Essay Instructions: Writer: Amber111
I need an Abstract page and APA format.
One of the greatest long-term trends of the history of the United States concerns territorial expansion. United States? territorial expansion profoundly influenced its history. Select one (1) of the events of U.S. territorial expansion from the list below.
Examples of Territorial Expansion
Treaty of Paris: 1783 (American Revolution)
Louisiana Purchase: 1803
Adams-Onis Treaty: 1819 (Cession of Florida)
Texas Annexation: 1845
Mexican Cession: 1848
Treaty of Paris: 1898 (Spanish-America War)
In your project document, answer the following questions as they relate to territorial expansion:
How did the U.S. acquire the territory in question?
What were the short-term consequences of the acquisition of this particular territory?
What were the long-term consequences of the acquisition of this particular territory?
Reference Materials:
Presentation
Immigration in the U.S.
Immigration in the United States
Most early immigration, to what was to become the United States, came from Western Europe. Throughout the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, the bulk of immigration came from the British Isles. Some also came from France, the Netherlands, and some Germanic countries. Soon after the establishment of the first permanent English settlement of Jamestown in 1607, immigration from the British Isles increased. Most settlers came seeking a better life, drawn by the opportunities to acquire land and establish businesses. Also important to many immigrants were increased religious liberties and political freedoms that existed in the colonies.
This original period of settlement was vital to the establishment of the basic foundations of American political traditions and social structures. Immigrants from Western Europe laid the foundations for other periods of immigration from many other parts of the world.
Though incentives were given to entice individuals to immigrate, the colonies experienced shortages of labor. This led to the forced importation of slaves from Western Africa. Though African laborers existed in the British colonies during most of the 17th century, by the 1660s, slavery was common enough to be recognized as a legal institution in some colonies. By the 1670s, slavery began to grow as indentured servitude and other forms of labor began to diminish. The increased importation of slaves from Western Africa was related to an expansion of labor-intensive agriculture in North America. Spurred on by technological breakthroughs like the cotton gin in 1793, the importation of slaves also increased.
As slavery intensified, so did protests against the institution. Antislavery proponents, known as abolitionists, eventually persuaded the U.S. Congress to ban the slave trade in 1808. Though violations occurred, the forced importation of West-African peoples decreased dramatically, effectively ending this period of immigration.
With the end of the Atlantic slave trade, and with immigration from most areas of Western Europe beginning to decline, immigration to the United States did not stop. During the end of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th century, it shifted to other areas of the world. Immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe during this time and typically came to the United States for greater economic opportunities, social mobility, and religious liberties. People from countries like Russia, Poland, Italy, and Spain came seeking better lives for themselves and their families. Religious communities, like Jewish individuals from Eastern Europe, immigrated not only for economic reasons but also came seeking a life free of the religious persecution that sometimes turned violent and was often oppressive.
Most of these new immigrants settled in cities as opposed to the countryside, where many immigrants from earlier periods settled. Often lacking skills, many immigrants worked in poor conditions for long periods of time and lived in substandard housing. Most immigrants found employment and were able to increase their standards of living more rapidly than in their country of origin. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe were often treated with suspicion because they were from geographic areas with which native populations were not familiar. Also, many of these new immigrants were Catholics, Jews, and Orthodox Christians?religions that Protestant majorities in America often mistrusted. Though immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe began new lives in the United States under very poor conditions and were socially marginalized, most groups assimilated within a generation or two and contributed greatly to U.S. economic growth after the Civil War and into the 20th century. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe supplied much of the labor needed to urbanize and further industrialize the United States during this period and provided proof that people outside of the Anglo-Saxon world could adapt and contribute to American culture and society.
Article
Territorial Expansion in the U.S. I
Territorial Expansion in the United States I
Territorial expansion profoundly impacted the history of the United Sates and the world. Such expansion was a fairly consistent trait of American political and foreign policy from the founding period to the end of the 19th century. Major examples of U.S. territorial expansion are discussed below.
