Making of America: Key events

1789-1820

Settlement of Northwest and Southwest terroritories

George Washington - Fought wars in the Northwest and took their land

Southwest - Plantations of slave

1803

Lousiana Purchase 

530 million acres 

$15 million

Explored but not seen as useful land 

North - Against slavery 

South - For slavery 

Fear that one side could dominate the government 

1820

Missouri Compromise

One free state for every slave state

All the states in the West would be free until they joined as states 

1830

Indian Removal Act 

Andrew Jackson - Slave holder - Freed land for plantations

Set aside a permanent terroritory

1838 - Trail of Tears - Forced Removal

To prevent "other nations" from "hampering their power, limiting there greatness and checking the fulfilment of there Manifest Destiny"

Migration West - California Gold Rush - 1849

50,000 went in - Massive impact on Indians in California 

Impact on Plains - Led to Fort Laramie Treaty - 1851 + The Creation of Reservations

California became a state 

Ended the Missouri Compromise 

1854 - Kansas Nebraska Act 

Terroritories decide by voting if they should have slavery.

Votes turned into bloody violence when Kansas tried to decide 

1858-9 -  Pike's Peak 

Over 100,000 people had arrived by 1859

Began the settlement of the Plains properly - Proved that the Plains was not just a desert land

Caused conflict over resources with the Cheyennes 

Led to growing conflict on the Plains

The Civil War 

1860 - Lincoln was elected 

He was a Republican 

The slave owning South were worried

1861 - Start of the Civil War

South Caroline voted to secede from the USA

February - Other states seceded

Confederacy - Elected Jefferson Davis

1863 - Emanicipation Proclamation

All slaves in the Confederacy are told that they are free

War becomes about ending slavery - All or Nothing

First black regiment began to fight

13th Amendment - All men are equal

1865-70 - Radical Reconstruction

War ends 1865

Lincoln shot a few days later

Amendment 13,14 and 15 passed by 1870. Slavery over black people can be citizens and vote

Indian Wars 

1868 - Red Cloud's War 

Sioux objected to settlement in Montana 

Refused to sell land 

Defeated US Army - Second Fort Laramie Treaty

1865-9 - Transcontinental Railroad 

Easier settlement and business opportunities 

Disrupted Indian hunting

1876 - Great Sioux War 

Miners entered Black Hill

Battle at Little Big Horn 

US defeated but hunted down Sioux - All Winter 

1877 - End of Reconstruction

After 1870 many of the radical changes made in favour of Black Americans reserved

Freedman's Bureau was shut down

Many Black Americans worked on plantations as share croppers

Supreme court undermined Black Americans right to vote 

US government withdrew soldiers stationed in the South

1877-80 - Forced Reservations

Railroads helped this happen 

Forced onto reservations - Indians

1887 - Dawes Act 

Assimilation of Indians on Reservations

Could become citizens if they gave rights to tribe land

1890 - Wounded Knee

Ghost dance movement - Eventually tracked down at Wounded Knee

1877-1900

Reconstruction project falls apart 

White supremacy - KKK

Exclusion from politics 

Low income 

Lynching

Segregations

1877-1900

Growth of cities 

Growth of Big Industries - Loss of worker's rights

Huge Immigration into USA