Hey there students! Welcome back to Intensive Review. We're going to go ahead and start with standard 2, beginning with USHC 2.1, which focuses on territorial acquisitions of the United States between the time of the American founding and the Civil War.
So first of all, the Louisiana Purchase. Alright, the Louisiana Purchase adds about double, all right, of what we had before. And keep in mind that the United States is moving west, all right.
Going to talk about Manifest Destiny in the next segment. So Jefferson purchases this massive plot of farmland from France. for three cents an acre.
Now Jefferson had a little bit of a dilemma here because he was a strict constructionist and nowhere in the Constitution does it say that you can purchase land and Jefferson's like, ah, purchase land. Well, his people say, treaty making power because when you make a treaty you can purchase land. I mean land changes hands in treaty. That's pretty much implied, right?
Now Jefferson wanted to amend the Constitution. His party people said, look, you're being ridiculous. And Jefferson finally goes along with his party people and decides to overcome his constitutional objections and do what he felt was best for the country. And after Jefferson purchases Louisiana, then he sends Lewis and Clark to explore Louisiana.
this territory that's just been purchased? What is it that we just bought? And they're also looking for a northwest passage. Now, this all-water route to the Pacific. Now, as far as exploring the purchase, they did a good job there.
Finding a northwest passage, not so much because such a thing doesn't exist. Now, as far as westward expansion and that sort of thing, we need to really address the War of 1812 very quickly. Now, if we look at the United States economy in the early 19th century, this this Jeffersonian model where we grow crops and we export these crops and raw materials to Europe and then we get the finished goods back. And this is the system that counts on free trade.
And of course we go there but then when another ship shows up and boards our ship, okay, when we have the British that are boarding our ships and pressing our sailors, taking them off of our boats and putting them on their boats, then we have a problem. Now Jefferson's first response is the Embargo Act of 1807, which is eliminating trade, really, with everybody. Now, Jefferson's for trade.
Jefferson's for a free economy. He's against government intervention. Well, what Jefferson's trying to do here is he wants to avoid war. All right?
He's trying to use economic coercion. And what he's doing here is kind of the same thing that happened with the Stamp Act earlier, that used economic coercion to get your government. goals rather than war.
Now this was very unpopular and resulted in failure. It was unpopular especially in New England where the economy counted on having commerce and trade. Oh this Cursino grabbed me! Oh gosh gets me every time. Okay this cartoon here which you see that there's a guy trying to smuggle and then that snapping turtle gets him you know grabs him all right.
Now when you look at though grab me it's Embarco spelled backwards get it? Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha, that's right, live audience. All right, so anyway, ha ha ha. Now, the embargo was very unpopular, wasn't very successful, a lot of people undermining it.
And you've got these new people, Clay and Calhoun, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, who were still pretty young guys at the time, and they were part of this war hawk faction, that they want war. And finally, Madison, the president after Jefferson, yields to them, and he issues his war message. Keep in mind that the president can't declare war.
declare war, Congress does. But the President typically asks for a declaration of war in the form of a war message. And he says, look, there are three things going on here.
The British are impressing our sailors, taking them from our ships, putting them on their ships, cutting off American trade, and arming Native Americans on the western frontier. So keep in mind that part of this is the westward movement. That America's moving west and the British are trying to stop us from moving west.
And while the Battle of New Orleans New Orleans is a great success and Andrew Jackson is seen as this national hero and everybody's all America. Yeah. All right.
And we love this country and everything. Keep in mind the war didn't go that well. All right.
So that's going to be kind of part of Henry Clay's American system and all of that kind of stuff. But the biggest thing to come out of the. War of 1812 is Andrew Jackson as a national political figure, as a popular politician. And Andrew Jackson becomes the champion of the common white man, becomes this two-term president that is the champion of democracy, that really bears his name. Now, of course, Jackson is also associated with Indian removal and the Trail of Tears.
The federal government passed the Indian Removal Act in the 1830s, moving Indians out of the southeast. And sending them across the Mississippi River to Oklahoma. Jackson said, this is for the best.
They're going to be safer over there. But really, when it comes down to it, this was just us and white people in Georgia and areas around there in Appalachia wanting Indian land. And they are sent out across the river. And this is something that is kind of a bad spot on Jackson's presidency.
Now. Now, the last thing we need to know for 2.1 to get this standard and any questions that might come about because of it are the major territorial acquisitions, which started with the Louisiana Purchase. Now that's in 1803 and then we get into the 1840s, bam, bam, bam, that we have Texas annexation in 1845. And then we settle the Oregon boundary with Britain.
That's in 1846. And then finally, because of. the annexation of Texas and the border dispute. We went to war with Mexico and Mexico ceded land in the form of the Mexican Cession in 1848. We won't talk about the Gadsden Purchase, nor will we make a joke about it at this time. So those are the major territorial acquisitions in the United States.
And in the next segment, I'm going to talk about Manifest Destiny, Moving West, and also about the Monroe Doctrine. So hope you'll join me for that as we continue to review. See you in a bit.