The Treaty of Paris
Following the surrender of British troops at Yorktown in 1781, the United States secured independence from Britain and became one of the most powerful states in the world at that time. However, a formal peace treaty still needed to be signed. In 1783, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay signed what is now known as the Treaty of Paris. Not only did it formally establish American independence, but it also established the United States? first borders. The treaty ceded possession of the 13 original English colonies as well as a large western frontier from Great Britain. The western frontier stretched from the Mississippi river in the west, to the Great Lakes region in the north, and south to Spanish-held Florida. Still in dispute, however, were areas in the northeast, which the British claimed and the Southwest, near New Orleans, which the Spanish claimed.
The treaty immediately created a vast state, much of which was completely unsurveyed and void of Western setters. Nevertheless, the 1783 Treaty of Paris laid the groundwork for the establishment of the United States of America as a regionally significant state and began a pattern of westward expansion that would define much of America?s history.
The Louisiana Purchase
The next significant example of U.S. territorial expansion occurred in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. The United States first sought to obtain lands west of the Mississippi after 1802. Before then, the United States had an amicable relationship with the Spanish Empire, which controlled New Orleans and the vast stretches of territory to its south and west. However, with wars raging in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte forced the session of the Louisiana territory from Spain to France and immediately barred American access to the port of New Orleans in 1802. President Thomas Jefferson quickly dispatched then Secretary of State James Madison to Paris to negotiate access to the port of New Orleans through purchase of territory, negotiation, or by gaining some other type of access to the port. However, upon his arrival in Paris, Madison immediately learned of Napoleon?s intention to sell the entire Louisiana territory to the United States. Seizing the opportunity to purchase roughly 827,000 square miles of real estate, Madison negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana territory for 15 million dollars in 1803.
Because Madison was only authorized to spend 10 million dollars, the purchase exceeded his authority, which was potentially problematic. Jefferson also contemplated the constitutionality of such a purchase, even proposing that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution may be necessary before the purchase could be made official. However, his cabinet persuaded him that this action was not needed. The purchase was also well received within Congress, which ratified the purchase that same year. The Louisiana Purchase presented many of the same long-term problems that the 1783 Treaty of Paris posed. Once more, the United States acquired vast territories not surveyed or settled by Western people. Also, the purchase doubled the size of the United States, which later created massive settlement opportunities engendering conflict with native peoples already present in these areas. The Purchase would also cause conflicts with bordering states such as Spain and Mexico.
Purchase of Florida from Spain
After the Louisiana Purchase, U.S. officials, on more than one occasion, attempted to purchase Florida from Spain. Though Spain refused, by 1819, Spanish fortunes in the New World were quickly diminishing. Their recourses spread thin and, unable to stop Seminole tribes from invading U.S. territories, Spanish authorities decided to focus their efforts on retaining their Mexican, South American, and Caribbean possessions. Eventually, in 1819, after suffering military defeat from then General Andrew Jackson, Spain was compelled to sign the Adams-Onis Treaty, ceding all of present-day Florida to the United States. Not only did this treaty give the United States a greater presence in the Caribbean, it also established Texas as firmly within Spanish territory. The treaty also opened up possible claims to the Oregon Country for the United States.
Article
Territorial Expansion in the U.S. II
Territorial Expansion in the United States II
The Annexation of Texas
The annexation of Texas was more complicated in many respects than most other territorial acquisitions because Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836 and existed as an independent republic for 10 years before its incorporation into the United States. During the 1820s, both presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson attempted to purchase Texas from the Mexican government without success. However, by 1836, political instability prompted many territories under Mexican control to revolt. Among the areas that revolted was Texas, successfully securing autonomy in 1836. The following year, Texas? president Sam Houston sought to incorporate Texas into the United States. This was greeted with opposition among many Northern politicians, who assumed that Texas would be admitted into the Union as a slave state, therefore upsetting the fragile balance between slave-bearing and free regions.
In 1842, Mexico made two attempts to retake Texas, which revealed Texan vulnerabilities. This, in turn, led to offers of British assistance. Unwilling to allow Britain to gain influence over this region, outgoing president John Tyler introduced a resolution leading to the annexation of the Republic of Texas in 1845. This annexation not only greatly expanded American territory, but also brought the United States into direct conflict with Mexico over the disputed territory, leading to war in 1846. Another longer term problem included the inclusion of Texas as a slave state into the union, leading to the expansion of slavery into the West and adding tension to an already strained relationship between the North and the South over the issue of slavery.
