Social Studies Project: Oregon Trail Migration
Social Studies
Period 4
14, April 2014
Social Studies Project
Oregon Trail
Many people went to the Oregon Territory to get free farm land. Some went hoping to find better health or better living conditions. Some went to escape problems. Others went for adventure and to seek new experiences. The Oregon Trail migration, also known as the Oregon-California Trail migration, is one of the most important events in American History. The Oregon-California trail was a 2,170 mile route from Missouri to Oregon and California that enabled the migration of the early pioneers to the western United States. The first emigrants to make the trip were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who made the trip in 1836. However, the first mass migration did not occur …show more content…
until 1843 when approximately 1,000 pioneers made the journey at one time. This trail was the only feasible land route for settlers to get to the West Coast. From 1843 until 1869 when the first transcontinental railroad was completed, there were over 500,000 people who made the trip in covered wagons pulled by mule and oxen. Some went all the way to Oregon to farm and others went to California to search for gold. The trip usually took 4-6 months by wagon traveling 15 miles a day. The only other route to the west, by sea, took a full year. In the early Spring, the pioneers would wait in Missouri and set up camp, waiting for the grass to grow along the Oregon Trail. While waiting, the emigrants would stock up on supplies, try to locate friends, and make other preparations for their journey. If they left too early, there would be no grass for their animals to eat which could be a fatal mistake. If they left too late, they would get caught by the winter snows. Most settlers traveled in farm wagons, four feet by ten feet, with a thousand pounds of food. These wagons had cotton covers treated with linseed oil to keep the rain out. Many were equipped with tool boxes, water containers, and spare axles as breaking an axle without a spare meant abandoning the wagon. When the time finally came to leave, the settlers would all try to leave at once creating a massive traffic jam further hindered by the inexperience of some of the green east coast teams. As their traveling progressed, most realized they had over packed and were forced to lighten their loads by throwing things overboard. Because of the heavy loads, many were forced to walk the 2,170 mile journey instead of ride in the wagon. There were many accidents along the way including being run over by the wagons which meant certain death. Another common accident was accidental gun shots from people fooling around with guns or from half-cocked pistols in the wagons. Another problem for the travelers was Cholera. Some wagon trains lost two-thirds of their people to this quick killing disease. People called watchers were forced to stay with the diseased people until they pasted but some even buried them alive to catch up with the others. One common misconception about the traveler’s journey is that the biggest danger was the Indians or Native Americans. Many movies show the pioneers circling their wagons each night to protect themselves from the threat of the Native Americans. In reality, the wagons were circled to provide a convenient corral for livestock. The Native Americans were actually friendly more often than not. Encounters most often involved simple trades and there were very few of the pioneers that actually died because of the Native Americans. The only real disagreement between them was the Gratten Massacre. A cow wandered from an emigrant wagon train and a nearby Sioux village found it and ate it. Twenty-eight men lead by Lt. Gratten set out to make the Sioux Indians pay for their mistake. When the troops got to the Sioux village, the Indians realized their mistake and offered a horse in return. Gratten ordered his men to fire on the tribe. The Indians were ordered by their chief not to fight back, but Gratten turned and shot the chief. This lead to an all out war with the Sioux Indians. Another major danger to the settlers was weather. Traveling in the summer meant dealing with thunder storms, lightening and hail. Many were killed by lightning or hail the size of baseballs. The final third of the trail was the most difficult and had to be done with expediency. Winter snows would close the mountain passes and travel was a race with time. In the early years, before the Barlow road was opened, travelers would have to abandon their wagons for boats and float down the Columbia river. Many lost their lives in the rapids and rough parts just miles from their destination. After 1846, and upon paying a toll, the pioneers could finally finish their journey to Oregon.
Texas Independence
The struggle for the independence of Texas took place over many years, although the actual war that achieved independence from Mexico was relatively brief.
