Define Following Mexican American History Flashcards

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•“Young Americans”


The Young America Movement was United States political concept popular in the 1840s. Inspired by European youth movements of the 1830s (see Young Italy), the U.S. group was formed as a political organization in 1845 by Edwin de Leon and George H. Evans. It advocated free trade, social reform, expansion southward into the territories, and support for republican movements abroad. It became a faction in the Democratic Party in the 1850s. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas promoted its nationalistic program in an unsuccessful effort to compromise sectional differences.
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 1842
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The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies, particularly a dispute over the location of the Maine–New Brunswick border. It also established the details of the border between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, originally defined in the Treaty of Paris (1783); reaffirmed the location of the border (at the 49th parallel) in the westward frontier up to the Rocky Mountains, originally defined in the Treaty of 1818; called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories; and agreed on terms for shared use of the Great Lakes.

The treaty was signed by United States Secretary of State Daniel Webster and United Kingdom Privy Counsellor Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton. A plaque commemorating the treaty was placed at the site of the old State Department building in Washington, D.C. where the signing occurred.

Stephen Austin
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Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836), known as the Father of Texas, led the second and ultimately successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States. The capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County, Austin County, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Austin College in Sherman, as well as a number of K-12 schools are named in his honor.

W.B. Travis/The Alamo
• William Barret Travis (August 9, 1809 – March 6, 1836) was a 19th centuryAmerican lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, he was a Lieutenant Colonel in theTexian Army, and commanded the Republic of Texas forces. He died at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution from the Republic of Mexico.
Goliad Massacre
• The Goliad Campaign refers to a series of battles which occurred in 1836 as part of the Texas Revolution, which ultimately led to theGoliad massacre. Troops from the army of Mexico defeated Texian forces in several clashes, and eventually massacred many of theirprisoners of war, spreading outrage and resentment among the population of the fledgling Republic of Texas.
Sam Houston
• Samuel Houston (March 2, 1793– July 26, 1863) was a 19th century American statesman, politician, and soldier. Born on Timber Ridge, just north of Lexington in Rockbridge County,Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, Houston was a key figure in the history of Texas, including periods as President of the Republic of Texas, Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor. Although a slaveowner and opponent of abolitionism, he refused, because of his unionist convictions, to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texasseceded from the Union, bringing his governorship to an end. To avoid bloodshed, he refused an offer of an army to put down the rebellion, and instead retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War.
Joseph Smith/Brigham Young
 Brigham Young (June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877) was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the western United States. He was the president ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death and was the founder of Salt Lake City and the first governor of Utah Territory, United States. Brigham Young University was named in his honor.
• John L. O’Sullivan, “Manifest Destiny”
• John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895) was an American columnist and editor who used the term "Manifest Destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. O'Sullivan was an influential political writer and advocate for theDemocratic Party at that time, but he faded from prominence soon thereafter. He was rescued from obscurity in the twentieth century after the famous phrase "Manifest Destiny" was traced back to him.
Slidell Mission
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President Polk dispatched John Slidell, a Louisiana lawyer, to Mexico City in the fall of 1845. His assignment was to negotiate the following:

  1. Mexican recognition of the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and the United States
  2. American forgiveness of the claims by U.S. citizens against the Mexican government
  3. The purchase of the New Mexico area for $5 million
  4. The purchase of California at any price.
Mexican governmental affairs were in turmoil and the Slidell Mission was not received. Slidell returned to the United States and recommended to the president that strong action be taken against Mexico.

Gen. Zachary Taylor, Col. Stephen Kearney,
Gen. Winfield Scott, John C. Freemont
• Mexican Ameircan War generals
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo


The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish) is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States[1][2] to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico, that ended the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). From the standpoint of the United States, the treaty provided for the Mexican Cession, in which Mexico ceded 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles; 55%[3] of its pre-war territory, not including Texas) to the United States in exchange for US$15 million (equivalent to $313 million in 2006 dollars). From the standpoint of Mexico, the treaty included Texas as Mexico had never recognized Texan independence nor its annexation by the U.S.

The treaty also ensured safety of pre-existing property rights of Mexican citizens in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, property rights of Mexican citizens were often not honored by the United States as per modifications to and interpretations of the treaty.[4][5][6] The United States also agreed to take over $3.25 million ($68 million in 2006 dollars) in debts Mexico owed to American citizens.

• The Gadsden Purchase
• The Gadsden Purchase (known as Venta de La Mesilla, or "Sale of La Mesilla", in Mexico[2]) is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southernArizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by President Franklin Pierce on June 24, 1853, and ratified by theU.S. Senate on April 25, 1854. It is named for James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time. The purchase included lands south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande. The Gadsden Purchase was for the purpose of the US's construction of a transcontinental railroad along a deep southern route. It was also related to reconciliation of outstanding border issues following the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War of 1846–48.
Elias Howe
• Elias Howe, Jr. (July 9, 1819October 3, 1867) was an American inventor and sewing machine pioneer.
Charles Goodyear
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Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860) was the first American to vulcanize rubber, a process which he discovered in 1839 and patented on June 15, 1844. Although Goodyear is often credited with its invention, modern evidence has proven that theMesoamericans used stabilized rubber for balls and other objects as early as 1600 BC.[1]

Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process accidentally after five years of searching for a more stable rubber.[2]

John Deere
• John Deere (February 7, 1804May 17, 1886) was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company— the largest agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successfulsteel plow in 1837.
Cyrus McCormick Cyrus Hall McCormick, Sr. (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) of Rockbridge County, Virginiawas an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.[1]
The Trist Mission

Nicholas P. Trist was a well-connected government employee who had served as a private secretary to Andrew Jackson and married the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. During the Polk administration he was appointed chief clerk at the Department of State and in 1847 was dispatched to seek an end to the Mexican War.

Trist, fluent in Spanish, arrived in Mexico in May 1847 and opened negotiations. He managed to secure an armistice following the American victories at Contreras and Churubusco in August. The Polk administration, however, was unhappy with the slow course of events and formally recalled their representative. Trist believed he was inching closer to a final agreement and decided to ignore his summons toWashington. He was supported in that decision by Winfield Scott and his Mexican counterparts.

The document that emerged from the negotiations was basically faithful to the original instructions provided by Polk. Mexico, however, refused to give up Baja California and insisted upon maintaining a strip of land to connect that area with the mainland. The fate of San Diego slowed the talks at one point, but that matter was resolved in favor of the United States.

Although he was angry, Polk was relieved to find a treaty to his liking and urged its ratification by the Senate. Trist’s independence was not forgiven, however, and nearly 25 years passed before he could collect his pay and expenses from the government.