USA EXPANSION

USA EXPANSION

Sea to shining sea…

INDEPENDENCE FROM ENLAND Revo war ends in 1781 – USA wins at

Yorktown. John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin

Franklin, the three Americans sent to Britain to negotiate the peace treaty, insisted that independence for the colonies be built into the peace agreement.

INDEPENDENCE OFFICIALLY GRANTED IN 1783

The Treaty of Paris was finally ratified in September 1783

The treaty not only recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, but also established boundaries that extended far to the west of the 13 original colonies.

The new country would be bounded by the 1. Atlantic Ocean on the east, 2. the Mississippi River on the west, 3. Florida on the south, and 4. Canada and the Great Lakes on the north. Spain retained control of Florida, and the United

States was permitted use of the Mississippi River.

Land west to Mississippi

USA as of 1783

LOUISIANNA PURCHASE 1803

•Stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, the enormous Louisiana territory was originally settled by the French in the early 18th century. •In 1802 - USA wasn’t allowed to use port of New Orleans (France said no)•USA wanted small access to eastern part of sea port….

France in war with Britain (very costly) Slave uprising in Hispanola (Domican Republic

today)

France to get $$ quick and avoid a total loss offered all 830,000,000 square miles for $15 million

Red River Basin 1818

The new treaty stated that Britain and the United States would jointly occupy Oregon Territory (an arrangement that lasted until 1846), and clarified the northern border of the Louisiana Purchase. The land acquired by the United States in the treaty, known as the Red River Basin, would ultimately become part of the states of Minnesota and North Dakota.

FLORIDA 1819

In 1814 and then again in 1817-1818, future American president Andrew Jackson led frontier forces in defeating and removing various Native American tribes indigenous to the region, even as Spain retained official control there.

At this point, the United States and Spain had to either fight or negotiate over which country would retain possession of Florida

in 1819, the two countries signed the Adams-Onís Treaty.

TREATY AGREEMENTS

Ceded Florida to the United States. In exchange, the United States agreed to pay up to $5 million in damages to Americans who had claims against Spain and to forfeit any claims to Texas.

(Some America citizen had sued Spain over Indian problems)

Adams Onis Treaty

The Adams-Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain was negotiated by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and the Spanish Minister to the United States, Don Luis de Onís, and signed in February 1819.

By the terms of this boundary, the United States agreed that Texas was on the Spanish side of the line, and Spain agreed to give up its claim to the Northwest Territory north of forty-two degrees. The treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate on February 24, 1819.

Adams Onis Treaty con’t

USA agrees to relinquish claims on Spanish area west of Texas

Land to the USA

Land back to Spain

The Texas Revolution

The settlers ignored the Mexican rules. They kept bringing in slaves, even after Mexico outlawed slavery. Settlers were still Americans, not Mexican. In 1830, Mexico passed a law halting American immigration and sent troops to Texas to enforce it.

Tensions in Texas

Mexican officials suspected that the U.S. wanted to acquire Texas. Originally claimed as part of the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. had dropped its claim. But when an offer was made to buy a large part of Texas for $1 million, Mexicans refused, but their fears of U.S. intentions were confirmed.

International tensions

American settlers in Texas had to agree to certain conditions in exchange for receiving land. They had to surrender their American citizenship; swear allegiance to Mexico; adopt the Roman Catholic religion; and hold the land for seven years.

Texas Annexation, 1845

By 1835, approximately 20,000 American, Mexican, and European settlers had arrived in Texas, bringing with them an additional 4,000 slaves. The Mexican government attempted to limit the influx of American immigrants, to no avail. (ironic…Mexico trying to stop illegal immigrants from the USA from entering Mexico)

The Texas Revolution Begins

Tensions between settlers, now calling themselves Texans, and the Mexican government grew continually worse.

After several bloody protests, Texans held conventions to discuss the best course of action. A plan to make Texas a separate Mexican state failed. The new Mexican president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, supported a strong central government and enforced new laws banning state militias.

