Page 58 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

56  USA A T A GLANCE

States took over Texas in 1845, a move
that set off war with Mexico. This war
in turn led to the US confiscation of
California and much of the Southwest.
In 1848, Mexico yielded nearly half
of its territory; the cession of the
northern Oregon territory by Britain
in 1846, and James Gadsden’s 1853
purchase of 30,000 sq miles (78,000
sq km) in the Southwest completed
An 1891 illustration depicting Native Americans fighting US soldiers the westward expansion. Thus, in
less than 50 years, the country had
Territorial Conflict more than tripled in size.
Although involved in conflicts with Britain
over Canada, the US managed to resolve The Destruction of the
these issues peacefully. However, this was Native Americans
not so with Mexico, which feared US Since the 1500s, diseases such as small
territorial ambitions, especially after pox and syphilis had wiped out almost
President Andrew Jackson offered to 90 percent of some tribes. As European
purchase Texas. The crisis accelerated after settlement increased, forced relocation of
Texas declared independence from Mexico tribes became frequent. It reached its peak
in 1835. Turning a blind eye to Native with the forced march of most of the
American tribes (and the legal ownership Cherokee Nation from the southeast to
of much of the land by Spain), the United Oklahoma along the “Trail of Tears.” As
Europeans spread westward, tribes were
KEY DATES IN HISTORY forced onto reservations, often the poorest
and most desolate lands, where many
1838 US Government forcibly expels native
Cherokees westward along the “Trail of Tears” remain even today. The building of the
transcontinental railroads in the late 19th
1846–1848 Mexican War. US acquires Arizona,
California, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico century opened the West to hunters who
eventually killed millions of buffalo. Within
1859 Abolitionist John Brown raids the Federal
Armory at Harpers Ferry a few hundred years, North America’s
1861 Confederates attack Fort Sumter in indigenous cultures had been destroyed
South Carolina or marginalized by Euro peans, who
1861 The Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), the first transformed the continent into a world
major land battle of the Civil War economic, industrial, and political power.
Jan 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the
Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in areas Civil War
controlled by the Confederate army
Between independence in 1783 and 1860,
July, 1863 Union forces defeat General Robert E. Lee
and the Confederacy at Gettysburg two very different societies developed
within the US. In the North, there emerged
April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders to
Union General Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court an industrialized society, committed to
House, Virginia
liberal banking and credit systems, and
April 14, 1865 President Lincoln assassinated by a protective tariffs, whereas the South was
Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, in
Washington, DC a less populous, agrarian society opposed
to the sale of public land in the Midwest,
Dec 18, 1865 The 13th amendment to the US
Constitution is adopted, effectively putting an end to high duties, and restrictions on slavery.
slavery in the US The causes of the Civil War are still up for
1870 African-Americans granted full citizenship debate. Though slavery was clearly the
divisive issue, the war was not fought to

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