In the 1820s, Stephen Austin won the Mexican government 's approval to bring American families into the sparsely settled Texas region. Vast land grants would be awarded to the settlers if Austin could sponsor 300 families and assure the officials that the newcomers would be loyal to the Mexican government, learn the Spanish language, and convert to Roman Catholicism. Only the earliest Texans paid much attention to these requirements and the distance from the Mexican central government left the settlers free to follow their own way of life. This area 's great attraction was the fertile soil, ideal for cotton production. By the early 1830s, transplanted Americans, many of them slave owners, outnumbered the Tejanos. The Mexican government soon understood that it had committed a great error by encouraging the migration of U.S. citizens with a want for independence. a Mexican-American inhabitant of southern Texas. At first, the settlers were content to live under Mexican rule, but several events helped to incline Texan minds toward independence. In 1831, Mexico abolished slavery, following the lead of most western nations. This loss of unpaid labor, if actually enforced in Tejas, would have been a severe blow to the region 's emerging cotton economy. It also reminded many transplanted citizens of the tolerant official view …show more content…
of slavery held by the United States. The Mexican government, recognizing its diminished control in Tejas, abolished immigration. The residents there, who had friends and relatives in the United States, were outraged. As a further means to loosen the ties between the U.S. and Tejas, Mexico enacted heavy duties on the importation of foreign goods. In 1833, General Antonio López de Santa Anna came to power in Mexico, pledging to consolidate power and strengthen national unity. The rise of Mexican nationalist was viewed with alarm in the north, where the Texans preferred to continue their near autonomy, and perhaps eventual independence. Unrest became rebellion on October 2, 1835, when Mexican forces tried to take possession of the town cannon in Gonzales, east of San Antonio. The locals prevailed in this incident and, in other early encounters, the rebels pushed the paltry Mexican forces out of the area. In December 1835, a group of disgruntled settlers took control of the Alamo, an old mission in San Antonio. Santa Anna moved his army of several thousand men into the area and decided to make an example of the insurgents. Only a few dozen fellow settlers arrived from other areas in Texas to reinforce their compatriots in the Alamo. The defenders, hoping to be rescued by Samuel Houston’s forces, refused to surrender. The siege of the Alamo lasted two weeks and ended in hand-to-hand fighting on March 6, 1836. More than 180 defenders lost their lives, including such notables as William Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett. Losses among the Mexican forces were estimated at 600. On Santa Annas orders, all prisoners were executed; the only survivors were a woman, her infant child, and a slave, who were directed to take word of the Mexican victory to other Texan rebels. Later in March, a second momentous event occurred. Santa Anna 's army managed to force the surrender of 342 Texans near Goliad. Santa Anna ordered the execution of all of the prisoners. On April 21, 1836, the Mexicans were surprised by an inferior Texan force and completely routed in the Battle of San Jacinto. Many Mexican prisoners were executed in retaliation for previous Mexican acts. Santa Anna was captured, but released when he agreed to Texan independence and the establishment of the border at the Rio Grande and Texas was thus called The Lone Star State.
California Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of New Switzerland (The colony would later become the city of Sacramento.) Just days after Marshall’s discovery at Sutter’s Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States. At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican decent), 700 foreigners (primarily Americans), and 150,000 Native Americans. Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery a secret, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter’s Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan, excited about selling shovels to gold diggers, started a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying gold from Sutter’s Creek. By mid-June, some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had left town for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area reached 4,000 by August. As news spread of the fortunes being made in California, the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and even China. Only later would the news reach the East Coast, where press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off there in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California’s military governor, in his inaugural address. As Polk wrote, “The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service.”Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns; in turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone. Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as ’49ers, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America. By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the ’49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune. The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier. The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California’s admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution preventing slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and abolitionists. According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky’s Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left open to decide the question for them. After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848. As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region’s landscape. Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state’s population was 380,000.
