SOCIAL STUDIES NOTES: GRADE 8 CHAPTER 13
WESTWARD EXPANSION: 1820-1860
Section 1: The West
- I. What Was the West?
-As the nation grew, American’s idea of “the West” changed. Early Americans thought of the area between the Appalachian and the Mississippi River as the western frontier.
-By the 1820s, however, much of the land in this area had been settled. As the population soared, Americans began to look beyond the Mississippi River.
-Stretching for seemingly endless miles to the west, the Great Plains lie between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Settlers were not attracted to this region, however, because farmers did not consider the land suitable for agriculture. The Plains were covered by grass that was anchored to the ground by deep root systems. Breaking up the dense sod would be hard manual labor.
-In the Northwest, settlers were attracted to the fertile land stretching from beyond the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In the early 1800s, the United States, Great Britain, and Spain all claimed this land as their own.
-The Mexican settlements in the Southwest were another major destination for settlers heading west. This area, known as the Spanish Borderlands, was part of New Spain.
-The lands of the Southwest included present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and about half of Colorado. Ruled first by Spain, then by Mexico, these lands had a culture and history very different from that of the eastern United States.
II. Mexican Settlements
-Like England and France, Spain followed a policy of mercantilism toward its colonies. It was illegal for settlers in New Spain to trade with other countries. Raw materials were sent to Spain. Manufactured goods were shipped to the Spanish colonies for sale.
-Many Spanish settlers had children. These American-born children were called Creoles. Spanish settlers, Native Americans, and Africans also intermarried. The result was another group, the mestizos.
-Spanish missionaries were determined to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. Many Indians in the borderlands were forced to live and work at missions. In the end, the mission system took a terrible toll on Native Americans. Thousands died from overwork or disease.
-Spanish settlers and Native Americans exchanged language, food, and customs. The Spanish brought their language, religion, and laws to the region. The Indians introduced the Spanish to such food as beans, squash, and potatoes.
-In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain. Under Spanish rule, land grants had been given only to a few peninsulares. Mexico, however, made many grants to individual rancheros. Mexico also removed the missions from church control and distributed mission lands to rancheros and a few American settlers.
-Much of this land belonged to Native Americans. Indians often responded by raiding ranches, but they were soon crushed. By 1850, the Indian population in the Southwest had been drastically reduced.
III. Manifest Destiny
-From the beginning, Americans had been interested in westward expansion. Thomas Jefferson was one of many who believed that the nation must increase in size to make room for its growing population.
-By the 1840s, many Americans strongly favored westward expansion. Newspaper editor John L. O’Sullivan wrote in 1845: “The American claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and …self-government entrusted to us.”
-The phrase Manifest Destiny quickly became popular. It described the belief that the United States was destined, or meant, to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific—“from sea to shining sea.”
Section 2
I. Traders Lead the Way
-The first Americans to move into the far West were traders. They were looking for new markets in which to sell their goods.
-In 1821, Captain William Becknell led a wagon train filled with merchandise from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The route stretched for about 800 miles.
-Becknell crossed treacherous rivers with bottoms of quicksand. He and the traders traveling with him barely survived the desert. Then, he had to find a way through nearly impassable mountains.
-In spite of these obstacles, Becknell’s group reached Santa Fe with their wagons. Other Americans followed Becknell’s route. It became known as the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail soon became a busy international trading route.
-Farther north, fur traders were making huge fortunes. John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant, sent the first American fur trading expedition to Oregon. Astor established the American Fur Company in 1808 at Fort Astor, now Astoria, Oregon.
-The fur trade made Astor the richest man in the country. The trappers who supplied him with furs were also eager to become rich. These mountain men would become legendary.
-For most of the year, trappers led isolated, dangerous lives. They endured bitter cold, intense heat, and attacks from wild animals.
-Once a year, trappers would bring their furs to a rendezvous. Beaver fur was in great demand in the East, so trappers were able to command high prices for their fur.
