Anglophone Studies I U S A Week 5

Anglophone Studies I, U. S. A. Week 5 Notes Topics covered from “An Illustrated History of the U. S. A. ) Chapter 9: Years of Growth Chapter 10: West to the Pacific

Years of Growth -Since quarreling with Britain, land in the American colonies was become scarcer and more expensiveafter 1783, more and more folks set out to explore territories between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River, which had been granted to the U. S. by the Treaty of Paris -this led to clashes with Native Americans who lived in these territories which, until then, had not been settled by colonizers-e. g. , land north of the Ohio River-attacks on both ends

Years of Growth, contd. -the new U. S. govt. tried at the beginning to maintain the peace by creating treaties with the Native Americans and to ensure the settlers were treating them fairly-example, the Northwest Ordinance-a law from 1787 -explicitly states that the land property of the native Americans would not be infringed upon without their consent-BUT obviously this was ignored pretty much from the get-go. By 1817, Prez James Monroe wrote some pretty racist stuff about how the lifestyle of the native Americans-namely, referencing hunting-and the amount of land it took was not compatible with the ‘civilized life’-also said that if they did not abandon this state and become ‘civilized’ that they would decline and eventually become extinct. !!!! -Monroe’s solution to the question of native American survival? ? To be moved from the lands where the white folks were settling, further and further west.

Years of Growth, Contd. -then we have the 1830 Indian Removal Act come into policy where the U. S. govt. literally tells all native Americans living east of the Mississippi river that they need to move west into the so-called Indian Territory-this was, of course, beyond the Mississippi river and deemed unsuitable for white farmers at the time – some claimed that this was, in a sense, ‘saving’ the native Americans, but most saw it for what it was, which was really just a way to get rid of them and take over their land -one tribe that was affected by this are the Cherokee, who lived between Georgia and the Mississippi river who, admittedly (though worded poorly in our course book) had, by the early 19 th century, adapted quite a bit to the white peoples’ world, in the sense that they were sedentary, lived in houses, some attended church, had stores and shops, and even created their own written language and their own version of the Constitution-modeled on that of the U. S. -NONE OF WHICH SAVED THEM-in the 1830’s, Congress declared their lands to belong to Georgia, and they were divvied up for sale to the white settlers-the Cherokees were then forced to march hundreds of miles until they reached what is known today as Oklahoma -1838 was the worst year-bitter cold winter, nightmarish journey of nearly 5 months-4 k of them-1/4 of all the Cherokee nation-died along the way-and this is known today as the Trail of Tears

Years of Growth, contd. -yet long before the Indian Removal Act, the federal govt. had already begun to organize the new western lands for settlement-ordered them to be surveyed and divided into square units called ‘townships, ’ which were 6 x 6 miles-then further divided into 1 x 1 mile called ‘sections’-these were sold in auctions, with some land dealers buying entire townships at once, re-selling them at higher prices are more and more settlers came in from the east -ways that people moved in from the east-floating on rafts down the westward flowing Ohio river (carrying themselves and their goods and their animals), or taking routes like the Wilderness Road, which cut through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachians-rough tracks wide enough for a wagon-not maintained, full of rocks and holes and the average speed was 2 miles an hour because it was so difficult

Years of Growth, contd. -the lands between the Appalachians and the Mississippi were divided into two for the purposes of government-the area south of the Ohio=Southwest Territory, to the north of it=the Northwest Territorylater, as more and more people keep arriving, these two big territories were divided into even smaller ones-for example, out of the Northwest Territory we get Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin-each gets a governor appointed by Congress-when the number of white males living in a territory reaches 5 K, it can elect its own law-making body, as well as send a representative to Congress-once the population reaches 60 K, it becomes a new state, with the same rights and powers as the original 13 states. -all of these arrangements for how to govern new territories dates back to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to control the growth of the U. S. -it is important because it ensures that the original 13 states would not be able to control lands that were settled later for their own benefit-in this way, as the U. S. continues to grow, it also continues to be a democratic union of equals

