Timeline of the West – 1800 – 1859
From http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/
Not all events on the PBS website are included on the timeline below.
Part of materials to support an 8-episode documentary on The West
Includes LESSON PLANS
1800
The secret Treaty of San Ildefonso transfers the Louisiana Territory from Spain back to France, on the condition that France never yield it to an Englishspeaking government.
1803
Jefferson asks Congress for an appropriation to send an expedition up the Missouri River and on to the Pacific, in order to discover whether a Northwest
Passage or water route across the continent exists and to lay the groundwork for extending American fur trade into the region. None of this territory is part of the
United States when Jefferson makes his request in January, but even then he is negotiating secretly through James Monroe to purchase the whole vast region from
France.
1803
By April, Napoleon has agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million, although the transfer will violate the terms under which
he had received the territory from Spain. Congress approves the deal in October. Thus, as Jefferson no doubt foresaw, his proposed expedition will also serve to
secure America's hold on its newest possession and to reinforce American claims in the Pacific northwest.
1803 LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION (1803-1806)
Lewis and Clark proceed up the Mississippi to Wood River, Illinois, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, where they establish a winter camp to make final preparations
and train their recruits.
1804 Heading up the Missouri River in May, Lewis and Clark stop to visit Daniel Boone at his home near St. Charles. By October, they have reached the villages of the
Mandan in present-day North Dakota, where they establish winter quarters. During their months at what they call Fort Mandan, they receive invaluable information
from the Indians about the course of the Missouri and the countryside surrounding it. Here they also add three more to their 30-member Corp of Discovery: a French
trader named Toussaint Charbonneau, who will serve as interpreter, his wife, Sacagawea, a Shonone who had been kidnapped and raised by the Hidatsa, and their
baby, whom Clark calls Pompey.
1806
Spanish authorities in San Francisco reverse their policy and agree to sell provisions to Russian colonists after the Russians' representative becomes
engaged to the daughter of the presidio's commander.
1806
Captain Richard Sparks and the frontiersman Thomas Freeman are appointed by Jefferson to explore and map the Red River region along the United
States' border with Tejas.
1806
Zebulon Pike sets out on an expedition to make peace among the Pawnee in Nebraska and explore the headwaters of the Arkansas River. His mission takes
him into Colorado, where on Thanksgiving Day he and his party try unsuccessfully to climb the peak that bears his name.
1807
Crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Zebulon Pike comes to the Rio Grande, which he mistakes for the Red River. Here he builds an outpost and is
discovered by a Spanish patrol, which takes him first to Santa Fe, then into Mexico, and finally to the Tejas border near Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he re-enters
the United States in June. After reporting on Spanish forces and settlements in the Southwest, Pike publishes an account of his expedition which makes him a national
celebrity.
1807
John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition who remained in the West as a fur trader, explores the Wyoming country and an area he calls
"Colter's Hell," which is thought to be the geyser and hot springs country of present-day Yellowstone Park.
1807
Fur trader Manuel Lisa establishes Fort Raymond, the first trading post in present day Montana, at the mouth of the Bighorn River.
1808
The U.S. government moves Cherokee Indians who had attacked Tennessee settlers across the Mississippi into Arkansas.
1808
John Jacob Astor forms the American Fur Company to compete with the North West Company of Canada in the northern Plains.
1809
Meriwether Lewis, appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory on his return from the West, dies mysteriously and violently in a Natchez tavern on his
way back to Washington to answer charges of mismanagement.
1809
By this time there are 25 Russian American colonies strung along the northern Pacific coast as far south as California.
1810
John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company to expand his trading empire to the Pacific coast.
1810
Kamehameha the Great unifies Hawaii, aided by former British seamen who teach his warriors how to sail heavy vessels and use cannons in island warfare.
1811
Russian settlers found Fort Ross at Bodega Bay just north of San Francisco.
1811
Astor's Pacific Fur Company establishes Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. Soon the area is thick with the outposts of rival traders.
1812
The United States and Great Britain clash in the War of 1812.
1813
John Jacob Astor's Pacific Northwest outpost, Astoria, is sold to the North West Company shortly before it is formally captured by a British warship in the
War of 1812. On their overland return to the east, the former Astorians cross the continental divide south of the Wind River Range, discovering the South Pass that
will become part of the Oregon Trail.
1814
The United States and Great Britain conclude a treaty ending the War of 1812.
1817
Kamehameha banishes Russian fur traders from Hawaii when they attempt to erect a fort on his territory.
