Test V Chapter 12 Age of Expansionism 1830 – 1860

Young America  Read Young America Page 335

Westward Expansion  Texas – Stephen F. Austin  By American Texans (Twice the number of Mexicans in Texas)  By 1830 Immigration into Texas was outlawed  1836 Texans win independence  1845 Texas becomes a State  John Tyler will orchestrate the annexation of Texas

Mormon Story  Joseph Smith begins movement in New York (writes the Book of Mormon)  1839 Moved followers to Illinois  1844 Smith killed by Anti-Mormon mob  1845 Brigham Young leads group to Salt Lake city area  There the group survived and prospered

Politics of Expansionism  James Polk wins the Presidential Election of 1844 on a pro expansionist platform  Texas would be admitted as a slave state while Oregon would be a free state  Polk’s Policy would lead to war with Mexico

 The war with Mexico would gain the U.S. Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and California  The war would also make Zackary Taylor another American Hero

 All of Mexico could have probably been acquired, but most Americans did not wish to have Mexican citizens become part of the nation  Read Page 348

Railroads  Discovery of Gold in California jump started the demand for expansion of the emerging American Railroad Industry  Railroads transformed the American economy in the 1840s and 1850s  Created the American Iron Industry (Mining and Forging of the rail lines)

 Private capital was not enough to finance the railroads so a corporate structure was created to meet their financial needs  The American Government and European investors also helped finance their expansion to the west

America’s Industrial Revolution  Standardized Parts  Assemble Line Production  New Technology  Examples: John Deere Plow, Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper could be mass produced thus becoming affordable  Railroads took the capital goods west and the finished products east

Mass Immigration  Between 1820 and ,000 new immigrants from British Isles and Germany  Between 1840 and million, most from Ireland and Germany  Potato famine of Ireland between 1845 and 1854 drove many to America

 Low fares made it possible for the entire families to move quickly and safely across the Atlantic  Most came for economic opportunity  American democracy and the ability to move up in social class was also attractive to the immigrants

 Most went to work in Americas factories during the industrial revolution  Many would eventually join unions to fight for higher wages and better working conditions, but more immigrants coming in, made this difficult to achieve

 This would create a working class of low wage earners easy to exploit throughout the rest of the 19 th century