Years of Growth, contd. -Who was Old Hickory? President Andrew Jackson, elected 1828. First American prez to be born into a poor family on the western frontier, as opposed to the previous six, who had all been rich. Got the nickname because the frontier farmers always felt like he was one of them-he did become a rich landowner by the time he became president-was also one of the founders of the Democratic Party-felt that the govt. should be organized to benefit the planer, the farmer, the mechanic, the laborer-got re-elected in 1832 -how did he reward the people who voted for him? By introducing govt. policies to give them what they wanted-cheap money, cheap manufactured goods, cheap land. Cheap money: by encouraging banks to make loans at low interest rates. Cheap manufactured goods-by reducing import duties. Cheap land-by forcing the Cherokees and other Native American tribes to move west of the Mississippi-this sort of policy, of giving the voters what they wanted, was considered “Jacksonian democracy. ”

Years of Growth, contd. -Samuel Slater-Industrial Revolution importer-an Englishman who took it across the Atlantic to America in 1789 -had memorized the details of the latest English cotton spinning machines and carried them in his memory because it was against the law to take plans of machines out of England-he partnered with a businessman named Moses Brown-they opened a factory, a mill, to spin cotton in Rhode Island-he became a wealthy man, and this success was the start of the process that made the northeast the first most important manufacturing region. Even so, it took about a hundred years before the U. S. stopped being mainly a land of farmers who sold food and raw material to other countries.

Years of Growth, contd. -the war of 1812: Congress declared war on Britain in June of 1812. What was going on? Between 1803 and 1815 Britain and France were at wartheir warships interfered with American trade-sometimes they stopped the U. S. merchant ships and seized their cargo-sometimes the Brits even took off American seamen and forced them to serve in the British navy-so back to 1812, the British navy was much stronger, soon blockaded American ports, U. S. tried to invade British-ruled Canadafailed-British captured and burned Washington, the new capital city-then in Dec. 1814, they signed a peace treaty-when the news reached America two weeks alter, Brits attacked New Orleans-defeated by Andrew Jackson-general at time, later American prez-point of this whole story is that it was pointless. The lessons the Americans learned was that it taught the U. S. that they needed to start manufacturing their own goods and not be limited by blockades cutting off their imports from Europe-Thomas Jefferson, for example, had originally been against the growth of industry in the U. S. , but changed his mind after the War of 1812, and felt the manufacturer must be placed by the side of the agriculturist.

West to the Pacific -so we know that in 1800, the western boundary of the U. S. was the Mississippi River-few white people had traveled beyond that-the land to the west of it that stretched for another 600 miles until the Rocky Mountain foothills was known as Louisiana-now back then, it belonged to France-and France was then ruled by Napoleon-he’d eventually become emperor of France-Americans were scared that he might send French soldiers and settlers to that area of Louisiana and block westward expansion of the U. S. -but they lucked out! Because Napoleon needed the money in 1803 to fight the British, he sold that territory to the U. S. for 15 million $-and this area stretched from the gulf of Mexico to Canada, from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains-this Louisiana purchase nearly DOUBLED the land area of the U. S. at the time, and in time, all or parts of 13 future states would be formed from that area-this purchase was authorized by prez Thomas Jefferson-even prior to this, he had been wanting to send out explorers to discover more about the country’s geography, plants, animals, people-and hoped they might find an easy way to get to the Pacific Ocean across North America

West to the Pacific, contd. -this led to the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clarkthey set out in the spring of 1804 with 29 men from St. Louis, which is where the Missouri River flows in to meet the Mississippi-they carried supplies including stuff to trade with the Native Americans along the way, including needs, fish hooks, knives, and silk ribbon. So they rowed, and they sailed, and eventually reached a part of the Missouri that became too shallow to continue, so they went on and had to kill horses for food and drank melted snow, until finally they arrived to the Columbia River, which flowed west, and floated it down to the Pacific by the end of 1805. In September 1806 they made their way back, after having traveled for 2. 5 years and nearly 4 K miles-though they had failed to find an easy overland route to the Pacific, they demonstrated that it was, in fact, possible

