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| These were developed during colonial times and were used by many families to carry supplies to settle out West. |
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| A natural pass through the Appalachian Mountains that connected to the Wilderness Road. |
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| Carved out by Daniel Boone and his men, this rocky trail became the main road to the West. It led from the Appalachian to central Kentucky. By 1800, about 20,000 settlers had traveled this road. |
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| These private roads were built by businesses between 1800 and 1830 to make travel easier, especially for those wanting to travel west. |
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| This was a charge for using the roads created by businesses in the 1800s. The money helped to pay for more roads. |
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| This road, approved by Congress and funded by the government in 1806, was built to make travel easier and lead to the West. |
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| This is the right to vote. Many new Western states wrote constitutions that gave all white men the right to vote. This eventually led the rest of the nation to get rid of the restrictions on voting based on ownership of land, religion, or taxes owed. |
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| This is the term used to describe a closed political meeting. This meant a handful of party officials held private meetings to nominate people for office. |
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| Critics of the caucus method of nominating people for office called it this and said it limited democracy. This ended in the 1830s as a result of public pressure |
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| These replaced party caucuses and allowed delegates from each state to vote for political candidates. This caused voter turnout to increase and politics to change. |
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| From Tennessee, he was considered a self-made man of the Western frontier. He was elected as the seventh President of the United States in 1828 and was a Democrat. |
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| This is the act of taking government jobs from opponents and giving them to supporters of the victor. Andrew Jackson openly defended this and said it expanded democracy because it gave more people a chance to participate in government. This term was coined soon after to describe the practice. |
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| This was the nickname given to Andrew Jackson’s cabinet of personal advisors. Many believed he should use the cabinet members approved by Congress, rather than his own personal choices. |
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| This is the term given to certain state banks who received federal funds. Jackson ordered the Secretary of Treasury to give federal funds to these banks because he felt that the National Bank had too much control. It caused problems because the president of the National Bank restricted money flow to fight it. This ended up making money too scarce and crippling the system. |
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| This was the nickname given by unhappy Southerners to a tariff imposed by the government in 1828. This was a tax placed on imported goods. Southerners hated this tariff because they relied heavily on imported goods and didn’t want to pay the higher costs. Those in the North and West liked it because it made it easier for them to sell the American products they made. |
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| A theory that focused on the idea that the Constitution gives states the right to pass, enforce, and interpret their own laws. Vice President John C. Calhoun used this belief to suggest that Southern states could use state government to get rid of the Tariff of Abominations. President Andrew Jackson disagreed. |
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| This term means independent. Vice President John C. Calhoun believed that the country was an agreement among independent states who could cancel any federal law. President Andrew Jackson disagreed. |
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| This is the right of states to make federal laws illegal. Many states in the South supported this idea. |
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| This law passed by South Carolina declared the national tariff on imports “null, void, and no law”. They eventually repealed this act when no other states followed suit and Congress lowered the rates on the tariff. |
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| The state of South Carolina threatened to do this, meaning to leave the Union, if the federal government fought their Nullification Act against federal tariffs on imported goods. |
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| Indian Removal Act of 1830 |
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| President Jackson convinced Congress to pass this law which gave money to the federal government to remove Native Americans from the eastern United States. Using federal troops, the Native Americans were forced to sign new treaties and move west. |
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| The United States government forced Native Americans from their lands in the 1830s, making them move west of the Mississippi River. The forced march of the Cherokee in 1838 was called this |
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| A Democrat, he was elected as 8th President of the United States in 1836. He promised to walk in the footsteps of his popular predecessor, Andrew Jackson. |
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| This was a political party that included the National Republicans. They ran three people against Martin Van Buren in the election of 1836, but Van Buren won by a landslide. At first, many saw the Whigs as the party of the rich. |
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| This is the term used to describe money in the form of gold or silver. When the National Bank Charter expired in 1836, individual banks throughout the United States began to loan money without regulations from the bank and printed paper notes as money. They printed more than they could back up by gold or silver. This created an economic crisis. |