Louisiana Territory
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had a vision of a renewed western empire for France, and his schemes included the recapture of Louisiana from Spain.
Control over this vast territory would halt the westward expansion of the young United States and would supply French colonies in the West Indies with the goods they needed. In 1800, Napoleon signed the secret Treaty of Ildefonso with Spain, an agreement that stipulated that France would provide Spain with a kingdom for the son-in-law of Spain 's king if Spain would return Louisiana to France. However, Napoleon 's plan collapsed when the twelve-year revolt of slaves and free blacks in the French colony of Saint-Domingue succeeded, forcing French troops to return defeated to France and preventing them from reaching their ultimate destination, Louisiana, and from being able to defend it. As Napoleon 's New World empire disintegrated, the loss of Haiti made Louisiana unnecessary.The United States wanted to acquire the area near New Orleans primarily to guarantee its right to sail vessels down the Mississippi River through Spanish territory and unload goods at New Orleans for shipment to the Atlantic coast and Europe. Moreover, the United States wanted to possess the entire territory of Louisiana because so many American settlers and merchants were already in the region and because of its vital geographic position at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The United States discovered the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France and sent
Robert Livingston to France in 1801 to try to purchase New Orleans. Napoleon initially refused, leading President Thomas Jefferson to send James Monroe to secure the deal. However, in April 1803, just days before Monroe was to arrive in Paris, Napoleon offered to sell the United States not only New Orleans but all of Louisiana. Napoleon 's minister of the treasury, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, dealt with Livingston and Monroe over terms of the Louisiana Purchase. The United States purchased Louisiana for $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its own citizens against France up to $3,750,000, for a total purchase price of $15 million.On November 30, 1803, Spain 's representatives, Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo, officially transferred Louisiana to France 's representative, Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat, in the Sala Capitular in the Cabildo. Although Laussat had been instructed to transfer Louisiana to the United States the next day, twenty days actually separated the transfers, during which time Laussat became governor of Louisiana and created a new town council. Thomas Jefferson selected William Charles Cole Claiborne, former governor of the Mississippi territory and highest-ranking civilian official in the vicinity, to govern lower Louisiana. Backing Claiborne with military power was General James Wilkinson. On December 20, 1803, again in the Sala Capitular, these two commissioners signed the transfer document with Laussat, giving lower Louisiana officially to the United States. The United States took formal possession of the full territory of Louisiana, although its boundaries were vaguely defined. President Thomas Jefferson, in one of his greatest achievements, more than doubled the size of the United States at a time when the young nation 's population growth was beginning to quicken. The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States, the final cost totaling less than five cents per acre at $15 million (about $283 million in today 's dollars). France 's land was mainly unexplored wilderness, and so the fertile soils and other valuable natural resources we know are present today might not have been factored in the relatively low cost at the time. Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to scope out and explore the land though he was doubted for his choice. Along their journey they help lots of help from Sacagawea and her husband by helping them communicate with the foreigners who spoke different languages. Although Lewis and Clark did not find a direct waterway from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, their expedition brought a wealth of knowledge about the newly purchased lands in the west. For example, the expedition provided extensive facts on the Northwest 's natural resources. Lewis and Clark were able to document over 100 animal species and over 170 plants. They also brought back information on the size, minerals and the geology of the area. In addition, the expedition established relations with the Native Americans in the region, one of President Jefferson 's main goals. Aside from the confrontation with the Teton Sioux, these relations were largely peaceful and the Corps received extensive help from the various tribes they met regarding things like food and navigation. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. Official boundaries were not determined, except that the eastern border ran from the source of the Mississippi River north to the 31 degrees north. Present states that were included in part or whole of the Louisiana Purchase were: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.
