USA EXPANSION

Sea to shining sea…

INDEPENDENCE FROM ENLAND Revo war ends in 1781 – USA wins at

Yorktown. John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin

Franklin, the three Americans sent to Britain to negotiate the peace treaty, insisted that independence for the colonies be built into the peace agreement.

INDEPENDENCE OFFICIALLY GRANTED IN 1783

The Treaty of Paris was finally ratified in September 1783

The treaty not only recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, but also established boundaries that extended far to the west of the 13 original colonies.

The new country would be bounded by the 1. Atlantic Ocean on the east, 2. the Mississippi River on the west, 3. Florida on the south, and 4. Canada and the Great Lakes on the north. Spain retained control of Florida, and the United

States was permitted use of the Mississippi River.

USA as of 1783

LOUISIANNA PURCHASE 1803

*France controlled this vast area from 1699 until 1762, the year it gave the territory to its ally Spain. *Under Napoleon Bonaparte, France took back the territory in 1800 in the hope of building an empire in North America. *A slave revolt in Haiti and an impending war with Britain, however, led France to abandon these plans and sell the entire territory to the United States, who had originally intended only to seek the purchase of New Orleans and its adjacent lands.*The purchase of the territory of Louisiana took place during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. *Remove France's presence in the region and to protect both U.S. trade access to the port of New Orleans and free passage on the Mississippi River.

Reasons Summarized

France in war with Britain (very costly) Slave uprising in Hispanola (Domican Republic today)

France to get $$ quick and avoid a total loss offered all 830,000,000 square miles for $15 million.

The U.S. paid 50 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total sum of 15 million dollars (less than 3 cents per acre) for the Louisiana territory ($233 million in 2012 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre)

Red River Basin Agreement 1818 This land became part of the U.S. when the

second article of the 1818 treaty declared the 49th parallel to be the official border between the U.S. and Canada up to the Rocky Mountains.

It also said the USA and Great Britain would jointly occupy the Oregon Territory

It is often thought that the title was secured by the U.S. at no cost.

However, the territory of the original Louisiana Purchase west of the Red River Valley extends north of the 49th parallel. Annexed by Britain in exchange for its cession of the Red River Valley, the northernmost parts of the Louisiana Purchase are one of the few North American territories ever ceded by the United States to a foreign power.

GB gets this USA gets this

(Louisiana purchase)

49th parallel

Jointly occupied by USA and GB

FLORIDA 1819

In 1814 and then again in 1817-1818, future American president Andrew Jackson led frontier forces in defeating and removing various Native American tribes indigenous to the region, even as Spain retained official control there.

At this point, the United States and Spain had to either fight or negotiate over which country would retain possession of Florida

in 1819, the two countries signed the Adams-Onís Treaty.

TREATY AGREEMENTS

Ceded Florida to the United States. In exchange, the United States agreed to pay up to $5 million in damages to Americans who had claims against Spain and to forfeit any claims to Texas.

(Some America citizen had sued Spain over Indian problems)

Adams Onis Treaty

The Adams-Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain was negotiated by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and the Spanish Minister to the United States, Don Luis de Onís, and signed in February 1819.

By the terms of this boundary, the United States agreed that Texas was on the Spanish side of the line, and Spain agreed to give up its claim to the Northwest Territory north of forty-two degrees. The treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate on February 24, 1819.

Adams Onis Treaty con’t

USA agrees to relinquish claims on Spanish area west of Texas

Land to the USA

Land back to Spain

The Texas Revolution

The settlers ignored the Mexican rules. They kept bringing in slaves, even after Mexico outlawed slavery. Settlers were still Americans, not Mexican. In 1830, Mexico passed a law halting American immigration and sent troops to Texas to enforce it.

Tensions in Texas

Mexican officials suspected that the U.S. wanted to acquire Texas. Originally claimed as part of the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. had dropped its claim. But when an offer was made to buy a large part of Texas for $1 million, Mexicans refused, but their fears of U.S. intentions were confirmed.

International tensions

American settlers in Texas had to agree to certain conditions in exchange for receiving land from Mexico. They had to surrender their American citizenship; swear allegiance to Mexico; and adopt the Roman Catholic religion.

The Texas Revolution Begins

Tensions between settlers, now calling themselves Texans, and the Mexican government grew continually worse.

On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna’s force of 6,000 soldiers reached San Antonio. The Mexican army laid siege to the fort, pounding it for 12 days and nights. The fort was finally stormed, with nearly all defenders killed.

The AlamoRebel Texan forces captured San Antonio, which contained a fort called the Alamo. Santa Anna (new Mexican President and General) led an army into Texas to punish the rebels and put down the unrest once and for all.

Santa Anna

Texan Victory

Texans used the Alamo and Goliad as rallying cries

Sam Houston (Texan leader) retreated towards US border

Santa Ana pursues Houston At San Jacinto, Sam Houston took Santa

Anna by surprise and defeated the Mexican General.

Texan Independence

Captive Santa Anna was forced to sign two treaties

Treaties agreed to withdraw all Mexican troops from Texas, recognize the Rio Grande as extreme southern border of Mexico and Texas

The Annexation of Texas

A Republic for nine years The annexation question was a significant issue in the 1844

presidential election. When James K. Polk, the pro-annexation candidate, won, Mexico warned that it would consider the annexation of Texas as a declaration of war.