-By the 1830s, the supply of beavers was nearly exhausted. Most trappers moved back east to become farmers, merchants, or even bankers.
II. The Oregon Trail
-The first white easterners to build permanent homes in Oregon were missionaries. In the 1830s, they began to travel west for the purpose of bringing their religious beliefs to the Indians.
-Missionaries like Marcus and Narcissa Whitman greatly spurred settlement of the West. Their glowing reports of Oregon led more easterners to make the journey west. Farmers sought the free and fertile land, the mild climate, and the plentiful rainfall of the river valleys.
-Settlers from all over the country were in the grip of “Oregon Fever.”
-Most settlers followed the Oregon Trail, a route that stretched more than 2,000 miles from Missouri to Oregon. They set out in the spring and had to be in Oregon within five months. Travelers caught by winter in the Rockies risked a slow death.
-The trip itself was hazardous. Disease and accidents killed about one traveler out of every ten on the Oregon Trail.
-Pioneers on the Oregon Trail banded together for mutual protection. Most traveled in long trains of covered wagons drawn by teams of horses or oxen. The wagons carried food and possessions, while the people walked. They traveled for up to fifteen hours a day. At night, wagons were drawn up into a circle to keep the cattle from wandering.
III. Life in the West
-Pioneer life was filled with hardships. Settlers arrived with few possessions. Working only with hand tools, they had to clear the land, plant crops, and build shelters. Disease, accidents, and natural disasters like storms and floods were an ever-present threat.
-Some settlers gave up and returned to the East. Others met the challenges and went on to live extraordinary lives.
-Women in the West worked alongside men to make a success of their family’s farms. The fact that their labor was necessary for a family’s survival raised the status of western women.
-The West was quicker than the East to reward women for their hard work. In 1869, the Wyoming Territory became the first area of the United States to grant women the vote.
-Native Americans in Oregon lived in an uneasy peace with the white settlers. Indians in the southern part of Oregon usually got along with whites. In northern Oregon, however, Native Americans were angered by the presence of strangers on their land.
-The discovery of gold in northern Oregon in the 1850s brought large numbers of whites and Chinese miners into the area. War broke out there in 1855. The miners killed several dozen Native American men. Three months later, miners massacred an equal number of Indian women, children, and old men.
-The Indians fought back, killing white and Chinese alike. The brief war ended when the U.S. government intervened. The Native Americans were forced to accept peace treaties.
Section 3: Conflict with Mexico
I. Texas Wins Independence
-In 1820, the Spanish governor of Texas gave Moses Austin a land grant to establish a small colony in Texas. After Moses died, his son, Stephen Austin, led a group of some 300 Americans into Texas.
-Soon after, Mexico won independence from Spain. The Mexican government agreed to honor Austin’s claim to the land. In return, Austin and his colonists agreed to become Mexican citizens and to worship in the Roman Catholic Church.
-Thousands of Americans flooded into Texas. They soon came into conflict with the Mexican government. The new settlers were Protestant, not Catholic. Also, many of the settlers were slaveholders from the American South who wanted to grow cotton in Texas. Mexico, however, had abolished slavery.
-For a while, Mexico tolerated these violations of its laws. Then, in 1830, Mexico banned further American settlement. Still Americans kept arriving in Texas. Tensions increased as Mexico tried to enforce its laws banning slavery and requiring settlers to worship in the Catholic Church. Mexico also began to levy heavy taxes on American imports.
-Americans settlers wanted more representation in the Mexican legislature, and some Tejanos also hoped for a democratic government that gave less power to the central government.
-These hopes were dashed in 1833 when General Santa Anna became President of Mexico. Santa Anna wanted a strong central government with himself at the head. Soon after, Santa Anna overturned Mexico’s democratic constitution and started a dictatorship.
-Austin urged Texans to revolt against the Mexican government. In 1836, Texans declared independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas.
