Chapter 7 notes/questions

DATES
• Preemption Act: 1830
• Joseph Smith murdered: 1844
• Mexico won its independence from Spain: 1821
• Mexico closed its borders to American immigration: 1830
• Texas declared its independence from Mexico (month, day, year):
March 2, 1836
• Santa Anna’s army stormed the Alamo (Month, Day, Year): March
6, 1836
• Oregon Treaty: 1846
• American forces took control of Mexico City (Month, Day, Year):
September 4, 1847
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Month, Day, Year): February 2,
1848

LESSON 1
Congress passed the Preemption Act of 1830. The law protected
squatters by guaranteeing them the right to claim land before it
was surveyed

How do you think the idea of Manifest Destiny encouraged western

migration? 
Americans who believed in Manifest Destiny believed that the
country was meant to settle the entire continent, from coast to
coast.

What groups of people might be negatively affected by Manifest Destiny? 

Native Americans

How did agriculture change between 1820 and 1860? 

Devices such as steel plows and mechanical reapers allowed
farmers to do more work with less effort.

What effect did this have on agriculture? 

Farmers’ work became easier with the use of this new
technology, so they were able to do more work and harvest more
products with less effort.

What was Kit Carson’s original occupation? 

fur trapper and trader

How did Kit Carson become known? 

John C. Frémont published accounts of his explorations with Kit
Carson as a guide creating a hero.

What was John C. Frémont doing in the American West? 

Exploring the land for the United States government.

Why did overlanders travel in groups?

for safety and to provide assistance to one another in equipment
repair, animal husbandry, child care, hunting, and other trail
tasks

Why did Native Americans fear that pioneers might threaten their way of
life? 
There were more and more settlers heading west; the settlers
disrupted the wanderings of buffalo herds and used resources
that the Native Americans depended on for survival.

For what reasons other than settling conditions at the end of a war would the
United States enter into a treaty agreement? 
to reach a political or economic agreement with a foreign power

LESSON 2

Which states formed the northern borderlands of Mexico?

California, New Mexico, and Texas

Why was this frontier threatened? 

Settlements faced attacks by Native American groups and were
threatened by the westward expansion of the United States and
southward expansion of Russian settlements.

How did this threat affect Mexico? 

Mexico struggled to establish a stable government and to protect
its territory.

Who was Juan Bautista Alvarado? 

the governor of California

Who opened the Santa Fe Trail? 

William Becknell

Why did merchant wagons travel in two parallel lines along the trail? 
If they were attacked they could quickly form a circle for
protection.

What was the trail used for? 

Manufactured goods were brought into Santa Fe and traded for
silver, mules, and furs and it was also used a mail route.

What did the Santa Fe Trail encourage? 

More American settlers to come to New Mexico.

LESSON 3
Empresario system
After Mexican independence in 1821, the Mexican government
contracted "empresarios" or land agents to aid the settlement of Texas.
Each empresario agreed to settle a specific number of Catholic
families on a defined land grant within six years.

The empresario system led to hundreds of American families coming into Texas

to claim the land offered by the Mexican government

Who was Sam Houston?

 He was serving as a mediator and traveling to Washington D.C. on the behalf of
the Cherokee.

What did Houston do upon coming to Texas? 

He became involved in the American settlers’ push for independence and became a
major general in the Texas Army.

What role did he play in the independence of Texas? 

He led a force of 800 Texans against Santa Anna whose defeat led to
independence.

What 2 famous Texans died defending the Alamo?

• Davy Crockett and James Bowie
•
• What natural feature formed the western border of the disputed
territory?
• the Rio Grande
•
• Why was the Texan victory at San Antonio so important? 
• It showed that even a small Texan force could defeat a larger Mexican force.
It thus encouraged the Texans to fight on for independence.
•
• Give 2 difficulties the Texans faced in their war against Mexico?
• Few men had military training, there was no clear leader at first, and the
Texans were outnumbered.
•
•
•
•
•

Lesson 4
• What happened, in general, with the presidential election of 1844?
• James Polk won the 1844 election by promising to annex Texas
 and the Oregon Territory as well as buy California from Mexico.
•
• What did the slogan  “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” mean?
• Polk and the Democrats used the slogan to rally support for their
belief that the United States should fight if necessary to control
all of Oregon below the line of 54°40’ north latitude.
•
• What was the importance of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo specifically?
• gave the United States what is now California, Utah, and Nevada
as well as parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming
and established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas.
•
• To provoke Mexico and win support for the war, President Polk ordered
troops to cross what, which in Mexico’s view was an invasion of its territory?
• the Nueces River 
•
• What was Winfield Scott’s role in the war with Mexico?
• He led a naval invasion of Mexico capturing Veracruz and Mexico
City.)