Expansion and Reaction,

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CHAPTER 12

• Expansion and Reaction,
• 1846 - 1854

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War with Mexico

• Polk provoked war to acquire territory
• Zachary Taylor
• John Fremont
• Stephen Kearney
• Winfield Scott
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo added 600 million
  acres territory to the United States
• Wilmot Proviso
• In 1848, Zachary Taylors popularity won him the
  presidency
• popular sovereignty
• Free-soil party

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War with Mexico, 1846-1847
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Election of 1848
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Americans on the Move

• Steamships, railroads, and clippers contributed
  to movement of Americans throughout continent
• Gold discovered in California in 1849
• John Sumner
• Over 100.000 49ers immigrated to California
• Brigham Young leads Mormons to Utah
• Deseret and polygamy
• Irish potato famine brought 1.8 million Irish to
  America
• Revolution in Germany brought one million Germans
  to the United States

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The Gold Rush California
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The Quest for Perfection

• Utopian communities such as Oneida Association
  become American experiments
• Woman's Suffrage movement begin in the 1840s
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Lucretia Mott
• Sojourner Truth
• Seneca Falls Convention (1847)
• Declaration of Rights and Sentiments

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Popular Culture and High Culture

• Mass printing appeals to wide audience as
  Americans demand diverse entertainment
• A few great American writers emerge from this
  period
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Herman Melville
• Walt Whitman

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Slavery and a New Crisis in Politics

• Compromise of 1850
• Statehood for California in 1850 precipitates a
  crisis
• Stephen Douglas
• Fugitive Slave Act
• In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms
  Cabin built support for abolition
• Sold over 6.5 million copies

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Compromise of 1850
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Politics in Chaos

• Know-Nothing party emerged as anti-immigration
  party
• Order of the Star Spangled Banner
• Commerce and transportation enhanced United
  States expansion fever
• U.S. expanded into Hawaii, Baja, and Cuba
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Anthony Burns
• Ignited controversy over slavery and states
  rights
• led to formation of new Republican party

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Kansas-Nebraska and Slavery
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Discussion Questions

• Examine the presidency of James K. Polk. Was he a
  successful or unsuccessful president?
• Describe the events that led to the Mexican War?
  Was this war justifiable? Was it beneficial?
• How did the expansion of slavery into the
  territories further divide the nation?
• What was the Compromise of 1850? Did it delay or
  accelerate the nation to war?