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| This describes a time when banks started facing money problems due to the banks notes that had been printed without enough gold/silver to back them up. People had less money to spend and so factory demands dropped leading to unemployment. On top of that, bad weather wiped out wheat crops in the West and the price of cotton fell in the South making it difficult for both to repay their bank loans. Many banks in the East closed and went out of business as a result. |
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| Elected in 1840 as the 9th President of the United States, he was a member of the Whig party. He died a month after his inaugural speech, leaving Vice President John Tyler to the presidency. |
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| He was the 10th President of the United States, taking over after the death of President William Henry Harrison. He encouraged westward expansion. |
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| This is used to describe the area that includes modern-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Canada. It was the area between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Rocky Mountains. It became well known as an area for fur trapping. Russia, Spain, Great Britain and the United States all laid claim to it. In 1818, Great Britain and the United States agreed to share it equally for a period of ten years. By 1825, Russia and Spain had given up their claims to it. |
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| The term used to describe the men who responded to fur-trapping company ads to come out and work in Oregon Country. They were considered to live tough and lonely lives as fur trappers. |
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| As wagon trains began to move out West, many followed this pathway which extended from Independence, Missouri to the Columbia River in Oregon. Between 1840 and 1860, over 60,000 people traveled this route. |
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| This was a lightweight covered wagon used by families traveling West. They were hitched to teams of oxen. |
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| The 11th President of the United States, he was elected in 1844. He negotiated with Great Britain to annex Oregon and it became a territory in 1848. He was a strong supporter of the idea of Manifest Destiny. |
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| These are people of Mexican heritage who consider Texas their home. |
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| The name given to people who agreed to recruit settlers to come to Texas. This was done by Spain in hopes of keeping control of their stake in Texas. Spain offered large pieces of land to them in exchange for bringing people to the Spanish colony. Mexico eventually gained its independence from Spain, however, and expanded its boundaries to include Texas. Mexico also adopted this system of settling the land. |
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| This began when mostly American colonists in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the government of Texas which was more controlling than the United States government they were used to. In 1836, Americans declared independence and created the Republic of Texas. It was officially recognized by the United States as a country independent from Mexico in 1837. Mexico refused to acknowledge its independence, however. |
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| This term is used to describe the attitude of many Americans in the mid-1800s that America was meant to expand and spread across the continent. This idea helped fuel westward expansion. |
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| This term means to attach or add. Texas was annexed into the United States in 1845. Oregon was also annexed through a negotiation with Great Britain in 1848. |
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| Mexican-American War (1846-1848) |
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| This was a war between the United States and Mexico. It started over Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory and America had annexed as a state. It also involved the fight over New Mexico and California, which Mexico claimed as its own. The war ended with Mexico being forced to give up all of California and New Mexico in exchange for $15 million from the American government, and accept Texas as part of the United States. |
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| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) |
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| Under this treaty, Mexico gave up all of California and New Mexico. The Americans agreed to give $15 million in exchange for this land and both accepted the Rio Grande River as the border between Texas and Mexico. |
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| The term used to describe the area given up by Mexico after the Mexican-American War. It included the modern-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. |
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| Claiming more territory owned by Mexico, this purchase for $10 million gave a little more land to America and officially finished the boundary between Mexico and the United States. |
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| This religious group moved out West and settled Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young. They belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were moving to escape the religious persecution they were experiencing in other parts of the country. This religion was begun by a man named Joseph Smith. |
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| This term is used to describe the people who rushed to California in search of gold, many of them migrating in the year 1849. They set up temporary mining towns overnight, many living in tents |
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| A term used to describe a miner. |
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| Committee members who drove thieves out of mining towns in California during the Gold Rush without trial or jury due to the fact that mining towns had no police or prisons. |
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| The term used to describe the time from the mid-1800s to 1850s in which thousands flocked to California in search of gold. |
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