1818
The 49th parallel is agreed upon as the border between the United States and Canada from Lake of the Woods westward to the Rocky Mountains, with
joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.
1819
The United States renounces all claims to Tejas in a treaty with Spain that brings Florida under American control.
1820
Major Stephen Long of the Corps of Engineers leads an expedition across Kansas to the Rocky Mountains, where a member of his party, Dr. Edwin James,
scales Pikes Peak. On the map charting his explorations and published in 1823, Long labels the area east of the Rockies "The Great American Desert," a
characterization that will steer settlers away from the region for decades to come.
1821
Spanish Mexico issues a land grant to the American Moses Austin for a settlement of 300 families in Tejas, in the hope that responsible Americans given a
stake in the province will help deter unsavory American squatters crowding over the border from Louisiana.
1821
Mexicans rebel against Spanish rule, winning independence.
1823
Stephen Austin establishes the first American settlement in Tejas on land originally granted to his father along the San Antonio River. By the terms of this
grant, all 300 families in the new colony are to become Mexican citizens and Roman Catholics.
1823
Joseph Smith, living near Manchester, New York, begins his study of the golden-plated book revealed to him by the angel Moroni.
1824
tribes.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is established within the War Department, with a primary duty to regulate and settle disputes arising from trade with Indian
1825
Ashley completes his revolution of the fur trade when he divides his expedition into small groups, each to trap and explore independently through the
spring and then meet at Henry's Fork on the Green River in late summer. This meeting becomes the first rendezvous, attracting not only the trappers in Ashley's
company but free-trappers and Indians as well. For the next 15 years, the annual rendezvous replaces the trading post in the Rocky Mountain fur trade, as freetrappers -- soon to be known as mountain men -- displace the trading company agent as the engines of commerce on the frontier.
1825
The federal government adopts a policy of exchanging Indian lands in the east for public land in the west, where the tribes can live beyond state
jurisdiction and organize their own forms of government.
1828
Rejoining his expedition in California, Jedediah Smith leads the way north into Oregon, where only Smith and three others escape an Indian massacre on
the Umpqua River. The survivors flee to the Hudson's Bay Company outpost at Fort Vancouver.
1828
The Cherokees of Arkansas agree to give up their land and settle in the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi.
1829
Mexico refuses an American offer to buy Tejas for $5 million.
1830
Congress passes a Pre-emption Act which grants settlers the right to purchase at $1.25 per acre 160 acres of public land which they have cultivated for at
least 12 months, thereby offering "squatters" some protection against speculators who purchase lands they have already improved.
1830
Jedediah Smith and William Sublette, now partners in the successor to William Ashley's trading company, lead the first wagon train across the Rocky
Mountains at South Pass and on to the Upper Wind River. The 500-mile journey through Indian country takes about six weeks, proving that even heavily loaded
wagons and livestock -- the prerequisites for settlement -- can travel overland to the Pacific.
1830
Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon and establishes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
1830
The Indian Removal Act, passed with strong support from President Andrew Jackson, authorizes the federal government to negotiate treaties with eastern
tribes exchanging their lands for land in the West. All costs of migration and financial aid to assist resettlement are provided by the government. Jackson forces
through a treaty for removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi within the year.
1830
Alarmed at the growing number of Americans in Tejas, Mexico imposes sharp limits on further immigration.
1831
Joseph Smith, suffering persecution in his native New York, leads his followers to Kirtland, Ohio, where they can build a new Zion.
1831 The Nez Percé send a delegation to St. Louis requesting white teachers for their people, sparking a missionary movement to the Northwest.
1831
In Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia, a dispute over Georgia's attempt to extend its jurisdiction over Cherokee territory, Chief Justice John Marshall
denies Indians the right to court protection because they are not subject to the laws of the Constitution. He describes Indian tribes as "domestic dependent nations,"
saying that each is "a distinct political entity...capable of managing its own affairs."
1832
In Worcester v. State of Georgia, the Supreme Court rules that the federal government, not the states, has jurisdiction over Indian territories. The case
concerns a missionary living among the Cherokees, Samuel A. Worcester, who was jailed for refusing to comply with a Georgia law requiring all whites residing on
Indian land to swear an oath of allegiance to the state. In ruling against Georgia's actions, Chief Justice John Marshall writes that Indian tribes must be treated "as
nations" by the national government and that state laws "can have no force" on their territories. Defying the court, Georgia keeps Worcester in jail, and President
Andrew Jackson, when asked to correct the situation, says, "The Chief Justice has made his ruling; now let him enforce it."
