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Unit 7-6 Westward Expansion Study Guide People to Know John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, James K. Polk, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, William Travis, Generalisimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton Key Terms to Know Manifest Destiny, Industrial Revolution, Monroe Doctrine, Adams-Onis Treaty, Alamo Mexican Cession, Mormon, Trail of Tears, suffrage, urbanization, sectionalism, majority caucus, Whig, annex, dictator, cede, vigilante, forty-niner, Worcester v Georgia McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden Overview During the early 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, American society was profoundly transformed. These years witnessed rapid economic and territorial expansion; the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation's first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; radical shifts in the roles and status of women; and deepening sectional conflicts that would bring the country to the verge of civil war. Monroe and Adams By 1818 Spanish control of Latin American colonies was weakening. Mexico, Central America, and areas of South America were all struggling for independence from Spain. That year President Monroe had Secretary of State John Quincy Adams work out a treaty to purchase Florida from Spain. In 1823 President Monroe gave a message to Congress stating that the US would not interfere in the affairs of European nations but would oppose any attempt by European nations to regain control of any newly independent nations in the Americas. This became known as the Monroe Doctrine. In 1824, four Democratic Republicans ran for President. In a controversial election John Quincy Adams defeated Andrew Jackson even though Jackson had both more popular votes and more electoral votes. However, because Jackson was unable to achieve a majority of the vote, the House of Representatives voted on the next President. Jacksonian Democracy 1820 to 1840 was a time of important political developments. Suffrage increased and qualifications for voting and office holding were changed. More citizens were given the opportunity to vote. No longer were Americans required to be land owners in order to vote. Voter participation increased. A new twoparty system replaced the politics of deference to elites. In 1828, the dominant political figure in the United States was Andrew Jackson. Jackson easily defeated John Quincy Adams for President in the 1828 election. During his Presidency, Jackson opened millions of acres of Indian lands to white settlement, destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, and denied the right of a state to nullify the federal tariff. The Whig party was formed in 1834 as a coalition of National Republicans, Anti-Masons, and disgruntled Democrats, who were united by their hatred of “King Andrew” Jackson and his “usurpations” of congressional and judicial authority, came together in 1834 to form the Whig party. The party took its name from the seventeenth-century British Whig group that had defended English liberties against the usurpations of pro-Catholic Stuart Kings. The Roots of American Economic Growth After the War of 1812, the American economy grew at an astounding rate. The development of the steamboat by Robert Fulton revolutionized water travel, as did the building of canals. The construction of the Erie Canal stimulated an economic revolution that bound the grain basket of the West to the eastern and southern markets. It also unleashed a spurt of canal building. Eastern cities experimented with railroads which quickly became the chief method of moving freight. The emerging transportation revolution greatly reduced the cost of bringing goods to market, stimulating both agriculture and industry. The telegraph also stimulated development by improving communication. Eli Whitney pioneered the method of production using interchangeable parts that became the foundation of the American System of manufacture. Transportation improvements combined with market demands stimulated cash crop cultivation. Urbanization Economic development contributed to the rapid growth of cities. Between 1820 and 1840, the urban population of the nation increased by 60 percent each decade, five times as fast as that of the country as a whole. Western cities grew particularly fast. Between 1810 and 1830, Louisville's population climbed from 1,357 to 10,341. The chief cause of the increase was the migration of sons and daughters away from farms and villages. The growth of commerce drew thousands of farm children to the cities to work as bookkeepers, clerks, and salespeople. The expansion of factories demanded thousands of laborers, mechanics, teamsters, and operatives. Indian Removal At the time Jackson took office, 125,000 Native Americans still lived east of the Mississippi River. Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians--60,000 strong--held millions of acres in what would become the southern cotton kingdom stretching across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The key political issues were whether these Native American peoples would be permitted to block white expansion and whether the U.S. government and its citizens would abide by previously made treaties. As early as 1817, James Monroe declared that it was in the best interests of Native Americans to move westward. In 1825 President Monroe set before Congress a plan to resettle all eastern Indians on tracts in the West where whites would not be allowed to live. Jackson favored removal as the solution to the controversy. The discovery of gold on Cherokee land triggered a land rush, and the Cherokee nation sued to keep white settlers from encroaching on their territory. And In the case of Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not pass laws conflicting with federal Indian treaties and that the federal government had an obligation to exclude white intruders from Indian lands. Angered, Jackson is said to have exclaimed: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Trail of Tears During the winter of 1831, the Choctaw became the first tribe to walk the “Trail of Tears” westward. Malnutrition, exposure, and a cholera epidemic killed many members of the nation. Then, in 1836, the Creek suffered the hardships of removal. About 3,500 of the tribe’s 15,000 members died along the westward trek. Those who resisted removal were bound in chains and marched in double file. Most Cherokees held out until 1838, when the army evicted them from their land. All told, 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokee died along the trail to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. Westward Expansion Until 1821, Spain ruled the area that now includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. The Mexican war for independence opened the region to American economic penetration. Government explorers, traders, and trappers helped to open the West to white settlement. In the 1820s, thousands of Americans moved into Texas, and during the 1840s, thousands of pioneers headed westward toward Oregon and California, seeking land and inspired by manifest destiny, the idea that America had a special destiny to stretch across the continent. During the presidency of James K. Polk ( 1845 and 1849) the United States expanded its boundaries into Texas, the Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest. It acquired Texas by annexation; Oregon and Washington by negotiation with Britain; and Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming as a result of war with Mexico. The Mexican War In early 1845, when Congress voted to annex Texas, Mexico expelled the American ambassador and cut diplomatic relations. The war's critics claimed that Polk deliberately provoked Mexico into war by ordering American troops into disputed territory. Other critics also argued that the war was an expansionist power play dictated by an aggressive Southern slave owners intent on acquiring more slave states. After their defeat, Mexico ceded California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming to the United States for $15 million and the assumption of $3.25 million in debts owed to Americans by Mexico. The treaty also settled the Texas border dispute in favor of the United States, placing the Texas-Mexico boundary at the Rio Grande River.