-Santa Anna responded with force. His troops laid siege to the Alamo, a mission in San Antonio where about 185 Anglo-Americans and Tejanos were gathered. The defenders held out for 12 days under heavy cannon fire.
-At last, Mexican forces overran the Alamo. All of the defenders were killed in battle or executed afterward. Inspired by the bravery of the Alamo defenders, many American volunteers joined the Texan army.
-The following April, the commander of the Texan forces, Sam Houston, led a small army in a surprise attack against Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto. Texans shouted, “Remember the Alamo!” Within 18 minutes, the Texans had captured Santa Anna. They forced him to sign a treaty recognizing Texan independence.
-Sam Houston became president of the new Republic of Texas. He hoped that the United States would annex Texas. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren refused to support annexation. Both feared that adding a slave state might spark a huge political fight that could split the Union.
II. Annexing Texas and Oregon
-President John Tyler favored the annexation of Texas, But Tyler was not nominated for a second term. In 1844, the Whigs nominated Henry Clay.
-Clay hoped to avoid the issue of annexation. But the Democratic candidate, James K. Polk, called for the annexation of both Texas and Oregon. At the time, Oregon was jointly held by Britain and the United States. Polk demanded that the British withdraw from all territory south of latitude 54, 40N. Polk, the candidate of expansion, won the election.
-Shortly before Polk took office, Tyler asked Congress to annex Texas. Congress voted for admission of Texas as a state in 1845. A convention of Texan delegates quickly met and voted for annexation.
-President Polk then negotiated a treaty with Great Britain to divide Oregon. The United States got the lands south of latitude 49N. Eventually, this territory became the states of Washington, Oregon, and part of Idaho.
-The annexation of Texas increased tensions with Mexico. Mexico had never formally recognized Texan independence. The treaty that Santa Anna had been forced to sign at San Jacinto set the southern boundary of Texas at the Rio Grande. The Mexican government claimed that the southern boundary of Texas was the Nueces River, farther to the north.
-Setting the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico would have given Texas much more land. President Polk put pressure on Mexico to accept this claim. Mexico refused.
III. The Mexican-American War
-Polk knew that the Mexican government needed cash. He offered money to settle the claim for the Rio Grande border. He also offered to purchase California and the rest of New Mexico. Outraged Mexicans refused the offer.
-Polk then changed his tactics. Hoping to provoke a Mexican attack on U.S. troops, he sent General Zachary Taylor south to the disputed land south of the Nueces. The Mexicans saw this as an act of war.
-After Mexican troops ambushed an American patrol on the disputed land, Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war.
-Polk ordered troops under the command of Stephen Kearny to invade and capture Santa Fe, New Mexico. From there, Kearny was to lead his troops into California.
-Even before Kearny reached California, settlers near San Francisco had begun their own revolt against Mexico. Taking up arms, they declared California an independent republic.
-Mexico had very little military presence in California. By early 1847, all of southern California was under American control.
-Moving south of the Rio Grande, General Zachary Taylor captured the Mexican city of Monterrey.
-An American army under General Winfield Scott captured Veracruz. Scott’s campaign ended at Chapultepec, a stone palace above Mexico City. Like the Texans at the Alamo, the Mexicans fought bravely to defend Chapultepec. Most of them were killed. In Mexico, these young men are still honored for their bravery and patriotism.
-After Mexico’s defeat at Chapultepec, Santa Anna left Mexico City. The Mexican capital was now in American hands. The United States had won the war.
IV. Achieving Manifest Destiny
-The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed in 1848, formally ended the Mexican-American War.
-Under the treaty, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded a vast territory to the United States. This territory, known as the Mexican Cession, included present-day California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In return, the United States paid $18 million to Mexico.
-In the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, the United States paid Mexico
$10 million for a narrow strip of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. Manifest Destiny had been achieved.
