By:Chantel Henderson

History 141Section 71154

*How the Americas Change:

The Long 19th Century

*The Americas in the 19th Century:

The United States* By the 19th Century, almost all the lands of the Western Hemisphere were independent. The people (European and Asian migrants) were then trying to create societies based on freedom, equality, and constitutional government, which was a challenge.

* At first, most individual states limited the participation of voting to men who owned property, even though the Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal”. The Enlightenment ideal of equality urged the political leaders to extend the rights to vote to almost all white men by midcentury.

* By the 1840s, westward expansion was well on its way in the U.S. and many Americans spoke of a “manifest destiny” to occupy all of North America from coast to coast.

* Westward expansion brought conflict with the Native Americans who resisted being forced out of their lands.

* By 1840, U.S. Forces had control of all territory east of the Mississippi River, and after 1840, they encountered the Natives west of the Mississippi River who had fire arms and great equestrian skills. However, by the 1870s U.S. Forces were using deadly weapons which broke the Natives’ resistance.

* Westward expansion created tension between the regions of the U.S. The most serious issue was slavery and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who was for the abolishment of slavery, sparked the Civil War.

*The Americas in the 19th Century:Canada* Canada gained independence as

Canadians and British government agreed on general principles of autonomy, not through bloodshed.

* Fear of U.S. expansion helped suppress internal conflicts among Canadians and prompted Britain to give Canada their independence.

* The British North American Act of 1867 Joined Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick and recognized them as the Dominion of Canada. Other provinces joined the Dominion later on.

* John A. Macdonald was the first prime minister of Canada and made many accomplishments. Those such as joining all of British America into the Dominion and oversaw the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

*The Americas in the 19th Century:

Latin America* Latin America had a hard time creating political unity. * The creole elites established constitutions for the

newly independent states in Latin America, but had a hard time framing them since the political leaders didn’t have much experience with self-governing.

* They liked the idea of the Enlightenment ideals, but didn’t know how to put them into practice.

* They ended up dominating the independent states and only allowing less than 5% of the male population to participate in public affairs.

* There was much division and discord in the independent states, which helped caudillos, the region’s military leaders, come into power in brutal ways.

* Juan Manuel de Rosas, ruled Argentina from 1835 to 1852, killed over 22,000 people.

* After the Mexican-American War, political turmoil caused a liberal reform movement in Mexico led by President Benito Juarez.

* La Reforma of the 1850s sought to limit the power of the military and church and allow the Mexicans to make a living and participate in political issues.

* The Constitution of 1857 set for the La Reforma ideals.

*The Little Ice Age* The Little Ice Age was a period of time from the

14th to the 19th centuries where the global climate dropped an average of 4 degrees lower than today.

* Possibly caused by a massive volcanic eruption causing a giant cloud to cover the atmosphere, a disruption in the flow of the Oceanic Conveyor Belt, or a drop in the sun’s radiation by a half of a percent.

* The Little Ice Age had many effects on history.* Some of which were:-The famines that killed hundreds of thousands of people due to the freezing weather and storms.-The peasants in France were part of those who were starving, which led to the riot that led to the French Revolution.-The Americans were able to win the Battle of Trenton because they were able to win the battle of surviving the freezing weather.

*The Frontiers of the Americas:The Louisiana Purchase

* The Louisiana Purchase was an accident caused by a chain of events.

* In 1682, a French explorer, named La Salle, claimed Louisiana and named it after King Louis XIV.

* It was worthless land for almost 100 years, then the French pawned it off to Spain as a small gift for helping them in a war.

* Napoleon came into power in France and traded a palace in Italy for the new king and queen in Spain for Louisiana. This was kept secret from President Jefferson.

* Napoleon desired Louisiana for easy access to the Caribbean and Haiti.

* Napoleon sent out 30,000 troops to Haiti to take down the slave rebel leader, and has a secret plan to send 10,000 troops to Louisiana to take over the territory.

* Napoleons troops were taken down in masses due to guerilla warfare in Haiti, yellow fever, and an ice storm that stopped them from invading Louisiana.

* Since Haiti was a loss to France, so was Louisiana and Napoleon needed funds for a renewing wars. Napoleon offered the U.S. not only Louisiana, but everything from New Orleans to the Mississippi River to present day Canada to the Rocky Mountains. Monroe and Francois de Barbe-Marbois decided on a price of $15 million funded by a British bank.

*The Crossroads of Freedom*On September 17, 1862, the

bloodiest day in American history occurred at the Battle of Antietam.*6,300 to 6,500 Union and

Confederate soldiers were killed or fatally wounded on that one single day.*Another 15,000 men were

mutilated.*The Battle of Antietam was

arguably the turning point that decided the fate of the Civil War.

*The Crossroads of Freedom:General McClellan

*George B. McClellan was appointed the General for the Army of the Potomac by President Lincoln after the defeat at Bull Run.

*McClellan was nicknamed “The Young Napoleon” and was well received by his soldiers.

*He was extremely organized and transformed the Army of the Potomac into a large, well-disciplined fighting force.

*McClellan was, however, not a risk taker at all which set him back in some ways, such as not taking initiative in the Seven Days Battles, and although he won the bloody Battle of Antietam, his lack of initiative and risk taking let the Army of Northern Virginia get clean away.

*The Crossroads of Freedom:The Emancipation

Proclamation* Five days after the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln called a

meeting of the Cabinet to discuss an issuance of an emancipation proclamation, and told them that he felt it was now time to issue it.

* The Emancipation Proclamation warned “…Confederate states that unless they returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, their slaves ‘shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free,’”.

* Some people of the Union were disappointed by the Proclamation because it only applied to states in the Confederation, which was mostly beyond Union authority.

* However, some enemy property would be freed by the Proclamation by forces of the war because thousands of contrabands in the rebel states were already in Union territory.

* In the end, the people of the Union were loyal to Lincoln and agreed to his message to Congress that, “Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue,”.