Tyler signs the joint resolution Outgoing president John Tyler signed the joint resolution of

Congress into law just three days before the end of his term, in March 1845.

Texas becomes a state Voters in Texas overwhelmingly approved annexation, and

Texas became a part of the United States on December 29, 1845.

Annexation complete

Congress approves of Texas as a state 1845

Oregon Country, 1846

Negotiations between the United States and Britain over the Oregon Country began in the summer of 1845. Because any states that would eventually be formed out of the territory would be free states, anti-slavery Northerners were strongly in favor of acquiring as much of the territory as possible.

Britain did not want to go to war over the issue either, and in 1846, the two countries reached an agreement to divide the territory at the 49th parallel. Oregon Country would later become the modern-day states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as portions of Montana and Wyoming.

Line to separate USA/Canada

49th parallel (49° N Latitude)

Mexican Cession, 1848

After Texas joined the United States on Dec 29, 1845, a boundary dispute broke out almost immediately between the United States and Mexico, the country from which Texas had won its independence a decade earlier.

The U.S. said the southern boundary of the state should be the Rio Grande.

On April 25, 1846, after the U.S. cavalry ignored an order from the Mexican army to retreat to the Nueces River and instead advanced south to the Rio Grande, fighting broke out. Three weeks later, Congress declared war on Mexico.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 Fighting continued for more than a year,

and ended in September 1847. In February 1848, the two countries signed

the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty recognized Texas as a U.S. state,

and ceded a large chunk of land — about half the area that belonged to the Mexican republic — to the United States for the cost of $15 million.

The Mexican Cession included land that would later become California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Coast to Coast

Gadsden Purchase, 1853

In 1853 President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden to negotiate with Mexico.

The Mexican government was in desperate need of money, and it agreed to sell a small strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border to the United States for $10 million.

The Gadsden Purchase included land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico

Reason = wanted to build a Railroad in a straight line rather than around the existing border

Alaska, 1867

In 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward met with Russian diplomats and, arranged for the United States to purchase Alaska for the cost of $7.2 million — about two cents per acre.

Russia, fearing a war with Britain that would

allow the British to seize Alaska, wanted to sell

arguing that it was ridiculous to purchase land so far away from the rest of the United States, American attitudes quickly changed, however, with the discovery of gold in Alaska in the 1890s.

In 1959, nearly one hundred years after it became an American territory, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States.

Hawaii, 1898

When the Hawaiian leader, Queen Liliuokalani, sensed a threat from the increasing power held by the American planters, she tried to strengthen the monarchical government.

In response, in 1893 a group of American planters led by Samuel Dole organized a coup and deposed her.

In 1894, Dole sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., to ask the United States to annex Hawaii, but President Grover Cleveland opposed annexation and argued that the queen should be restored.

Dole then declared Hawaii an independent republic. In 1898, a new president, William McKinley, came to office and

agreed to annex the islands. Hawaii became the 50th state of the union in 1959.

The United States in 1820

By 1820, the majority of organized states were in the eastern half of the country. States in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Appalachian Highlands had reached their present-day shape and size. The Southeast (with the exception of Florida) and portions of the Midwest had also largely been organized into states.

The United States in 1850

By 1850, the United States had expanded far to the west of the Mississippi River. The discovery of gold in California — which for a time was cut off from the other states by thousands of miles — brought thousands of settlers to the Pacific Coast, and as a result of its exploding population and economy, it became a state in 1850.

During the 1840s and 1850s, thousands of additional settlers traveled the Oregon Trail and settled in Oregon Country.

The United States in the 1860s

Years of ongoing disputes about slavery, the expansion of slavery into new states and territories, and the rights of individual states led to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Eleven states — Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia — seceded from the United States of America and formed a new country, known as the Confederate States of America. During the war, the United States became known as the "Union" and the Confederate states became known as the "Confederacy." In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, a portion of Virginia seceded from the state of Virginia and became the present-day state of West Virginia.

After four long and bloody years, the Civil War ended in 1865 when the Confederacy surrendered to the Union. The Confederate States of America ceased to exist, and the states in the Confederacy became a part of the United States once more. Slavery, which had been abolished in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, also ceased to exist within the United States.

The United States in 1880

By 1880, 15 years after the Civil War, many of the present-day states had been organized. In 1867, Alaska, and what is now the state of Oklahoma, remained "unorganized" territories, without territorial governments (which later became state governments).

In 1880, the territories remaining in the continental United States were largely in the Mountain States, the Southwest, and the northernmost portions of the Great Plains. Unlike most of the other territories that became individual states, Dakota Territory became two states: North and South Dakota.

The United States in 1920

In the late 1880s and 1890s, several former territories became states. In 1889 alone, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington all became states. The 1890s saw the addition of Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, and it became the Hawaii Territory. In 1912, Alaska became the organized Alaska Territory.

Two states in the desert Southwest — Arizona and New Mexico — joined the Union in 1912.

The United States in 1960

In 1959, the United States added two more states to the Union: Alaska and Hawaii, the non-contiguous states. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th state, and Hawaii joined on August 21, 1959, becoming the 50th state.

No additional states have joined the United States since 1959. However, the United States currently has several organized and unorganized territories and commonwealths around the world, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.