Bibliography
Oregon trail: http://www.historyglobe.com/ot/otmap1.htm http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/ Texas Independence: http://www.txindependence.org/washington_game.php
California: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/goldrush.html
Louisiana Territory: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
http://www.missouripostalhistory.org/county/distolouis.htm
Period 4
14, April 2014
Social Studies Project
Oregon Trail
Many people went to the Oregon Territory to get free farm land. Some went hoping to find better health or better living conditions. Some went to escape problems. Others went for adventure and to seek new experiences. The Oregon Trail migration, also known as the Oregon-California Trail migration, is one of the most important events in American History. The Oregon-California trail was a 2,170 mile route from Missouri to Oregon and California that enabled the migration of the early pioneers to the western United States. The first emigrants to make the trip were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who made the trip in 1836. However, the first mass migration did not occur …show more content…
until 1843 when approximately 1,000 pioneers made the journey at one time. This trail was the only feasible land route for settlers to get to the West Coast. From 1843 until 1869 when the first transcontinental railroad was completed, there were over 500,000 people who made the trip in covered wagons pulled by mule and oxen. Some went all the way to Oregon to farm and others went to California to search for gold. The trip usually took 4-6 months by wagon traveling 15 miles a day. The only other route to the west, by sea, took a full year. In the early Spring, the pioneers would wait in Missouri and set up camp, waiting for the grass to grow along the Oregon Trail. While waiting, the emigrants would stock up on supplies, try to locate friends, and make other preparations for their journey. If they left too early, there would be no grass for their animals to eat which could be a fatal mistake. If they left too late, they would get caught by the winter snows. Most settlers traveled in farm wagons, four feet by ten feet, with a thousand pounds of food. These wagons had cotton covers treated with linseed oil to keep the rain out. Many were equipped with tool boxes, water containers, and spare axles as breaking an axle without a spare meant abandoning the wagon. When the time finally came to leave, the settlers would all try to leave at once creating a massive traffic jam further hindered by the inexperience of some of the green east coast teams. As their traveling progressed, most realized they had over packed and were forced to lighten their loads by throwing things overboard. Because of the heavy loads, many were forced to walk the 2,170 mile journey instead of ride in the wagon. There were many accidents along the way including being run over by the wagons which meant certain death. Another common accident was accidental gun shots from people fooling around with guns or from half-cocked pistols in the wagons. Another problem for the travelers was Cholera. Some wagon trains lost two-thirds of their people to this quick killing disease. People called watchers were forced to stay with the diseased people until they pasted but some even buried them alive to catch up with the others. One common misconception about the traveler’s journey is that the biggest danger was the Indians or Native Americans. Many movies show the pioneers circling their wagons each night to protect themselves from the threat of the Native Americans. In reality, the wagons were circled to provide a convenient corral for livestock. The Native Americans were actually friendly more often than not. Encounters most often involved simple trades and there were very few of the pioneers that actually died because of the Native Americans. The only real disagreement between them was the Gratten Massacre. A cow wandered from an emigrant wagon train and a nearby Sioux village found it and ate it. Twenty-eight men lead by Lt. Gratten set out to make the Sioux Indians pay for their mistake. When the troops got to the Sioux village, the Indians realized their mistake and offered a horse in return. Gratten ordered his men to fire on the tribe. The Indians were ordered by their chief not to fight back, but Gratten turned and shot the chief. This lead to an all out war with the Sioux Indians. Another major danger to the settlers was weather. Traveling in the summer meant dealing with thunder storms, lightening and hail. Many were killed by lightning or hail the size of baseballs. The final third of the trail was the most difficult and had to be done with expediency. Winter snows would close the mountain passes and travel was a race with time. In the early years, before the Barlow road was opened, travelers would have to abandon their wagons for boats and float down the Columbia river. Many lost their lives in the rapids and rough parts just miles from their destination. After 1846, and upon paying a toll, the pioneers could finally finish their journey to Oregon.
Texas Independence
The struggle for the independence of Texas took place over many years, although the actual war that achieved independence from Mexico was relatively brief.
