Territorial+Expansion


 * Territorial Expansion**

After the Revolutionary War, the newly established United States was free to expand as a country. New laws and ordinances needed to be put into place to set a precendent for future expansion of the colonies. Desire for the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains caused controversy, there was a fear that somes states would sell off land to pay off debts from the way.


 * Why not turn the whole western area over to the central government?**

The **Articles of the Confederation** required all thirteen states approve this idea unanimously, however smaller states such as Maryland that needed land held out until New York and Virginia surrendered their western claims. Congress states that if they were given control of Western lands, the government would divide the lands into a number of "republican states" that would in time be admitted to the union if they met certain requirements. Thus the fertile Western lands were controlled by the government. Those who sought to expand westward simply bought their land from the government. This created the first uniform national land policy.


 * Land Ordinance of 1785**- provided that the land in what was referred to as the "Old Ordinance" should be sold and that proceeds should go to help pay off the national debt. The land was to be first surveyed and then divided into townships six miles square, then divided again into 36 sections. A section in each township was set aside for public schools.


 * Northwest Ordinance of 1787**- dealt with the problem of how the nation should deal with its colonies. It dealt with the terms required for a territory to become a state. First, a territory or townships was subordinate to the Federal government. After the territory had accumulated 60,000 inhabitants it might be admitted to Congress as a state and had all the privileges of the original colonies. It also forbade slavery in the" Old Northwest". Through this Ordinance, Congress fufilled what they had promised when they convinced the colonies to surrender their lands to the government after the Revolutionary war.

**Lousiana Purchase 1803**- the United States bought the Lousiana Territory from France for 15 million dollars. James Monroe and Robert R. Livingstons sent to buy New Orleans for 10 million. Monroe negotiated the deal with a french foreign minister who offered him all of the Lousiana Territory. Napoleon had given up hope for a western empire and wanted nothing to do with the land in Lousiana, seeing it as a lost cause. This was an unauthorized purchase since Jefferson orriginally instructed Monroe to purchase only the New Orleans area, and saw the deal as unconstitutional but the three treaties to buy the Lousiana Territory passed through Congress, doubling the size of the United States.


 * Florida-1819**- after jackson invaded Florida in, the Spanish ceded it in 1819


 * Missouri Compromise**- admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, this maintained the balance between freen and slave states. It also band any further slavery in territories of the Lousiana Purchase the were above the 36'30' line (the southern boundary of Missouri). This momentarily appeased both the North and the South, the south won Missouri as an unrestricted slave state and the North were gratified by the immense area above the 36'30' line that would remain slavery free. The Missouri Compromise kept the peace for over 30 years, and maintained a shaky unity between the states, although it did not addresss or solve the issue of slavery.


 * Mexican Cessian Lands**- lands previously owned by Mexico and then aquired by the United States after their victory in the Mexican War. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo confirmed that America had claim to Texas as well as purchasing a land mass of almost half of Mexico that reached from the Pacific Ocean and California westward to Oregon, this land was purchased for 15 million dollars.


 * Texas-** Texas was annexed in 1845. Texas voted to be annexed in 1836, and after its annextion controversy with Mexico intensified as both countries claimed to have control of the Texas territory. Mexico removed its minister from Washington and diplomatic ties were severed. More controversy arose over the boundary between Texas and Mexico, during Spanish occupation the southwestern border of Texas was the Nueces River, now Texas claimed their southern boundary to be the Rio Grande. In order to encourage an attack from Mexico, President Polk ordered troops into the disputed territory, provoking Mexican troops into an attack and then claiming the confrontation a valid reason for war, claiming it as "american blood on american soil". Texas added a large expanse of agricultural land to the United States, and taking more land from Texas.


 * The Gadsden Purchase**- Purchased the territory between Texas and Mexico that was considered disputed Territory during the Mexican War. It purchased land along the present day border between the United States and Mexico. The purpose of this purchase was to aquired land to build a southern railroad.


 * Manifest Destiny**- the idea of American Expansionism, and that it was the destiny of the United States that it expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and across the continent of America.


 * 54'40'**- because of the idea of Manifest Destiny, americans believed they had the right to claim lands south of the 54'40 parallel. Some of these lands were disputed territory between the British and the United States. Fearing a war with both Britain and Mexico, the United States settled on the keeping the boundary between Canada and the United States at the 49th parallel. This fueled the idea of Manifest Destiny with slogans such as "Fifty Four Forty or Fight"


 * Alaska**- the United States puchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars, Secretary of State William H, Seward negotiated the purchased which was referred to as Seward's Folly because the land was believed to be barren, however when gold and oil was discovered it proved to be a wise purchase