West to the Pacific, contd. -meanwhile, another expedition leader headed to the southwest-Zebulon M. Pike-in Nov. 1806, making his way to where Pueblo, Colorado, stands today-eventually arrested by the Spanish, since he had entered their territory, took away his notes and papers, sent him back to the States. Pike is remembered for two things today: Pike’s Peak, a high mountain in Colorado-and also for his belief that the central area of North America from the Mississippi and the Rockies was just a desert, impossible to cultivate, and this was described as the Great American Desert for a long time, until the 1870’s when improved seeds and cultivation methods made it possible to eventually make this land into one of the richest grain-growing areas in the world

West to the Pacific, contd. -the lands beyond Louisiana were known as Oregon, from Alaska in the north to California in the Souththese were all undefined borders of Louisiana, and in 1805, Russia, Spain, Britain and the U. S. were all claiming to own it-Russia had Alaska, Spain had California-but the British and the Americans were in the strongest position in Oregon, with trading posts scattered about, mountain-men were there wandering the mountains of Oregon and California in search of furs-there was a lot of beaver and other animals with fur in that area

West to the Pacific, contd. -so by the 1830’s, the British had more trading posts in the Oregon area than the U. S. , which made the Americans afraid that they would soon try to gain complete control of the area-so they made great efforts to persuade more Americans to start up farms there-at first they went by ships, sailing all the way around South America and back up-this was expensive, took months-in 1832, they started to undertake this journey by land instead-generally setting out from Independence, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi river, following a twisted trail of some 2 K miles across plains then mountains, all the way to the mouth of the Columbia river-this became known as the Oregon Trail, even though it wasn’t technically just one trail-it was a collection of them, all going in the same general direction and occasionally crossing paths at river crossing points or at passes through the mountains. This was a very dangerous journey-floods, blizzards, prairie fires, accidents, disease, starvation-but folks continued to make this long journey-the so-called Oregon Fever in 1843 meant even more people were heading out, as they packed their positions and left behind the East in the hopes of finding some better conditions, knowing all the dangers that lay ahead of them -they normally did this in 4 wheeled wagons by going in a wagon train-a group of usually 25 wagons-pulled by mules or oxen, and carrying 2 to 2. 5 tons per loadsince 3 oxen paid for one mule (consider the term ‘stubborn as a mule’), there were usually more oxen

West to the Pacific, contd. -eventually Americans began to outnumber the British in Oregon-the political leaders and newspapers began to use the term ‘manifest destiny’-that it was clear (manifest) that it was the fate (destiny) of the U. S. to stretch across North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific-supporters of this belief felt the U. S. should take all of Oregon up until the boundary with Alaska-at 54 degrees, 40 minutes latitude-used the expression ‘fifty four forty or fight’threatened the British with war. -1844 Prez James K. Polk-big believer in manifest destiny-said in his inaugural speech that the American claim to Oregon was clear and unquestionable-but by summer 1846 another was going on, with Mexico. So what Polk did was divide Oregon with Britain in two almost equal sections, sticking to the 39 th parallel of latitude, which became the boundary between the U. S. and Canada to the east of the Rockies.

West to the Pacific, contd. -So the 1846 war with Mexico-thousands of Americans had been settling in Texas, but up to the 1830’s it was ruled by Mexico-the Texans, or Texas Americans, rather, came to dislike the Mexican rule, so they rebelled in 1835 -general Sam Houston led it, defeated much larger Mexican army in 1836, made Texas an independent state-yet most Texans didn’t want independence, they wanted to join the U. S. -eventually in 1845 Texas became a part of the U. S. -so April 1846, while fighting was going on between American and Mexican soldiers along the border between Texas and Mexico, Polk saw the opportunity to take land from Mexico-declared war-invade Mexico-by Sept. 1847 had occupied Mexico City-this Mexican-American war was ended by a peace treaty in Feb. 1848 -forced Mexico to hand over tons of its territory-this land now encompasses California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado-this way, the manifest destiny became complete-the U. S. now stretched across the continent ocean to ocean.

Audiovisual Resources for Week 5 Island of the Blue Dolphins The Alamo