- Westward migration
- Oregon
- Utah (Mormons)
- Mexican frontier
- Roots of Mexican War
- Pre-American settlers
- Mexican independence from Spain
- Mexicans and Indians
- California's commercial links to the United States
- From arrival of U.S. settlers to Texas revolt
- Initial emigration to Texas
- Mexican efforts to check American presence
- Texas revolt
- Demand by U.S. settlers and "Tejano" allies for greater autonomy
- Clamp-down by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
- Declaration of Independence
- Battle of the Alamo; "Remember the Alamo"
- Defeat of Santa Anna by Sam Houston at San Jacinto
- Republic of Texas
- Establishment
- Election of Houston as first president
- Early quest for U.S. annexation; opposition by President Jackson
- Swelling of American emigration
- 1844 election
- Revival of annexation issue
- Texas
- Relation to slavery question
- Support from John Tyler, James K. Polk
- Opposition from Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren
- Oregon; "Fifty-four forty or fight"
- Texas
- Democrat Polk vs. Whig Clay
- Election of Polk
- Revival of annexation issue
- Annexations under Polk
- Texas
- Oregon up to forty-ninth parallel
- Pursuit of California
- Pre-American settlers
- Mexican War
- Immediate causes
- Impasse over California
- Texas-Mexico border dispute
- Polk declaration of war on Mexico
- Response among Americans
- Broad support
- Spirit of Manifest Destiny
- America as bearer of liberty
- Themes of dissent
- War will promote expansion of slavery
- War undermines democratic values
- Thoreau and principle of civil disobedience
- Lincoln's opposition to president's war-making power
- Broad support
- Course of war
- California
- American rebels' declaration of independence from Mexico
- Announcement of Bear Flag Republic under John C. Frémont
- Arrival of U.S. Navy, superseding Bear Flag Republic
- Santa Fe
- Occupation by U.S. troops under Stephen W. Kearney
- Subsequent suppression by Kearney of Mexican resistance in southern California
- Mexico
- Defeat of Santa Anna by Zachary Taylor at Battle of Buena Vista
- Occupation of Mexico City by Winfield Scott
- California
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- Confirmation of U.S. annexation of Texas
- Ceding to the United States of California and present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah
- Payment by the United States to Mexico of $15 million
- Mexico's lasting resentment over war
- "Race" and legacy of U.S. victory
- Affirmation of Manifest Destiny assumptions
- "Anglo-Saxon race" as innately superior
- Association of Anglo-Saxon Protestants with civilization, progress, liberty
- Social inequalities of newly acquired territories
- Introduction of slavery
- Ethnic discrimination
- Affirmation of Manifest Destiny assumptions
- Immediate causes
- Gold Rush California
- Rise of mining frontier
- Discovery of gold
- Influx of migrants from around nation and world
- Growth of San Francisco
- Spread of mining communities
- Character of mining frontier
- Social diversity
- Shift from surface to underground mining
- Vigilantism
- Marginalization of non-whites
- Destruction of Indian communities
- Rise of mining frontier
- Revival of slavery question
- Wilmot Proviso
- Provisions and outcome
- Impact
- Reawakening of slavery controversy
- Sectional fragmentation of Democratic and Whig parties
- 1848 election
- Whig Taylor vs. Democrat Lewis Cass
- Election of Taylor
- Significance of Free Soil party's showing
- Appeal of Free Soil program to northerners
- Resentment of southern domination of federal government
- Vision of West as haven for economic independence
- White aversion to contact and competition with blacks
- White South's case for westward expansion of slavery
- Regional pride
- Need for fresh soil
- Economic imperative
- Preservation of political balance between North and South
- Wilmot Proviso
- Compromises and discord
- Compromise of 1850
- Backdrop
- Sectional clash over slavery question
- 1848: revolution and reaction across Europe
- Proposals and debates
- Clay plan
- Senate debate
- Daniel Webster; pro-compromise
- John C. Calhoun; uncompromising defense of slavery
- William Seward; uncompromising assault on slavery
- Outcome
- Death of President Taylor
- President Millard Fillmore's support for Clay plan
- Adoption of Compromise of 1850
- Backdrop
- Fugitive slave controversy
- Terms of Fugitive Slave Act
- Outrage over Fugitive Slave Act in North
- Federal tribunals and return of fugitives to South
- Resistance to recapture
- Black flight to Canada
- Kansas-Nebraska controversy
- Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska bill
- Nullification of Missouri Compromise
- Principle of "popular sovereignty"
- Broad antislavery reaction in North
- Outcome
- Passage of bill
- Collapse of Whigs
- Fracturing of northern Democrats
- Birth of Republican party
- Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska bill
- Compromise of 1850
- Rise of Republican party
- Underlying economic and political trends
- Maturation of market revolution across North
- Economic growth of 1840s and 1850s
- Integration of Northwest and Northeast within a dynamic economy
- Expanded railroad network
- Western agriculture
- Industrial production
- Spread and growth of cities
- Rise and fall of Know-Nothing Party
- Nativist hostility to immigrants, Catholics
- Links between anti-Catholic and antislavery sentiment
- Limits of nativist crusade
- Maturation of market revolution across North
- Republican party appeal
- Free labor ideal
- Opposition to expansion of slavery; "Freedom national"
- Juxtaposition of "free labor North" and "slave South"
- Depiction of free labor and slavery as incompatible
- Broad appeal in North
- Further factors behind rise of Republican party
- "Bleeding Kansas"
- Preston Brooks's assault on Charles Sumner
- Free labor ideal
- Election of 1856
- Victory of Democrat James Buchanan
- Emergence of Republicans as dominant in North, Democrats as dominant in South
- Underlying economic and political trends
- Toward disunion
- Dred Scott decision
- Key elements (Taney opinion)
- African-Americans devoid of citizenship rights
- Congress powerless to restrict slavery in territories
- Aftermath
- Indignation in North
- Lecompton Constitution controversy
- Key elements (Taney opinion)
- Lincoln-Douglas senate campaign of 1858
- Abraham Lincoln
- Personal background
- Political outlook
- Moral denunciation of slavery
- Call for containment, but not abolition, of slavery
- Personification of Republican free labor ideology
- Racial perspective
- Lincoln-Douglas debates
- Outcome
- Abraham Lincoln
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- Background on Brown
- The raid
- Trial and execution
- Vilification and martyrization
- Continuing inspiration for activists
- Rise of southern nationalism
- Secessionist impulse
- Imperial impulse
- Ostend Manifesto
- William Walker expeditions
- Baja California
- Nicaragua
- Measures to fortify slavery
- Election of 1860
- Democratic party split
- Stephen A. Douglas as nominee for northern wing
- John C. Breckinridge as nominee for southern wing
- Republican nomination of Lincoln
- Newly formed Constitutional Union party nomination of John Bell
- Lincoln victory, based on sweep of northern states
- Democratic party split
- Dred Scott decision
- From secession to war
- Secession of seven Deep South states
- Crittenden compromise effort
- Formation of Confederate States of America
- Seven Deep South states
- President Jefferson Davis
- Centrality of slavery and white supremacy to Confederate pronouncements
- Inauguration of Lincoln
- Lincoln's balancing act
- Confederate attack on Fort Sumter
- Lincoln's call for troops to suppress insurrection
- Secession of four more southern states