Mr. Jose A. Sanchez, Alhambra High School

U.S. experiencing high birth rate and increases in population due to immigration. The U.S. population grew from more than five million in 1800 to more than 23 million by mid-century. It's estimated that nearly 4,000,000 Americans moved to western territories between 1820 and The United States suffered two economic depressions — one in 1818 and a second in These crises drove some people to seek their living in frontier areas. Frontier land was inexpensive or, in some cases, free. Opportunity to expand new commerce by building West Coast ports and increase trade with countries in the Pacific.

The recognition of America’s independence. The establishment of American boundaries between the Atlantic on the east to the Mississippi River on the west. American fishing rights in Newfoundland. The pledge to protect British loyalists. The victorious nation had accumulated a massive debt – more than $11 million in national debt and state debts of more than $65 million. America promised to pay all debts, including personal.

John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin in Benjamin West’s painting. The British commissioners refused to pose, and the painting was never finished.

Concerned about French intentions, President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. Surprised and delighted by the French offer of the whole territory, they immediately negotiated the treaty. By a treaty signed on Apr. 30, 1803, the United States purchased from France the Louisiana Territory The Louisiana territory was more than 2 million sq km (800,000 sq mi) of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The price was 60 million francs, about $15 million.

The United States signed the Convention of 1818 with Great Britain in order to settle some issues left open by the Treaty of Ghent, which four years earlier had ended the War of The new treaty stated that Britain and the United States would jointly occupy Oregon Territory (an arrangement that lasted until 1846), and clarified the northern border of the Louisiana Purchase. The land acquired by the United States in the treaty, known as the Red River Basin, would ultimately become part of the states of Minnesota and North Dakota.

The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, settled a border dispute in North America between the United States and Spain. The treaty was the result of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Spain. In addition to ceding Florida to the United States, the treaty settled a boundary dispute along the Sabine River in Texas and firmly established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean. In exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas.

In 1842, Secretary of State Daniel Webster met with the British Foreign Minister, Alexander Baring, the first Baron Ashburton. The resulting Webster-Ashburton Treaty reached agreement on the following points: Boundaries: Clearly defined borders were drawn between Maine and New Brunswick, and also in the Great Lakes area; the United States received control of 7,015 square miles of the disputed territory and Britain, 5,012 square miles African slave trade: The United states agreed to station ships off the African coast in an effort to detect Americans engaging in the slave trade. One question of growing concern, the Oregon boundary issue, was not addressed in this agreement.

In the last years of the Spanish empire, Spain decided to allow some Americans to settle in Texas. By 1835, approximately 20,000 American, Mexican, and European settlers had arrived in Texas, bringing with them an additional 4,000 slaves. In 1835, fighting broke out between the Mexican Army and Anglo-American colonists who were angry with the Mexican government for attempting to limit the practice of slavery and for violating the Mexican constitution. In 1836, they declared Texas an independent state, called the Republic of Texas. In 1845, the Republic of Texas voluntarily asked to become a part of the United States, and the government of the United States agreed to annex the nation. The Republic of Texas included the present-day state of Texas as well as portions of New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The Oregon territory was claimed from the sixteenth century by Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States. By the mid-1820s, only the American and British claims endured; a "joint occupation” lasted until The British were chiefly fur traders associated with the Hudson's Bay Company, Americans were attracted by new religious freedom and fertile soil; this spurred a massive migration of thousands of American families westward along the Oregon Trail. In June 1846, the Senate, preoccupied with war against Mexico, quickly approved the Oregon Treaty with Britain, setting the boundary at the 49th parallel.

On April 25, 1846, after the U.S. cavalry ignored an order from the Mexican army to retreat to the Nueces River and instead advanced south to the Rio Grande, fighting broke out. Three weeks later, Congress declared war on Mexico. Fighting continued for more than a year, and ended in September In February 1848, the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty recognized Texas as a U.S. state, and ceded a large chunk of land — about half the area that belonged to the Mexican republic — to the United States for the cost of $15 million. The Mexican Cession included land that would later become California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had described the U.S.-Mexico boundary vaguely, and following the Mexican- American War, the United States and Mexico continued to dispute the border between the two countries. In 1853 President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden to negotiate with Mexico. The Mexican government was in desperate need of money, and it agreed to sell a small strip of land along the U.S.- Mexico border to the United States for $10 million. The