War came when violence erupted at Gonzales over possession of a cannon. Though small, it was the first battle of the Texas Revolution, and hopes for a peaceful resolution between the Texans and Mexico diminished. At a meeting, called the Consultation, the settlers founded a government and asked Sam Houston to raise an army.

From the Alamo to Independence

On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna’s force of 6,000 soldiers reached San Antonio. A demand of surrender was met with cannon fire from William Travis. The Mexican army laid siege to the fort, pounding it for 12 days and nights. The fort was finally stormed, with nearly all defenders killed.

The AlamoRebel Texan forces captured San Antonio, which contained a fort called the Alamo. Santa Anna led an army into Texas to punish the rebels and put down the unrest once and for all.

Santa Anna

While the Alamo was under siege, a small group of Texans met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to issue the Texas Declaration of Independence. They wrote a constitution for the new, independent nation.

March 2, 1836

Fighting for Independence

The Runaway Scrape Santa Anna’s army continued

to defeat the Texan rebels. Prisoners were held in the presidio at Goliad.

After Mexican soldiers executed 340 prisoners at Goliad, Houston retreated to the east with his poorly trained army.

Word of Houston’s retreat and the news of the Goliad Massacre started a panic.

In what would be called the Runaway Scrape, thousands of Texans, including many Tejanos, fled Santa Anna’s advancing army.

Texans victorious Santa Anna’s army followed

Houston’s forces to San Jacinto, where Houston managed to take the Mexican army by surprise. Texans shouted, “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” as they won a quick victory.

The captured Santa Anna was forced to sign the Treaties of Velasco, ending the war. Mexico had to withdraw its troops and recognize Texas independence.

Problems with Mexico continued for the Republic of Texas.

The Annexation of Texas

Proponents Americans who believed in

Manifest Destiny wanted to admit Texas to the Union.

Supporters viewed the Texas Revolution in the spirit of the American Revolution.

Southerners supported annexation because Texas allowed slavery, and its admission would boost the South’s political power.

Opponents Americans were concerned

that the U.S. would have to bear the substantial Texas debt.

Northerners opposed annexation because it would spread slavery westward and increase slave states’ voting power in Congress.

A major argument in Congress was that the Constitution said nothing about admitting an independent nation.

The Annexation of Texas

A Republic for nine years The annexation question was a significant issue in the 1844

presidential election. When James K. Polk, the pro-annexation candidate, won, Mexico warned that it would consider the annexation of Texas as a declaration of war.

Tyler signs the joint resolution Outgoing president John Tyler signed the joint resolution of

Congress into law just three days before the end of his term, in March 1845.

Texas becomes a state Voters in Texas overwhelmingly approved annexation, and

Texas became a part of the United States on December 29, 1845.

Republic of Texas

In 1845, the Republic of Texas voluntarily asked to become a part of the United States, and the government of the United States agreed to annex the nation.

Mexican leaders had long warned the United States that if it tried to make Texas a state, it would declare war. And, almost immediately after Texas joined the union, the United States and Mexico went to war about where the proper border for the state of Texas should be.

The Republic of Texas included the present-day state of Texas as well as portions of New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Annexation complete

Congress approves of Texas as a state 1845

Oregon Country, 1846

Negotiations between the United States and Britain over the Oregon Country began in the summer of 1845. Because any states that would eventually be formed out of the territory would be free states, anti-slavery Northerners were strongly in favor of acquiring as much of the territory as possible.

Britain did not want to go to war over the issue either, and in 1846, the two countries reached an agreement to divide the territory at the 49th parallel. Oregon Country would later become the modern-day states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as portions of Montana and Wyoming.

Line to separate USA/Canada

49th parallel (49° N Latitude)

Mexican Cession, 1848

After Texas joined the United States on Dec 29, 1845, a boundary dispute broke out almost immediately between the United States and Mexico, the country from which Texas had won its independence a decade earlier. The U.S. said the southern boundary of the state should be the Rio Grande.

