Study Guide Chapter 13

1. The Fur trappers and explores that helped opened up the west were known as Mountain men.

2. Jedediah Smith was a mountain man who helped open op the west by finding a pass through the Rocky Mountains.

3. Jim Beckwourth was an African American who discovered a mountain pass that became the route into California.

4. The Louisiana Purchase had doubled the size of the United States.

5. The Santa Fe Trail, led from Independence Missouri to Santa Fe. (New Mexico)

6. After Joseph Smith was killed by a mob in 1844, Brigham Young became the new leader of the Mormons.

7. The Mormon Trail led form Navuoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City. (Utah)

8. To attract more people to Texas, the Spanish government offered huge tracts of land called empresarios.

9. Tejanos are people of Spanish heritage who consider Texas their home.

10. Stephen F. Austin helped to establish the first colony of “American” Settlers in the Mexican Territory of Texas.

11. During the 1800s, immigrants from China provided critical labor in railroad construction in the West.

12. Antonio López de Santa Anna, was the president and commander of the Mexican forces.

13. Sam Houston Defeated Santa Anna and the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto.

14. Texas remained an independent republic for almost ten years.

15. United States had a divinely inspired mission to expand democracy throughout North America. Manifest Destiny.

16. In 1845, Congress admitted Texas as a slave state.

17. What President sent troops into a region claimed by both the United States and Mexico? James K. Polk

18. Polk ordered Zachary Taylor to station troops on the bank of the Rio Grande River, disputed territory with Mexico.

19. In California, Americans rebelled against Mexican rule in the Bear Flag Revolt.

20. On February 2, 1848, the war with Mexico officially ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

21. Mexico was forced to give up, a vast region of land known as the Mexican Cession.

22. The last bit of territory the United States bought from Mexico was a strip of land called the Gadsden Purchase.

23. Californio’s were settlers of Spanish or Mexican descent, who lived in California,

24. James Marshall discovered gold in California at Sutter’s Mill.

25. The rapid migration of people into California in search of gold was the California Gold Rush.

26. Those that rushed to California in search of gold were called the 49’ers.

27. A forty-niner who wished to reach California from the East had a choice of three routes, all of them dangerous:

28. (1) Sail 18,000 miles around South America and up the Pacific coast-suffering from storms, seasickness, and spoiled food.

29. (2) Sail to the narrow Isthmus of Panama cross overland (and risk catching a deadly tropical disease), and then sail to California.

30. (3) Travel overland across the American Continent crossing the Rocky Mountains.

31. During the California Gold rush 250,000 people flooded into the state.

32. The port city of San Francisco grew to become a center of banking, manufacturing, shipping, and trade.

33. California applied to Congress for admission to the Union and was admitted as a free state in 1850.