.

• Alarmed by the number of Americans, and aware that the United States wanted to acquire Texas, Mexico forbade further immigration from the United States to Texas, and discouraged trade with the United States by taxing American goods.


(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)


• Texans were angered by the ban on American immigration and the taxes on trade.

• Stephen F. Austin went to Mexico City to ask Mexico’s president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, to remove the settlement ban and make Texas a separate state.

• He agreed to the first demand but not the second.


(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)


• Soon thereafter, Santa Anna declared himself dictator and overthrew Mexico’s 1824 constitution.

• These actions encouraged an increasing number of American settlers in Texas to seek independence.


(pages 362–365)(pages 362–365)


The Struggle for Independence• The first fight of the Texan Revolution

occurred in October 1835 at the town of Gonzales.

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)

• After this skirmish, Texans asked for volunteers to help them fight Mexico.

• In December the Texans scored their first important victory as they liberated San Antonio from a larger Mexican force.


• Santa Anna, furious at the lossof San Antonio, marched north to retake the settlement and found only a smallforce barricaded inside a nearby mission called the Alamo.

• The defenders at the Alamo, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, held off with rifle fire the larger and better-armed Mexican force for 12 days.

The Struggle for Independence (cont)

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)


• On March 6, 1836, after Mexican cannon fire smashed the Alamo’s walls, Mexicans soldiers attacked, killing almost everyone inside.

• “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry for Texas rebels during the rest of the war with Mexico.

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)



• The siege of the Alamo boughtthe Texas rebels time.

• While Santa Anna was preoccupied with the band of rebels at the Alamo, American settlers and Tejanos declared the independent Republic of Texas and named Sam Houston chief of the Texas forces.

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)



• At the Battle of San Jacinto, theforces of Houston and Santa Anna clashed.

• The battle started on April 21, 1836, when the Texans launched a surprise attack on the Mexican camp.

• They killed about 600 of the 1300-man force, and captured 700 other soldiers, including Santa Anna.

• After less than one year of fighting, the war was over.

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)


• Santa Anna signed a treatyrecognizing the independenceof Texas on May 14, 1836.

(pages 365–367)(pages 365–367)



The Lone Star Republic• In September 1836, Texans elected Sam

Houston the first president of their new republic.

(pages 367–368)(pages 367–368)

• Houston sent a delegation to Washington to ask President Andrew Jackson to annex Texas. But Jackson refused.

• Texas would enter the Union as a slave state, which would upset the balance of free states and slave states in Congress at the time.

• Jackson did not want to open up that conflict, even to get Texas.


• Texas was forced to remain independent during a very difficult time.

• The republic was deeply in debt.

• Also, the government of Mexico refusedto accept Santa Anna’s recognition of Texas’s independence.

• As a result, sporadic fighting between Mexican and Texan forces continued.

The Lone Star Republic (cont.)

(pages 367–368)(pages 367–368)


• Texas remained independent throughout the administrations of Martin Van Buren and John Tyler.

• But when James Polk, a strong believerin Manifest Destiny, became president in 1844, the situation changed.

• Polk wanted Texas. • With Polk’s support, Congress passed

a resolution to annex Texas.

• On December 29, 1845, Texas becamea state.

The Lone Star Republic (cont.)

(pages 367–368)(pages 367–368)


The New Mexico Territory • In the early 1800s, New Mexico was the

name of a vast region between California and Texas.

(pages 369–370)(pages 369–370)

• The Spanish started exploration of the area in the late 1500s and made it part of the Spanish colony of Mexico.


• When Mexico won its independence in 1821, New Mexico became part of an independent Mexico.

• But Mexico maintained very loose control over the area, allowing New Mexico a large degree of self-government.

The New Mexico Territory (cont.)

(pages 369–370)(pages 369–370)


• To boost its economy, Mexico welcomed American traders.

• William Becknell was the first trader to reach Santa Fe, the main settlement in the New Mexico region.

• He discovered that he could sell his merchandise in New Mexico for many times what he would have received for it back in St. Louis.

• When word spread, other traders followed.


(pages 369–370)(pages 369–370)


• Becknell’s route to New Mexico became known as the Santa Fe Trail.

• The trail was used until the arrival of the railroad in 1880.

• As trade with New Mexico increased, so did the number of Americans who went there to settle.

• As the idea of Manifest Destiny took hold, many Americans thought the United States should acquire New Mexico.


(pages 369–370)(pages 369–370)


California’s Spanish Culture• Spanish explorers and missionaries were

the first European settlers in California.

(pages 370–371)(pages 370–371)

• Starting in the 1760s, the Spanish set up a chain of missions, settlements run by priests, near the California coast between San Diego and Sonoma.

• There were 21 missions by 1820.

• They were an important part of Spain’s plan to colonize and extend control over California.


• When Mexico became independent in 1821, California became a state of Mexico.

• In 1833 the government of Mexico abolished the missions.

• Mexico sold huge tracts of mission land to settlers, who set up large farms and cattle ranches called ranchos.

• The owners of the ranchos, called rancheros, used Native Americansto tend their farms and cattle.

California’s Spanish Culture (cont.)

(pages 370–371)(pages 370–371)


• By the early 1800s, Americans had been arriving in California for many years on trading or whaling ships that stopped along the coast, or as travelers (such as mountain men) who had come overland from the East.

• In the 1840s American families began to settle in California.

• But by 1845 the number of Americans in California was still only about 700.


(pages 370–371)(pages 370–371)


• As more and more people who had seen California sent glowing reports about its mild climate, natural resources, and beauty to friends and families in the eastern United States, an increasing number of Americans became interested in settling California and adding it to the United States.

