Term
| In the period between 1800 - 1920, religious and women's groups often fought to reform society in which three ways? |
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Definition
1. Equal rights for women! Particularly the right to vote (called suffrage)
2. Temperance -- not drinking alcohol
3. Abolition - getting rid of slavery. |
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Term
| What two women organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1840? (Seneca Falls, New York) |
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Definition
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott |
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Term
| What were people fighting for at the Seneca Falls Convention? |
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Definition
| Equal rights for women - particularly the right to vote. (This made them suffragettes). |
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Term
| What document was written at the Seneca Falls Convention and what did it say? |
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Definition
| The Declaration of Sentiments - it used the language of the Declaration of Independence to emphasize that women were denied the equality that the Declaration of Independence was so proud of. |
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Term
| What five things led to the Mexican War? |
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Definition
1. Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821.
2. The people of Texas fought a war of independence against Mexico over the Alamo. The Alamo was a Spanish mission. The Texans sought refuge in it before being overwhelmed by the Spanish army under the General Santa Ana. Texas declared its independence from Mexico, but mexico insisted Texas was still part of Mexico.
3. Ten years passed. America grows and starts to want the land that made up North Mexico -- California in particular. President Polk offered Mexico lots of money, but Mexico didn't feel like selling half their country and said, "No!" Now we needed an excuse to take it from them.
4. Polk made Taxes a state, which made Texas happy but Mexico mad. Then Polk sent in army troops to the border of Texas and Mexico to further enrage the Mexicans. Shots were fired, some on both sides died.
5. Polk went to Congress and said, "American blood has been spilled on American soil!" and he asked them for declaration of war against Mexico. Congress said yes. |
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Term
| What years did the Mexican War take place? |
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Definition
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Term
| How did the Mexican War end, and who got what? |
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Definition
| After two years, the U.S. won the war. We took away half of Mexico, including all or most of the land of the following states: New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, California, Utah, Colorado, and more. We gave them the money they turned down initially to make ourselves feel better. |
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Term
| Who invented the cotton gin? What year was it invented? |
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Definition
| Eli Whitney, in 1793 - way before the War of 1812 or the Louisiana Purchase. |
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Term
| Why was the invention of the cotton gin so important? |
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Definition
| Way back in the 1780s, the cotton industry was dying out in the south. The long stem cotton was dying because it had been grown with generations on the same land, draining the soil of the nutrients it needed. Since cotton growing was the main reason people needed slaves, slavery was growing, too. The cotton gin -- a simple device that quickly and easily got the seeds out of the cotton bolls. This meant that short-stem cotton, which people had avoided because it had lots of seeds, could now be grown profitably. Short-stem cotton liked to grow on different lands, not drained of nutrients. Now lots of new plantations opened on these new lands, and they wanted lots of slaves, so slavery increased. |
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Term
| What is Manifest Destiny? |
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Definition
| The idea that the U.S. was destined to spread from sea to shining sea -- right across the continent. The idea was sort of that God wanted this to happen, so it was morally OK to sweep Mexico and the Native Americans out of the way. |
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Term
| Who first used the phrase "Manifest Destiny?" |
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Definition
| A journalist named O'Sullivan. |
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