1832
George Catlin begins his voyage up the Missouri, traveling more than 2,000 miles with trappers from the American Fur Company to their outpost at Fort
Union, painting hundreds of portraits of Indians and Indian life along the way.
1833
At the San Felipe Convention, held in San Felipe de Austin, American settlers led by Stephen Austin vote to make Tejas a Mexican state, rather than a
dependent territory, and draft a state constitution based on that of the United States. Austin himself carries the proposal to Mexico City, where President Santa Anna
agrees to repeal the 1830 law limiting American immigration but refuses to grant statehood.
1833
Samuel Colt develops his revolver.
1833
life.
The German naturalist, Prince Maximillian, and the Swiss painter, Karl Bodmer, travel up the Missouri in Catlin's footsteps, to observe and record Indian
1833
The Choctaw complete their forced removal to the West under army guard.
1834
Congress restructures the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the Department of Indian Affairs, expanding the agency's responsibilities to include both regulating
trade with the tribes, as before, and administering the Indian lands of the West.
1834
William Sublette and Robert Campbell establish Fort Laramie on the North Platte River in Wyoming, the first permanent trading post in the region and
soon to be an important stopping point for pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail.
1835
The Florida Seminoles reject forced removal to the West and begin a seven-year war of resistance under Chief Osceola.
1835
The Cherokee finally sign a treaty of removal, giving up their lands in Georgia for territory in present-day Oklahoma.
1835
TEXAS WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE (1835-1836)
Mexican President Santa Anna proclaims himself dictator and attempts to disarm the Americans in Tejas, sending troops to reclaim a cannon that had been given to
the settlers for protection against Indian attacks. When the Americans resist at an engagement near Gonzales on the Guadalupe River, the Texas War for
Independence begins.
1835
At a Consultation held in San Felipe de Austin, members of Stephen Austin's American colony issue a "Declaration of the People of Texas," proclaiming
their independence of Santa Anna's government on the grounds that he has violated the Mexican constitution by proclaiming himself dictator.
1835
Mexican troops sent to put down the Texas rebellion are defeated at San Antonio by a tejano force led by Juan Seguin and sent home in humiliation after
promising an end to the hostilities.
1836
Meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texans vote a Declaration of Independence, appoint an interim government and elect Sam Houston, former
governor of Tennessee, commander-in-chief of the army. Houston orders his troops to withdraw from the fortress-like Alamo in San Antonio and the fortified town of
Goliad, convinced that he can defeat Santa Anna's superior numbers only by drawing his army into a chase. The headstrong defenders of the Alamo and Goliad ignore
Houston's commands.
1836
Santa Anna leads a force of 5,000 troops into San Antonio to put down the Texas rebellion. On March 6, in a brutal show of force, the Mexicans overwhelm
187 Texans at the Alamo. Colonels William B. Travis, James Bowie and Davie Crockett perish in the massacre, which costs as many as 1,600 Mexican lives. A few
weeks later, to the south, some 300 Texans, commanded by James W. Fannin, are defeated and captured near Goliad. Continuing his brutal policies, Santa Anna
orders them all executed.
1836
Setting out in pursuit of Houston's army, Santa Anna crosses the Brazos in hopes of capturing the newly formed Texas government at Harrisburg, where it
has been urging Houston to stand and fight. When the government eludes him, Santa Anna turns back to intercept Houston's forces along the San Jacinto River. But
Houston, aware of his enemy's movements, launches a surprise attack along the San Jacinto in which the Mexicans are routed and Santa Anna taken captive.
Negotiating from a field cot with a bullet-shattered leg, Houston secures Santa Anna's agreement to withdraw all his forces from Texas and to recognize Texan
independence.
1836
On his return to Mexico, Santa Anna is driven into retirement and his agreement to recognize Texas independence is denounced. For the next ten years,
Mexican troops and Texans continue to war against one another in a series of intermittent clashes along the border.
1836
In the fall, Sam Houston is elected the first President of the Republic of Texas, outpolling Stephen Austin 4-to-1, and Texans vote to seek annexation by the
United States.
1836
Responding to the 1831 Nez Perce request for teachers, the Whitman party -- Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife, Narcissa, accompanied by Narcissa's
former suitor, Rev. H. H. Spalding, and his wife, Eliza -- travel what will soon be known as the Oregon Trail to arrive at the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers,
where they establish a mission to bring Christianity to the Indians of the northwest. Narcissa and Eliza are the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains, and
their group is perhaps the first party of settlers to travel overland to the West.