In the 1820s, Stephen Austin won the Mexican government 's approval to bring American families into the sparsely settled Texas region. Vast land grants would be awarded to the settlers if Austin could sponsor 300 families and assure the officials that the newcomers would be loyal to the Mexican government, learn the Spanish language, and convert to Roman Catholicism. Only the earliest Texans paid much attention to these requirements and the distance from the Mexican central government left the settlers free to follow their own way of life. This area 's great attraction was the fertile soil, ideal for cotton production. By the early 1830s, transplanted Americans, many of them slave owners, outnumbered the Tejanos. The Mexican government soon understood that it had committed a great error by encouraging the migration of U.S. citizens with a want for independence. a Mexican-American inhabitant of southern Texas. At first, the settlers were content to live under Mexican rule, but several events helped to incline Texan minds toward independence. In 1831, Mexico abolished slavery, following the lead of most western nations. This loss of unpaid labor, if actually enforced in Tejas, would have been a severe blow to the region 's emerging cotton economy. It also reminded many transplanted citizens of the tolerant official view …show more content…
of slavery held by the United States. The Mexican government, recognizing its diminished control in Tejas, abolished immigration. The residents there, who had friends and relatives in the United States, were outraged. As a further means to loosen the ties between the U.S. and Tejas, Mexico enacted heavy duties on the importation of foreign goods. In 1833, General Antonio López de Santa Anna came to power in Mexico, pledging to consolidate power and strengthen national unity. The rise of Mexican nationalist was viewed with alarm in the north, where the Texans preferred to continue their near autonomy, and perhaps eventual independence. Unrest became rebellion on October 2, 1835, when Mexican forces tried to take possession of the town cannon in Gonzales, east of San Antonio. The locals prevailed in this incident and, in other early encounters, the rebels pushed the paltry Mexican forces out of the area. In December 1835, a group of disgruntled settlers took control of the Alamo, an old mission in San Antonio. Santa Anna moved his army of several thousand men into the area and decided to make an example of the insurgents. Only a few dozen fellow settlers arrived from other areas in Texas to reinforce their compatriots in the Alamo. The defenders, hoping to be rescued by Samuel Houston’s forces, refused to surrender. The siege of the Alamo lasted two weeks and ended in hand-to-hand fighting on March 6, 1836. More than 180 defenders lost their lives, including such notables as William Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett. Losses among the Mexican forces were estimated at 600. On Santa Annas orders, all prisoners were executed; the only survivors were a woman, her infant child, and a slave, who were directed to take word of the Mexican victory to other Texan rebels. Later in March, a second momentous event occurred. Santa Anna 's army managed to force the surrender of 342 Texans near Goliad. Santa Anna ordered the execution of all of the prisoners. On April 21, 1836, the Mexicans were surprised by an inferior Texan force and completely routed in the Battle of San Jacinto. Many Mexican prisoners were executed in retaliation for previous Mexican acts. Santa Anna was captured, but released when he agreed to Texan independence and the establishment of the border at the Rio Grande and Texas was thus called The Lone Star State.
California Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of New Switzerland (The colony would later become the city of Sacramento.) Just days after Marshall’s discovery at Sutter’s Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States. At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican decent), 700 foreigners (primarily Americans), and 150,000 Native Americans. Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery a secret, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter’s Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan, excited about selling shovels to gold diggers, started a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying gold from Sutter’s Creek. By mid-June, some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had left town for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area reached 4,000 by August. As news spread of the fortunes being made in California, the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and even China. Only later would the news reach the East Coast, where press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off there in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California’s military governor, in his inaugural address. As Polk wrote, “The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service.”Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns; in turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone. Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as ’49ers, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America. By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the ’49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune. The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier. The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California’s admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution preventing slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and abolitionists. According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky’s Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left open to decide the question for them. After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848. As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region’s landscape. Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state’s population was 380,000.
Louisiana Territory
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had a vision of a renewed western empire for France, and his schemes included the recapture of Louisiana from Spain.