As many predicted, disputes over border concerns in Texas and other western lands eventually led to war between Mexico and the United States. After the Texas annexation in 1845, Mexico, which never recognized Texan independence, broke diplomatic relations with the United States. President James Polk, a strong advocate of manifest destiny, attempted to purchase not only the disputed lands concerning Texas but also the Mexican territories of New Mexico and California for as much as 30 million dollars. When the politically unstable Mexican government stalwartly refused these offers, tensions over the Texas border arose once again.
President Polk sent a contingency of troops to Texas at the Rio Grande, which Americans claimed as the border. Mexico claimed this territory as its own, maintaining that the Nueces River (more than 100 miles north of the Rio Grande) delineated the border of Texas. A skirmish soon occurred in which Mexican troops attacked a small U.S. patrol party, giving Polk the necessary pretext to go to war in 1846. Following a series decisive victories, Mexico City was occupied in 1847, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848. The treaty ceded territory that now comprises portions of Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Utah and Wyoming. This greatly expanded the U.S.'s southwestern territories. The borders of Mexico and the United States would not change again, baring the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.
Additional Territorial Acquisitions
The Spanish-American War constituted the last large territorial acquisition engaged by the United States. By the 1890s, what was once a vast Spanish empire that stretched from points in Alaska to the southern tip of South America was reduced to a few remaining colonial possessions. Among those possessions were some islands in the Pacific Ocean, most important of which were the Philippines and the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Spain?s remaining colonial possessions were growing increasingly unstable during the last decades of the 19th century. Spanish imposition of martial law on the island of Cuba in 1896 drew American attention to the growing chaos in the Caribbean. After the inauguration of President William McKinley, an advocate of U.S. intervention against the Spanish Empire, the U.S.S. Maine exploded and sank off the coast of Cuba. Charging Spain with sinking the Maine, America initiated a blockade of Cuba and declared war in 1898.
Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy sank a Spanish fleet off the coast of Manila in the Pacific Ocean, and an invasion of Cuba led to the unconditional surrender of Spanish troops on the island. That same year, Spain ceded control of Puerto Rico to the United States, accepted the independence of Cuba, and allowed for the purchase of the Philippine Islands for 20 million dollars in an agreement formally named the Treaty of Paris. Not only did this brief war signify the end of the Spanish empire, but it also created a complicated relationship for the United States in Cuba and the Philippines; both sought and eventually received independence from the United States.
Activity
Changes in Segregation in the U.S.
Many aspects of American life were racially segregated, either formally or informally, for most of U.S. history. However, during the middle of the 20th century, this long-standing social institution began to face opposition. This shift affected American society in three significant areas: public schools, the U.S. military, and professional sports.
In the public schools, prior to 1954: Many states segregated African-American students from students of European descent. This practice was most commonly employed in the Southern states.
1954: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Brown v. Board of Education, that public school segregation was unconstitutional. Resistance to this ruling was so great that a second ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, commonly known as Brown II, was needed, to directly initiate a serious effort to desegregate public schools.
1957: A group of nine African-American students attempted to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to send 1,200 soldiers there to maintain order through the remainder of the year and to allow the nine African-American students to attend class.
1971: The Supreme Court ruling, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, allowed the forced busing of students outside of their neighborhoods to achieve further school desegregation.
Presentation
Presentation: The Stock Market Crash, The Great Depression & The New Deal
The Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, and the New Deal
After the relatively calm time during the 1920s, things started to change. When the stock market crash of 1929 happened, the United States began a downward spiral. Many people had borrowed money from banks to buy stock. When the market crashed and people began to lose the money they invested, they could not repay bank loans, and the banks were left with the large, unpaid loans. More than 5,000 banks closed during the early 1930s, and millions of savings accounts were gone. This meant that people who had an account with the bank lost their money. This resulted in thousands of people looking for work because they were being laid off. People were living on the streets, starving, and in tents. These groups of tents became known as Hoovervilles. Many tended to blame President Hoover or the Depression, so the name Hooverville was, more or less, a mocking of him.
The Great Depression brought out organized labor. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was mainly catering to the skilled workers. This meant that many unskilled works were left without unionization. This prompted the development of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). The CIO also catered to women and minorities.
