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A war fought between the U.S. and Mexico because Mexico was enraged with the U.S.'s annexation of Texas as the U.S. desired to expand west. They believed that this was an aggressive land grab that ignored Mexico's sovereignty. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican-American War as the U.S. acquired about 55% of Mexico's territories.
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An agreement between the U.S. and Britain that set the boundary 49th parallel, in the Pacific Northwest between the U.S. and what would become Canada. This agreement divided the region between the British and the Americans. This ended a long dispute as they ended joint occupancy of the region. -
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill led to a mass migration to California. This guaranteed wealth and altered families' life expectations. The migration made the state became more diverse. This gold helped the U.S. economy through urbanization and the expansion of manufacturing. The detriments that came from the gold rush were that it caused damage to the environment through deforestation (logging), pollution of rivers (hydraulic mining), and mercury contamination of water (gold mining).
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A series of bills passed to address issues relating to slavery. They stated that slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty for new states admitted into the U.S. Admitted CA as a slave state, banned slave trade in Washington D.C., and requires the creation of stricter fugitive slave laws and to revise the current laws.
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An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that showed the brutality and immorality of slavery. Southerners hated the book because it shed slavery in an awful light, so they protested and claimed inaccuracy. To fight back against Stowe's novel, Southerners wrote Aunt Phillis’s Cabin, a pro-slavery account which claimed that slavery was a necessary institution where slaves were well-treated. This conflict over the institution of slavery contributed to the Civil War.
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A U.S law which created two new states of Kansas and Nebraska, and allowed popular sovereignty. Proposed by Stephen Douglas, who wanted Kansas to become a state quickly to create the first transcontinental railroad. This act let people hold their own referenda. Kansas devolved into Civil War, as pro and anti-slavery groups flooded Kansas to try to spread their beliefs, sparking a series of conflicts known as "Bleeding Kansas". This act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
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Senator Charles Sumner was attacked by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, who knocked him unconscious with a cane. This occurred two days after Sumner gave an anti-slavery speech about whether Kansas should enter the Union as a slave state or free state. His speech insulted pro-slavery Southerners, including Brooks' cousin, Andrew Butler, Senator of South Carolina. After the caning, vigils were held in the north and Brooks received 40,000 canes by mail encouraging further attack.
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A violent attack at Pottawatomie Creek where Brown and some of his followers killed five pro-slavery men in retaliation against a pro-slavery attack on Lawrence, Kansas, also known as The Sack of Lawrence. Brown's goal was to scare those in favor of slavery.
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A U.S. Supreme Court decision which ruled that African Americans, whether free or enslaved, were not citizens, therefore having no rights in federal court. This decision also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories. This was an effect of Dred Scott, an enslaved man, filing a lawsuit and suing for his freedom, claiming that his rights were violated.
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A crisis that affected the U.S. economy which stemmed from financial and agricultural instabilities. This panic was triggered by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company. Once the bank failed, people withdrew their money. This led to several business failures and widespread unemployment in the North which created tensions between the North and the South. Ultimately, the panic resulted in the failure of 5,000 businesses, a depression in the North, and contributed to the Civil War.
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A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas as they campaigned for one of Illinois' two U.S. Senate seats. Douglas accused Lincoln of being an abolitionist, while Lincoln accused Douglas of wanting to nationalize slavery through the idea of popular sovereignty. Douglas ended up winning the election. Due to these debates, though Lincoln lost the election, he rose to fame which led to his election as the President of the United States.