Control over this vast territory would halt the westward expansion of the young United States and would supply French colonies in the West Indies with the goods they needed. In 1800, Napoleon signed the secret Treaty of Ildefonso with Spain, an agreement that stipulated that France would provide Spain with a kingdom for the son-in-law of Spain 's king if Spain would return Louisiana to France. However, Napoleon 's plan collapsed when the twelve-year revolt of slaves and free blacks in the French colony of Saint-Domingue succeeded, forcing French troops to return defeated to France and preventing them from reaching their ultimate destination, Louisiana, and from being able to defend it. As Napoleon 's New World empire disintegrated, the loss of Haiti made Louisiana unnecessary.The United States wanted to acquire the area near New Orleans primarily to guarantee its right to sail vessels down the Mississippi River through Spanish territory and unload goods at New Orleans for shipment to the Atlantic coast and Europe. Moreover, the United States wanted to possess the entire territory of Louisiana because so many American settlers and merchants were already in the region and because of its vital geographic position at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The United States discovered the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France and sent
Robert Livingston to France in 1801 to try to purchase New Orleans. Napoleon initially refused, leading President Thomas Jefferson to send James Monroe to secure the deal. However, in April 1803, just days before Monroe was to arrive in Paris, Napoleon offered to sell the United States not only New Orleans but all of Louisiana. Napoleon 's minister of the treasury, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, dealt with Livingston and Monroe over terms of the Louisiana Purchase. The United States purchased Louisiana for $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its own citizens against France up to $3,750,000, for a total purchase price of $15 million.On November 30, 1803, Spain 's representatives, Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo, officially transferred Louisiana to France 's representative, Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat, in the Sala Capitular in the Cabildo. Although Laussat had been instructed to transfer Louisiana to the United States the next day, twenty days actually separated the transfers, during which time Laussat became governor of Louisiana and created a new town council. Thomas Jefferson selected William Charles Cole Claiborne, former governor of the Mississippi territory and highest-ranking civilian official in the vicinity, to govern lower Louisiana. Backing Claiborne with military power was General James Wilkinson. On December 20, 1803, again in the Sala Capitular, these two commissioners signed the transfer document with Laussat, giving lower Louisiana officially to the United States. The United States took formal possession of the full territory of Louisiana, although its boundaries were vaguely defined. President Thomas Jefferson, in one of his greatest achievements, more than doubled the size of the United States at a time when the young nation 's population growth was beginning to quicken. The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States, the final cost totaling less than five cents per acre at $15 million (about $283 million in today 's dollars). France 's land was mainly unexplored wilderness, and so the fertile soils and other valuable natural resources we know are present today might not have been factored in the relatively low cost at the time. Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to scope out and explore the land though he was doubted for his choice. Along their journey they help lots of help from Sacagawea and her husband by helping them communicate with the foreigners who spoke different languages. Although Lewis and Clark did not find a direct waterway from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, their expedition brought a wealth of knowledge about the newly purchased lands in the west. For example, the expedition provided extensive facts on the Northwest 's natural resources. Lewis and Clark were able to document over 100 animal species and over 170 plants. They also brought back information on the size, minerals and the geology of the area. In addition, the expedition established relations with the Native Americans in the region, one of President Jefferson 's main goals. Aside from the confrontation with the Teton Sioux, these relations were largely peaceful and the Corps received extensive help from the various tribes they met regarding things like food and navigation. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. Official boundaries were not determined, except that the eastern border ran from the source of the Mississippi River north to the 31 degrees north. Present states that were included in part or whole of the Louisiana Purchase were: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.
Bibliography
Oregon trail: http://www.historyglobe.com/ot/otmap1.htm http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/ Texas Independence: http://www.txindependence.org/washington_game.php
California: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/goldrush.html
Louisiana Territory: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
http://www.missouripostalhistory.org/county/distolouis.htm