Printed Page 442-407-393(cont.)

America’s History: Printed Page 442

America: A Concise History: Printed Page 407

America’s History: Value Edition: Printed Page 393

Chapter Timeline

CHAPTER REVIEW

TIMELINEAsk yourself why this chapter begins and ends with these dates and then identify the links among related events.
1844

  • James Polk elected president
1845

  • Texas admitted into Union
1846

  • United States declares war on Mexico

  • Treaty with Britain divides Oregon Country

  • Wilmot Proviso approved by House but not by Senate
1847

  • American troops capture Mexico City
1848

  • Gold found in California

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transfers Mexican lands to United States

  • Free-Soil Party forms
1850

  • President Taylor dies

  • Millard Fillmore assumes presidency

  • Compromise of 1850 preserves Union

  • Northern abolitionists reject Fugitive Slave Act
1851

  • American (Know-Nothing) Party forms
1852

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1854

  • Ostend Manifesto urges seizure of Cuba

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act tests policy of popular sovereignty

  • Republican Party forms
1856

  • Turmoil in Kansas undermines popular sovereignty

  • James Buchanan elected president
1857

  • Dred Scott v. Sandford allows slavery in U.S. territories
1858

  • President Buchanan urges Congress to admit Kansas under the proslavery Lecompton constitution and seeks to buy and annex Cuba as a slave state

  • Abraham Lincoln debates Stephen Douglas for U.S. Senate seat
1859

  • John Brown raids federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry
1860

  • Abraham Lincoln elected president in four-way contest

Question

KEY TURNING POINT: Three new political parties appeared in the six years from 1848 to 1854: Free-Soil, American (Know-Nothing), and Republican. What accounts for this upsurge in political activity, and what was its result?