On April 25, 1846, after the U.S. cavalry ignored an order from the Mexican army to retreat to the Nueces River and instead advanced south to the Rio Grande, fighting broke out. Three weeks later, Congress declared war on Mexico.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 Fighting continued for more than a year, and

ended in September 1847. In February 1848, the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty recognized Texas as a U.S. state, and ceded a large chunk of land — about half the area that belonged to the Mexican republic — to the United States for the cost of $15 million. The Mexican Cession included land that would later become California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Taking land

The treaty also stated that Mexicans who remained in the state would be permitted to become U. S. citizens, and that they would be allowed to keep their property. However, the treaty was never fully honored. In the decades following the signing of the treaty, Mexican-Americans were stripped of nearly 20 million acres of their land by American businessmen, ranchers and railroad companies, as well as by the U.S. Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture.

Coast to Coast

Gadsden Purchase, 1853

In 1853 President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden to negotiate with Mexico. The Mexican government was in desperate need of money, and it agreed to sell a small strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border to the United States for $10 million. The Gadsden Purchase included land in present-day Arizona

And New Mexico and New Mexico.

Alaska, 1867

In 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward met with Russian diplomats and, after an all-night negotiating session that ended at 4 a.m., arranged for the United States to purchase Alaska for the cost of $7.2 million — about two cents per acre.

arguing that it was ridiculous to purchase land so far away from the rest of the United States, American attitudes quickly changed, however, with the discovery of gold in Alaska in the 1890s. In 1959, nearly one hundred years after it became an American territory, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States.

Hawaii, 1898

When the Hawaiian leader, Queen Liliuokalani, sensed a threat from the increasing power held by the American planters, she tried to strengthen the monarchical government. In response, in 1893 a group of American planters led by Samuel Dole organized a coup and deposed her. In 1894, Dole sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., to ask the United States to annex Hawaii, but President Grover Cleveland opposed annexation and argued that the queen should be restored. Dole then declared Hawaii an independent republic. In 1898, a new president, William McKinley, came to office and agreed to annex the islands. Hawaii became the 50th state of the union in 1959.

The United States in 1820

By 1820, the majority of organized states were in the eastern half of the country. States in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Appalachian Highlands had reached their present-day shape and size. The Southeast (with the exception of Florida) and portions of the Midwest had also largely been organized into states.


By 1850, the United States had expanded far to the west of the Mississippi River. The discovery of gold in California — which for a time was cut off from the other states by thousands of miles — brought thousands of settlers to the Pacific Coast, and as a result of its exploding population and economy, it became a state in 1850. During the 1840s and 1850s, thousands of additional settlers traveled the Oregon Trail and settled in Oregon Country.

The United States in the 1860s

Years of ongoing disputes about slavery, the expansion of slavery into new states and territories, and the rights of individual states led to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Eleven states — Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia — seceded from the United States of America and formed a new country, known as the Confederate States of America. During the war, the United States became known as the "Union" and the Confederate states became known as the "Confederacy." In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, a portion of Virginia seceded from the state of Virginia and became the present-day state of West Virginia.

After four long and bloody years, the Civil War ended in 1865 when the Confederacy surrendered to the Union. The Confederate States of America ceased to exist, and the states in the Confederacy became a part of the United States once more. Slavery, which had been abolished in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, also ceased to exist within the United States.


By 1880, 15 years after the Civil War, many of the present-day states had been organized. In 1867, Alaska, and what is now the state of Oklahoma, remained "unorganized" territories, without territorial governments (which later became state governments).

In 1880, the territories remaining in the continental United States were largely in the Mountain States, the Southwest, and the northernmost portions of the Great Plains. Unlike most of the other territories that became individual states, Dakota Territory became two states: North and South Dakota.


In the late 1880s and 1890s, several former territories became states. In 1889 alone, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington all became states. The 1890s saw the addition of Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, and it became the Hawaii Territory. In 1912, Alaska became the organized Alaska Territory.

Two states in the desert Southwest — Arizona and New Mexico — joined the Union in 1912.


In 1959, the United States added two more states to the Union: Alaska and Hawaii, the non-contiguous states. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th state, and Hawaii joined on August 21, 1959, becoming the 50th state.

No additional states have joined the United States since 1959. However, the United States currently has several organized and unorganized territories and commonwealths around the world, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Documents

USA EXPANSION