Section 4: A Rush to the West
I. Mormons Settle Utah
-Even before the end of the war, a group of Americans had begun moving into the part of the Mexican Cession that is today Utah. These were the Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. The church was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, a New York farmer.
-The Mormon Church grew quickly, but some of its teachings often placed its followers in conflict with their neighbors. For example, Mormons at first believed that property should be held in common. Smith also favored polygamy.
-Hostile communities forced the Mormons to move from New York to Ohio and then to Missouri. By 1844, the Mormons had settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. There Joseph Smith was murdered by an angry mob.
-Brigham Young, the new Mormon leader realized that Nauvoo was no longer safe. In 1847, he led a party of Mormons on a long, hazardous journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Over the next few years, some 15,000 Mormon men, women, and children made the trek to Utah.
-Although Utah was a safe refuge, the land was not hospitable. Farming was difficult in the dry desert. Under strict church supervision, they enclosed and distributed farmland and set up an efficient system of irrigation.
-In 1848, as a result of the Mexican Cession, Utah became part of the United States. Congress then created the Utah Territory. Mormon leaders immediately came into conflict with officials appointed to govern the territory.
-Three issues divided the Mormons and the federal government. First, the Mormon Church controlled the election process in the Utah Territory. Non-Mormons had no say. Second, the church supported businesses that were owned by Mormons. “Outsiders” had difficulty doing business. The third issue was polygamy, which was illegal in the rest of the country.
-These issues were not resolved for more than 40 years. Finally, in 1896, Utah became a state.
II. The California Gold Rush
-When California was ceded to the United States in 1848, about 10,000 Californios were living in the territory. A handful of wealthy families owned most of the land. Their ranches were worked by poorer Californios or by Native Americans.
-After the Mexican Cession, easterners began to migrate to California.
-An event in January 1848 would bring a flood of other settlers to California. James Marshall was building a sawmill on John Sutter’s land near Sacramento. One morning, he found a small gold nugget in a ditch. The news spread like wildfire. By 1849, the California gold rush had begun.
-The nickname “forty-niners” was given to these people who came to California in search of gold. In just two years, the population of California zoomed from 14,000 to 100,000.
-Prospectors searched throughout Sacramento Valley for gold. Gold in underground deposits or lodes was difficult and expensive to find. As a result, large companies took over the mining of underground lodes.
-In gold fields, disputes over water rights were common. California has an abundance of land, but much of it is desert. Settlers needed water for irrigation and mining.
-California had kept older Mexican laws regarding water rights. Landowners had a right to use the water that flowed through their land. At the same time, it was illegal to cut off water to one’s neighbors. In most gold rush territories, though, the law was ignored. Disputes over water rights often erupted into violence.
-Mining towns were not very permanent places. Most sprang up overnight and emptied just as quickly when miners heard news of a gold strike in another place.
-California was not yet a state so federal law did not apply within the mining towns. To impose order, miners banded together and created their own rules.
-Few forty-niners struck it rich.
III. California’s Changing Population
-Many gold rush towns were temporary, but some grew and prospered. San Francisco had 200 inhabitants in 1848. By 1870, it had a population of 100,000.
-The gold rush brought enormous ethnic diversity to California. People came from Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. By 1860, the population of California was almost 40 percent foreign born.
-China’s economy was in trouble in the 1840s. After news reached China of a “mountain of gold,” about 45,000 Chinese men went to California. Chinese labors faced prejudice, but they worked hard. They helped build railroads and worked on farms.
-Several thousand free African Americans lived in California by 1850. They had their own churches and newspapers. They ran their own businesses. However, they did not have equal rights. They could not vote or serve on juries.
-Slavery did not take root in California.
-By 1850, only 15 percent of Californians were Mexican. The old ruling families did not have a strong say in the new territorial government.
-Californio politicians could not stop the passage of laws that discriminated against their people. The legislature levied a high tax on ranches and required rancheros to prove that they owned their land.
-By the time many Californians could prove ownership, they had to sell their land to pay legal bills.