1837
Congress refuses to annex Texas, bowing to abolitionist opponents who call it a "slavocracy." But President Andrew Jackson recognizes the Republic of
Texas on his last day in office.
1838
Mormon founder Joseph Smith leads his persecuted followers to Missouri, to settle at a site he calls the Garden of Eden, but local opponents force the
settlers to flee into Illinois where they establish Nauvoo.
1838
General Winfield Scott oversees the forced removal of the Cherokee from Georgia to the Indian Territory of the West along the "Trail of Tears."
1840
The last rendezvous on the Green River marks the end of the mountain trapping era, as fashion changes in Europe and steady declines in the beaver
population make the fur trade barely profitable.
1841
John Sutter buys Fort Ross north of San Francisco, ending Russia's thirty-year presence in California. Sutter dismantles the settlement and carries it to his
newly established Fort Sutter at the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers.
1841
John Bidwell organizes the Western Emigration Society and leads the first wagon train of pioneers across the Rockies, a party of 69 adults and children who
divide into two groups after crossing South Pass. One group heads north into Oregon, while the other, led by Bidwell, continues west to California, suffering
desperate hardship and near starvation before arriving in Sacramento, where Bidwell finds work with John Sutter.
1842
Lieutenant John C. Fremont of the Army Topographical Corps leads a scientific expedition into the Rocky Mountains, guided by the mountain man Kit
Carson. Crossing into the mountains at South Pass, Fremont explores the Wind River Mountain region, pausing to plant a specially prepared flag on a high peak which
he names for himself. On his return, Fremont's account of the expedition and expert maps are ordered published by Congress.
1842
Francisco Lopez discovers gold dust in the roots of an onion he dug up for lunch, touching off a local gold rush to San Feliciano Canyon near Los Angeles,
but news of the discovery is largely ignored elsewhere.
1842
Responding to years of harassment along the Texas border, Mexican troops strike San Antonio, killing many of the town's defenders and carrying off many
others as prisoners. This action, called "Dawson's Massacre," leads to the removal of the Texas capital from Austin to Washington-on-the-Brazos, and to a retaliatory
attack on Santa Fe.
1843
THE OREGON TRAIL
The Great Migration, a party of one thousand pioneers, heads west from Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, guided by Dr. Marcus Whitman, who is
returning to his mission on the Columbia River. Forming a train of more than one hundred wagons, and trailing a herd of 5,000 cattle, the pioneers travel along the
south bank of the Platte, then cross north to Fort Laramie in Wyoming. Here they follow the North Platte to the Sweetwater, which leads up into South Pass. Once
through the pass, they cross the Green River Valley to newly established Fort Bridger, then turn north to Fort Hall on the Snake River, which leads them to Whitman's
Mission. Once in Oregon, they strike out along the Columbia for the fertile lands of the Willamette Valley, the endpoint to a journey of 2,000 miles. After the mass
exodus of 1843, the migration to Oregon becomes an annual event, with thousands more making the trek every year.
1843
Joseph Smith records his revelation that plural marriage should be a practice of the Mormon church.
1843
Restored to power in Mexico, President Santa Anna warns that American annexation of Texas will be considered an act of war.
1844
Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, are killed by a mob at Carthage, Illinois. Brigham Young becomes the new head of the church.
1944 James K. Polk is elected President with the slogan "54-40 or Fight" -- a promise to set the disputed northern border of the Oregon Territory at 54 degrees, 40
minutes by diplomacy or war, and an implicit promise to expand American territories in every direction.
1845
John L. Sullivan, editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, criticizes American temerity toward Mexico and argues that it is "our
Manifest Destiny...to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."
1845
TEXAS AND THE MEXICAN WAR
Outgoing President John Tyler signs a congressional joint resolution to annex Texas and make it part of the union. In response, Mexico severs diplomatic relations
with the United States. When Texas accepts annexation, newly-elected President James K. Polk sends a force under General Zachary Taylor to the Mexican border.
Over the next two years, more than 13,000 Americans die in the Mexican War, which prepares a generation of military leaders for the Civil War.
1846
Britain and the United States reach a compromise in the Pacific Northwest, setting the Oregon Territory's northern border at the 49th parallel.
1846
CALIFORNIA AND THE MEXICAN WAR
In March, John C. Fremont, on his third expedition through the West, raises the American flag over California at an improvised fort near Monterey, but he soon
abandons his impetuous efforts and turns toward Oregon. On the way, however, he receives word of the impending Mexican War and returns to California to play a
part in its conquest.
