1. Westward Ho!!
Or, how to go coast to coast in just a
few years…

2. EQs- How and why did America
expand during the 1840s?
What was the impact of
expansion on sectionalism?

3. Maine Boundary Settlement,
1842

5. Key Figures in Texas
Independence, 1836
Sam Houston Stephen Austin
(1793-1863) (1793-1836)

6. Steve Austin

7. Texas Settlement
• Stephen Austin
• Mexico’s deal
– 4600 acres per family
– Convert to Cath.
– $.12 per acre to Austin (10X less than in US)
• Southern slaveholders

8. The Republic of Texas

9. Texas Independence 1836
• Causes of Texas’ Independence
– Mexico outlaws slavery
– Taxes & troops in Texas
– Protection of rights
• Texas revolt & Independence 1836
• Mex. Gen. Santa Anna attacks Alamo
• Sam Houston leads Texas victory
– Captured Santa Anna signs Indep.

10. The Battle of the Alamo
General Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna
Recaptures the Alamo

11. Remember the Alamo!

12. Admit Texas as a State??
• North says Nay (many little slave states)
• South says Yea!!! (slave states)
• Fearing Brit. & France nice-nice w/ Texas
– Pres. Tyler/Calhoun negotiate statehood treaty
– Sen. rejects Annex… over slavery
• Polk runs on taking Texas/Oregon

13. Pres. John Tyler S.o.S. John Calhoun

14. Admit Texas as a State??
• North says Nay (many little slave states)
• South says Yea!!! (slave states)
• Fearing Brit. & France nice-nice w/ Texas
– Pres. Tyler/Calhoun negotiate statehood treaty
– Sen. rejects Annex… over slavery
• Polk runs on taking Texas/Oregon

15. Texas Annexation 1845
• ’44 Pro-expansion Polk defeats Clay (who
“molded” and “shaped” a flip-flopping image)
• Outgoing Pres. Tyler pushes admission of
Texas through Congress (Feb. 1845)
– No more than 4 states
– Missouri Comp.’s 36o 30’ extended

17. James Polk

18. Disputed Texas Territory

19. Wilmot Proviso, 1846
No slavery in any Mexican
War lands
Congr. David
Wilmot
(D-PA)

20. Mexican War 1846-48
• $25 m. purchase fails
• Mexico City taken  Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo
– Cali/New Mexico
– $15 m. to Mex. (+$3 m.)

21. Treaty of Guadalupe-
Hidalgo, 1848
Nicholas Trist,
American
Negotiator

22. The Mexican Cession

23. Land Acquisition

24. Overland Immigration to the
West
 Between
1840 and
1860, more
than
250,000
people
made the
trek
westward.

25. The Oregon Trail – Albert
Bierstadt, 1869

27. Trails Westward

28. The Oregon Dispute: 54’ 40º
or Fight!
 By the mid-
1840s,
“Oregon
Fever” was
spurred on by
the
 promise of
The joint
free land. S.
British-U.
occupation
ended in
1846.

29. The Trail Today

30. Some Major Trails West

31. Religion
• Mormon faith
• Joseph Smith
• Brigham Young leads
them west (1846)

32. Mormon Trail

33. GOLD! At Sutter’s Mill,
1848
John A. Sutter

34. California Gold Rush,
1849
49er’s

35. The Doomed Donner Party
April, 1846 – April,
1847