By the time 1933 came about, Hoover was out and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president. FDR created New Deal Programs that would help lift the United States out of the Great Depression. The programs were known as the Alphabet Agencies because most of the agencies had acronyms like CCC and CWA. The New Deal consisted of new programs such as the Emergency Banking Act. This act closed banks for a few days and then reopened them under tight supervision. The treasury was authorized to issue more currency to stimulate the economy. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) created over 1,000 camps that gave young men new jobs in the conservation of natural resources. The CCC eventually employed 2.5 million men with work. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided around 4 million jobs that consisted of building up communities. Things such as roads, schools, and sewer systems were among the projects. There was also the Social Security Act, which consisted of unemployment insurance and retirement pensions paid to employees and was funded by payroll taxes. In June of 1933, Congress started the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), which insured deposits in banks up to $2,500.00. This was in reaction to the lack of trust Americans had for banks and their money after the stock market crash. These New Deal programs showed the increased role of the federal government in Americans' lives. FDR would go on to be elected an unprecedented four terms.
Article
Economic Crisis in American History
Economic Crisis in American History
While immigration and racial integration possessed major consequences for American society, and territorial expansion affected American and global politics, various periods of economic crisis greatly influenced all aspects of American history. The panic of 1837, the panic of 1893, the post-WWI recession, and the Great Depression are examples of economic downturns that effected U.S. politics, economics, and society.
The Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 is often referred to as the United States? first major economic depression. Its roots can be traced back to instability within the U.S. banking system. In the late 1830s, British banks, in response to economic worries overseas, began restricting loans to U.S. banking concerns. This forced many American banks to cease lending and even begin actively calling in loans that were already in existence. Compounding an already tightening money supply, then president Andrew Jackson issued the 1836 Specie Circular, which called for the purchase of all federal land with hard currency (gold or silver), making such purchases much more difficult. Within a few months of the election of President Martin Van Buren, influential banks in New York ran out of hard currency reserves. Many other banks followed suit throughout the country. Loans soon became hard to acquire, leading to a decline in purchases and other economic activity. A severe and protracted recession ensued.
Attempts to ameliorate the situation with the establishment of an independent treasury department were not immediately successful, and the recession/depression lasted well into the election season of 1840, ending with President Van Buren?s defeat. It was not until 1843 that the economy slowly recovered, after the economy slowly absorbed the bank failures and inflationary pressures of the preceding six years.
The Panic of 1893
Just as the Panic of 1837 caused the most severe economic downturn in U.S. history until that time, the Panic of 1893 also set new records for severity. Following a period of long prosperity in the 1880s, the beginning of the new decade witnessed a series of events that would eventually culminate in a run on banks and the initiation of a severe economic depression. In 1890, after pressure from many sectors of the citizenry, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was passed. This law forced the federal government to buy more silver, thereby increasing inflationary pressures and raising prices. That same year, the McKinley Tariff was initiated, placing additional taxes on imported goods. Instead of raising revenue, the tariff created the opposite effect, reducing income to the U.S. treasury, putting further strain on government finances. This, coupled with the failure of a few large employers in 1893 (principally among them the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad), prompted investors and financial institutions to worry about the overall health of the economy. As growing numbers of people demanded to withdrawal their money, many banks began to fail, quickly causing severe liquidity problems, which then lead to further business failures. Unemployment during this period is often estimated to have reached more than 18%, stemming from the failure of thousands of companies and hundreds of banks. The severity the economic depression dominated the election of 1896. Eventually, William McKinley, a strong advocate of the gold standard and defender of high tariffs, defeated national and populists Democrats.
The Post-WWI Recession
Unlike many other periods of economic downturn, the causes of the recession that the United States experienced shortly after the end of WWI are relatively simple to understand. Once the United States entered WWI in 1917, industrial and agricultural production increased rapidly to supply the war effort. By 1918, however, the war was over, and the next two years saw a sharp decline in demand for U.S. exports. By 1920, the recession was fully underway; however, by 1921, all portions of the economy (except for the farming sector) adjusted to the postwar era, initiating a period of long economic expansion. Because the recession was relatively short, long-term consequences of this period were limited. However, the post-WWI recession is an interesting example demonstrating how quickly a free-market economy can recover from the substantial distortions that war-time spending and regulation can impose upon an economy.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression is the best known economic downturn in U.S history. It began abruptly with the stock market crash on October 24, 1929 in which securities prices fell rapidly over a 72-hour period. As prices failed to recover, additional panicked selling spread to other portions of the economy, initiating the longest period of economic stagnation and retraction in U.S. history.