In June, Fremont joins forces with a group of Americans who capture Mariano Vallejo, the amicable commandante of the Sonora region, and proclaim California an
independent republic. But their "Bear Flag Revolt," named for its distinctive banner, comes to an end in July, when American naval forces arrive in Monterey and take
control of the port without firing a shot.
Over the following months, American troops under Commodore Robert F. Stockton, aided by Fremont's so-called California Battalion, capture San Francisco, San
Diego and Los Angeles without bloodshed. In Los Angeles, however, the American occupation force stirs up violent resentment, and by October they are driven out by
a guerrila force led by Anrés Pico, brother of the departed California governor.
Stockton's first attempt to regain control of Los Angeles is repulsed, and while he regroups, an American force arrives from New Mexico, commanded by General
Stephen Kearny. Attacked by Pico's insurgents at San Pascual, Kearny's troops suffer heavy losses, but with Stockton's aid they reach safety in San Diego. Early the
next year, Stockton, Kearny and Fremont combine forces to recapture Los Angeles, with Fremont accepting the insurgents' surrender in the Capitulation of Cahuenga
on January 13.
1846
Driven from Nauvoo by violent mobs, the Mormons head west under the leadership of Brigham Young, travelling with the organization of a military
campaign. They establish Winter Quarters near present-day Omaha, Nebraska, but despite their preparations, suffer near starvation and a cholera epidemic that
claims 600 lives. At Winter Quarters Brigham Young assembles a "Mormon Battalion" of 500 volunteers to fight in the Mexican War, though by the time they reach
California early in 1847, the conquest there is complete.
1846
The Donner Party, trapped by heavy snows when it attempts to follow the "Hastings Cutoff" through the Sierra Nevada Mountains into California, is driven
to cannibalism as it attempts to survive the winter.
1847
Brigham Young leads an advance party along the Mormon Trail into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, where they arrive on July 23 to begin creating a
secure refuge for their church. Before the day is over, these first settlers begin digging irrigation ditches and planting crops. And even before the thousands following
behind them arrive, Brigham Young begins laying out the streets of Salt Lake City.
1847
Cayuse warriors massacre Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife, Narcissa, and twelve others at Waiilatpu, their mission on the Columbia River in reprisal for
deaths caused by a measles epidemic among their tribe.
1848
THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH On January 24, James Marshall, a veteran of the Bear Flag Revolt, discovers gold on the American River at Coloma while
building a lumber mill for John Sutter. A brief report of the discovery appears in a San Francisco newspaper in mid-March, where it goes mostly unnoticed.
In May, Sam Brannan, a Mormon elder who owns a store near Sutter's Fort, arrives in San Francisco with a bottle of gold dust and a plan to draw potential customers
for his supplies. Walking through the streets with the gold dust in his hand, he shouts, "Gold! Gold from the American River!" Brannan's publicity stunt sets off a gold
rush that will draw fortune-hunters from around the world.
1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican War, giving the United States Texas, California, New Mexico and other territories in the southwest.
1849
Forty-niners heading for California's gold fields expand the network of trails across the continent, as wagon trains stretch across the plains and struggle
through the mountains as far as the eye can see. Forty-niners also come west by ship, sailing around Cape Horn or crossing by canoe and donkey train through the
jungles of Panama.
1849
By year's end, more than 80,000 fortune-seekers have made their way to California from every corner of the world, nearly tripling the territory's
population.
1849
Alarmed at the sudden incursion of "Gentiles" drawn west in search of gold, Brigham Young organizes the Perpetual Emigrating Company to help Mormon
converts in England and Europe make the trip to Utah and so increase the Mormon population there.
1850
California enters the Union.
California’s Indenture Act establishes a form of legal slavery for the native peoples of the state by allowing whites to declare them vagrant and auction off their
services for up to four months. The law also permits whites to indenture Indian children, with the permission of a parent or friend, and leads to widespread
kidnapping of Indian children, who are then sold as "apprentices."
1850
Levi Strauss begins manufacturing heavyweight trousers for gold miners, made of the twilled cotton cloth known as "genes" in France. Strauss had
intended to make tents, but finding no market, made a fortune in pants instead.
