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Unit 10 Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Manifest Destiny | America's God given fate to own land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean |
| Mountain Men | fur trappers that explored the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains; they also became trail guides |
| Marcus and Narcissa Whitman | missionaries that encouraged Americans to settle Oregon because of the fertile land |
| Joseph Smith | founder of the Mormon Church or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints |
| Brigham Young | Led the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake in Utah |
| Oregon Trail | trail used in the mid-1800s for pioneers to reach Oregon for land and adventure |
| Santa Fe Trail | trail used by merchants to trade with Mexico |
| California Trail | trail used by Americans to reach California for gold |
| James K. Polk | 11th president; from Tennessee; democrat; achieved manifest destiny for the United States in the Mexican War |
| David Crockett | Tennessee frontiersman that fought and died at the Alamo |
| Sam Houston | former Tennessee governor; commander of the Texan army; first president of Texas Republic |
| Battle of the Alamo | defeat that inspired the Texans to fight hard to win their independence |
| Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna | president and dictator of Mexico during the Texas Revolution and Mexican War |
| Battle of San Jacinto | last battle of the Texas Revolution that gave Texas their independence; lasted only 18 minutes |
| Mexican War | war fought between 1846-1848; led to the United States acquiring New Mexico |
| Fifty-Four Forty or Fight | James K. Polk's campaign slogan in 1844 to get all of Oregon from Britain |
| Bear Flag Revolt | uprising in California during the Mexican War; Americans declared independence from Spain |
| California Gold Rush | mass migration of people from around the world to northern California for gold in 1848-1849; changed California and the United States economy |
| James Marshall | worker at Sutters Mill that found the first nugget of gold |
| John Sutter | owner of the sawmill where gold was first found in 1848; kickstarted the Gold Rush |
| Zachary Taylor | popular general during the Mexican War |
| Rio Grande | river the US claimed was the border between Texas and Mexico |
| Nueces River | river that Mexico claimed was the border between Texas and Mexico |
| Annexation | an addition to a country |
| Gadsden Purchase | land bought by the US government in southern Arizona for a transcontinental railroad |
| Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo | officially ended the Mexican War; gave the US the Mexican Cession |
| Mexican Cession | land in northern Mexico that was given to the United States after the Mexican War; includes California, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, etc. |
| Tejanos | Mexicans living in Texas that fought with the Americans |
| Chinese | immigrants that first came to America during the Gold Rush; worked on railroads and opened laundromats |
| San Francisco | city that grew as a result of the California Gold Rush |