Though the effects of the Great Depression have been thoroughly documented, its origins are still debated by historians and are harder to identify due to its multifaceted nature. However, some major contributing factors have been identified. Access to credit expanded greatly during the 1920s, spurring demand for consumer products, homes, and business-related machinery. However, this also led to increasing levels of debt. Meanwhile, during the 1920s, prices for agricultural products slowly declined, putting tremendous economic pressure on farmers. In the latter portion of the decade, new housing starts fell significantly years before the crash of 1929. As farmers and other consumers started to default on their loans, tremendous pressure began building on banks, which were burdened with increasing levels of debt. As signs of economic trouble slowly manifested, expanded industrial capacities created large inventory surpluses. This, in turn, led to layoffs because companies no longer needed to produce as many goods. After the crash, the Federal Reserve monetary policy tightened the money supply by 27% by 1933, and the imposition of tariffs resulted in a 30% decline in trade, all of which exacerbated economic instability.
Beginning in 1929, the Great Depression varied in intensity throughout the 1930s and did not end until the industrial and manpower demands of America?s entrance into WWII in 1942 absorbed excess economic capacities. Before WWII prompted the end of the depression, however, the Great Depression profoundly changed many aspects of American politics and society. Public works programs vastly increased the amount of Americans employed by the federal government. Entitlement programs also became far more prominent, the most popular and important of which was Social Security. Also, federal agencies like the TVA established permanent authority over infrastructure and utilities in many areas.
Resource Links
U.S. Immigration
(http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_Immigration.shtml)
This site provides several articles related to the topic of immigration in the U.S.
United States Immigration 1965
(http://www.history.com/topics/united-states-immigration-to-1965)
This site provides several videos on the topic of immigration.
History of International Migration
(http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/about.html)
This site provides research for individuals studying European migration patterns.
The Terrible Transformation
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/)
This site provides several links discussing the history of slavery in the U.S.
The Tumultuous 1960s
(http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module.php?module_id=568)
This site provides links and information related to the Civil Rights movement in the U.S.
The Integration of Central High School
(http://www.history.com/topics/central-high-school-integration)
This video explores the integration of Central Rock High School and the Little Rock Nine.
Desegregation of the Armed Forces
(http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.php?action=chronology)
This site provides chronological information about the integration of the U.S. Military.
Integration of the Armed Forces
(http://www.history.army.mil/books/integration/iaf-fm.htm)
This site provides documentation and links supporting the integration of the U.S. military.
Westward Expansion
(http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion)
This site provides videos and interactive games depicting the expansion of the U.S.
Modern Voices
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3099.html)
This article provides a perspective on how Westward Expansion in U.S. History related to slavery.
Remember the Alamo
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/alamo/peopleevents/index.html)
This site provides several links to people and events involved in the Battle of the Alamo.
Recession, Depression, Hard Times, New Deal
(http://teachinghistory.org/news/21783)
This site provides information and resources pertaining to the time of the Great Depression.
Pullman Strike
(http://www.history.com/topics/pullman-strike)
This article provides information about unionization and the Pullman Strike in Chicago.
Andrew Jackson and the Bank War
(http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/12_2009/lp1.php)
This site provides information about Andrew Jackson's involvement in the bank war.
Panic of 1893: Seattle's First Great Depression
(http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=2030)
This article discusses Seattles early economic struggles during the Panic of 1893.
Bank Run
(http://www.history.com/topics/bank-run)
This site provides several videos and photo galleries related to the financial crisis during the Great Depression.
Martin Van Buren
(http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/vanburen/essays/biography/4)
This site discusses the political perspectives and actions of Martin Van Buren.
The Depression of 1893
(http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/whitten.panic.1893)
This article discusses key statistics and events that occured during the Depression of 1893.
U.S. Economy in World War I
(http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/rockoff.wwi)
This article provides an economic history of the U.S. during World War I.
