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The Alamo
During the Texas Rebellion, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s Mexican force of 4,000 troops laid siege to the town of San Antonio, where 200 Texans resisted, retreating to an abandoned mission, the Alamo. After inflicting over 1,500 casualties on Santa Anna’s men, the defenders of the Alamo were wiped out on March 6, 1836. The Alamo became a symbol of the Texans’ determination to win independence.
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a major effort at quieting sectional conflict in pre-Civil War American politics. In terms of expansion, its most important clauses were those admitting California to statehood as a free state and dividing the remainder of the Mexican cession after the Mexican War into two sections, New Mexico, and Utah, neither of which would be subject to restrictions on slavery.
Dawes Severalty Act
Passed in 1887, the Dawes Act called for the breakup of the reservations and the treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than tribes. It provided for the distribution of 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land to any Native American who accepted the act’s terms, who would then become a US citizen in 25 years. The act was supposedly intended to help the Native Americans to integrate into white society, but in reality, helped to create a class of federally dependent people.
Donner Party
The exploits of the Donner Party exemplified the difficulties of the overland journey to the Far West. Led astray by the erred advice of a guidebook, the Donner Party found itself snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and arrived at its destination in California only after turning to cannibalism.
Empresarios
In efforts to attract American settlers and trade to Texas during the 1820s, the Mexican government gave large land grants to agents called empresarios in return for their efforts to encourage colonization.
Erie Canal
The first canal project of the 1820s, the 363-mile Erie Canal was completed in 1825, connecting Buffalo, New York, on the Great Lakes, with Albany, on the Hudson River. The Erie Canal made cost effective shipping possible via waterways from New York City to the West by way of the Great Lakes. The North and Northwest were soon crisscrossed by an extensive canal system which greatly improved domestic transportation and trade.
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was seen as the final attempt of the Plains Indians to maintain their culture and land. The prophet Wovoka convinced the Sioux that they could only save their land and return to dominance if they performed the Ghost Dance. The dance soon became a reaffirmation of culture and a source of inspiration to renew the struggle against US forces of expansion. This renewed inspiration, however, was crushed before it could get off the ground.
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act, passed in 1830, granted President Andrew Jackson funds and authority to remove Native Americans by force if necessary. He pursued a determined effort to coerce the Native into expulsion.
Manifest Destiny
Journalist John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase “manifest destiny” in 1845 to describe a movement that was already well underway. O’Sullivan wrote of “our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of our continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty.” The term manifest destiny referred to the belief of many Americans that it was the nation’s destiny and duty to expand and conquer the West in the name of God, nature, civilization, and progress.
Mission
The mission was the main tool in Spanish and Mexican colonization of the Far West. Missions were established all along the California coast and into the interior of Texas and New Mexico. The Franciscan missionaries tried to convert the region’s native people and built towns around their missions. By 1823, over 20,000 native people had converted and were living in the missions of California.
Oregon Trail
Perhaps the best known of the overland trails to the Far West, the Oregon trail led many settlers to Oregon's Willamette Valley between 1840 and 1848 and was representative of the hardships of overland travel.
Santa Fe Trail
Southwestern travelers often used the Santa Fe Trail to move westward. The trail linked St. Louis and Santa Fe, leading to the establishment of strong economic connections between the regions surrounding the endpoints of the trail.
Trail of Tears
In 1835, federal agents persuaded a pro-removal Cherokee chief to sign the Treaty of New Echota, which ceded all Cherokee land for $5.6 million and free transportation west. Most Cherokees rejected the treaty, but resistance was futile. Between 1835 and 1838 bands of Cherokees moved west of the Mississippi along the so-called “Trail of Tears.” Between 2,000 and 4,000 of the 16,000 migrating Cherokees died. The Trail of Tears became a symbol for the harsh treatment of Native Americans at the hands of the federal government.
Transcontinental Railroad
On May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads joined their tracks at Promontory Point, Utah. The railroad rapidly affected the ease of western settlement, shortening the journey from coast to coast, which took six to eight months by wagon, to a mere one week’s trip.
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was an amendment proposed to an appropriations bill regarding the West, which proposed that slavery be prohibited in all the Mexican cession other than Texas. The proviso passed the House but stalled in the Senate, where it was the cause of further arguments between northern and southern politicians.
Worcester v. Georgia
In the 1832 case of Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokees comprised a “domestic dependent nation” within Georgia and thus deserved protection from harassment. However, the vehemently anti-Native American president Andrew Jackson refused to abide by the decision.