1851
The United States and representatives of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Arikara, Assiniboin, Mandan, Gros Ventre and other tribes sign the Fort
Laramie Treaty of 1851, intended to insure peace on the plains. The treaty comes as increasing numbers of whites -- gold seekers, settlers and traders -- make the
trek westward, and as Native Americans react to this invasion by attacking wagon trains and, more often, warring against one another for territorial advantage. The
treaty divides the plains into separate tracts assigned to each tribe, who agree to remain on their own land, to cease their attacks on each other and on white
migrants and to recognize the right of the United States to establish roads and military outposts within their territories. In return, the United States pledges that each
tribe will retain possession of its assigned lands forever, that they will be protected by U.S. troops from white intruders and that they will each receive $50,000 in
supplies and provisions annually for the next fifty years. Both sides agree to settle any future disputes, whether between tribes or between Indians and whites,
through restitution.
Unfortunately, the chiefs who sign the Fort Laramie Treaty do not have the authority over their tribes that the United States negotiators assume, and the negotiators
themselves cannot deliver the protections and fair treatment they promise.
1851
Federal commissioners attempting to halt the brutal treatment of Indians in California negotiate eighteen treaties with various tribes and village groups,
promising them 8.5 million acres of reservation lands. California politicians succeed in having the treaties secretly rejected by Congress in 1852, leaving the native
peoples of the state homeless within a hostile white society.
1852
Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, galvanizes public opinion against slavery and stiffens its defenders in the South.
1852 – By year's end, more than 20,000 Chinese immigrants have come to America, all but 17 arriving at San Francisco to join in the search for gold.
1853
California begins confining its remaining Indian population on harsh military reservations, but the combination of legal enslavement and near genocide has
already made California the site of the worst slaughter of Native Americans in United States history. As many as 150,000 Indians lived in the state before 1849; by
1870, fewer than 30,000 will remain.
1853
Mexico agrees to the Gadsden Purchase, selling a strip of land running along Mexico's northern border between Texas and California for $10 million.
Intended as the route for a railroad connecting the Mississippi to the Pacific, the territory goes undeveloped when the approach of the Civil War causes the project to
be put aside.
1854
After much bitter debate, Congress approves the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing these two territories
to choose between slavery and free soil.
1854
The Republican Party, born out of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, declares its opposition to slavery and privilege, and its support for new railroads,
free homesteads and the opening of Western lands by free labor.
1856
Stirred by the impunity of the pro-slavery forces in Kansas, John Brown, a militant abolitionist, leads his sons in a night raid on pro-slavery settlers living
along Pottawatomie Creek.
1856
John C. Fremont becomes the first Republican candidate for the Presidency, pledging to eradicate the "twin relics of barbarism," polygamy and slavery. He
wins 11 states in the election, but loses to James Buchanan.
1857
Responding to complaints by federal officials in Utah and national outrage over the Mormon practice of plural marriage, President James Buchanan sends
U. S. troops to impose federal law in Utah. To the Mormons, this appears the onset of another persecution, which Brigham Young is determined to resist. Rather than
engage in battle, however, he attacks the federal troops' supply lines, burning Fort Bridger, destroying supply trains and setting fire to the plains to deprive the
advancing army of forage for its horses. At the same time, he readies a plan to evacuate and destroy Salt Lake City, should the federal troops get through.
1857
Mountain Meadows Massacre, Utah – Mormons massacre a wagon train party headed to California
1858
Political supporters secure a federal pardon for the Mormon's alleged violations of federal law, and two weeks later federal troops move through a nearly
deserted Salt Lake City to establish an outpost forty miles away, bringing the "Mormon War" to a close.
1858
The first non-stop stage coach from St. Louis arrives in Los Angeles, completing the 2,600 mile trip across the Southwest in 20 days.
1859
Gold is discovered in Boulder Canyon, Colorado, sparking the Pikes Peak gold rush which brings an estimated 100,000 fortune-hunters to the Rockies under
the banner "Pikes Peak or Bust."
1859
Oregon enters the union as a free state.
1859
Silver is discovered at the Comstock Lode in Nevada, turning nearby Virginia City into a boom town.
1859
Juan CortinaJuan Cortina, member of a prominent Mexican family living near Brownsville on the Rio Grande border, leads an uprising against the
mistreatment of Mexicans by Texans. He and his supporters occupy Brownsville and proclaim the Republic of the Rio Grande with the shout, "Death to the gringos!,"
but they leave the city unharmed. Cortina defeats a force of Texas Rangers and local authorities, but when they are reinforced by army troops, he retreats into
Mexico where he continues his guerilla war against Anglo injustice for another ten years.
1859
John Brown is hanged for his attempt to incite a slave uprising at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.
1859
During this decade, a tidal wave of 2.5 million immigrants enter the United States, including 66,000 Chinese.