• President Polk twice offered to buy California and New Mexico from Mexico during the mid-1840s, but was turned down.


(pages 370–371)(pages 370–371)


War With Mexico• The annexation of Texas by the United

States in 1845 worsened relations between Mexico and the United States, which had already been bad for years.

(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)

• The two countries also could not agree on the border between Texas and Mexico.

• The United States placed the border at the Rio Grande, while Mexico claimed it was at the Nueces River, 150 miles farther north.


• The United States offered Mexico $30 million for California and New Mexico if Mexico would accept the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas.

• Mexico refused the offer and announced its intention to retake Texas.

War With Mexico (cont.)

(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• In response the United States sent troops under General Zachary Taylor across the disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.

• Mexican soldiers attacked some of Taylor’s troops in this disputed area on April 24, 1846.

• Americans who wanted war with Mexico claimed that Mexico had shed American blood on American soil.

• Many Americans turned their anger on Mexico, and on May 11, Congress declared war on Mexico.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• Some Americans opposed war with Mexico.

• Abraham Lincoln, a member of Congress, thought Taylor’s troops had been attacked in Mexican territory, meaning there were no grounds for retaliation or war.

• Some people, such as antislavery activist Frederick Douglass, feared that expansion into the West would carry slavery with it.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• Polk had a three-part plan to win the war with Mexico.

• First, drive Mexican troops out of the disputed territory in Texas north of the Nueces River and secure the Texas border.

• Second, seize New Mexico and California.

• Third, capture Mexico’s capital, Mexico City.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• General Zachary Taylor accomplished the first goal by the first part of 1847.

• American forces under General Stephen Watts Kearny captured Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, without a fight on August 18, 1846.

• Kearny then led his troops overland toward California.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• In June 1846 a small group of Americans seized the town of Sonoma, north of San Francisco, and proclaimed the independent Republic of California.

• It was also called the Bear Flag Republic after the illustration of a bear on its flag.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• In July 1846 an American naval squadron captured the ports of Monterey and San Francisco.

• The commander of the squadron, Commodore John Sloat, declared California a part of the United States.

• Sloat then went on to capture San Diego and Los Angeles.

• By January 1847 California was fully under the control of the United States.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)

• In September 1847 American forces under the command of General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City, completing the last part of President Polk’s plan to win the war with Mexico.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war with Mexico.

• It was signed in February 1848.

• In the treaty, Mexico gave up all claims to Texas and fixed the Texas border at the Rio Grande.

• In what is called the Mexican Cession, Mexico also gave California and New Mexico to the United States in return for $15 million.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


• In 1853 the United States paid Mexico an additional $10 million for a strip of land along the southern edge of present-day Arizona and New Mexico, called the Gadsden Purchase.

• With the Gadsden Purchase, the adjoining 48 states of the mainland reached its present size.


(pages 371–374)(pages 371–374)


California Gold Rush• The discovery of gold along California’s

American River in early 1848 set off a gold rush that brought thousands of people into California from all over the world.

(pages 375–377)(pages 375–377)

• Boomtowns sprang up almost overnight in northern California as the result of the gold rush.

• The gold rush also was responsible for the growth of San Francisco, which served as a port of entry for gold-seekers arriving in California by ship.


• Very few of the miners achieved lasting wealth, and most people found little or no gold.

• Of those that did strike it rich, most lost their money through gambling or wild spending.

• Merchants did make lots of money by charging miners inflated prices for the things they needed.

California Gold Rush (cont.)

(pages 375–377)(pages 375–377)


• The gold rush lasted just a few years but had lasting effects on California.

• The gold rush expanded trade, shipping, and agriculture to meet the miners’ needs for food and other goods.

• The population also soared when many people who had come looking for gold decided to stay in California.


(pages 375–377)(pages 375–377)


• Rapid growth in California brought the need for more effective government.

• Californians wrote a state constitution in 1849 and applied for statehood in March 1850.

• Because California’s constitution banned slavery, representatives from slave states did not want California to join the Union.

• California, as a free state, would upset the balance between free and slave states in Congress.


(pages 375–377)(pages 375–377)

• As a result California had to wait six months for statehood, while a compromise was worked out.


(pages 375–377)(pages 375–377)


A Religious Refuge in Utah• The Mormons, members of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were the first non-Native American settlers of the Utah area.

(pages 377–378)(pages 377–378)

• Joseph Smith founded the Church in 1830 in New York State.

• He formed a religious community, which was unpopular with its neighbors.

• The Mormons were forced to move several times, from New York to Ohio,to Missouri, and then to Illinois.


• In 1844 a mob in Illinois killed Smith.

• Brigham Young took over as head of the church, and moved the Mormon community to the area near Great Salt Lake in what was then the New Mexico territory of Mexico.

A Religious Refuge in Utah (cont.)

(pages 377–378)(pages 377–378)


• About 12,000 Mormons began the journey in 1846.

• In the midst of the harsh desert of Utah, they founded a community called Deseret, later changed to Salt Lake City.

• The Mormons built irrigation canals to water their farms and started local industries so they could be self-sufficient.


(pages 377–378)(pages 377–378)


• The United States acquired the Salt Lake area in 1848 with the Mexican Cession.

• Two years later, Congress established the Utah Territory.

• While most areas in the West wanted to be a part of the United States, the Mormons preferred their independence and often had conflicts with federal authority.

• Utah did not become a state until 1896.


(pages 377–378)(pages 377–378)

section 1-5 click the mouse button or press the space bar to display the information. rivalry in the...

Documents

oregon settlers

division of oregon

oregon trail

dividing oregon

annexing oregon

oregon american settlers

oregonbound settlers

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