| A | B |
|---|
| Louisiana Purchase | a section of land purchased from France; it doubled the amount of land in the United States |
| Northwest Territories | the lands gained after the Revolution from Great Britain; these lands had been won from France in the French and Indian War |
| Gadsden Purchase | lands purchased from Mexico that were supposed to be used for a Southern transcontinental railroad; these lands included Southern Arizona and New Mexico |
| Mexican-American War | the conflict between Mexico and the United States that established Texas as an American territory |
| Adams–Onís Treaty | the treaty between the United States and Spain that gave the United States Spain and established the boundaries of New Spain |
| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo | a treaty between the United States and Mexico in which the United States got parts of present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah |
| Missouri Compromise | admitted Maine to the United States as a free state and admitted Missouri as a slave state |
| Compromise of 1850 | a group of acts including laws that allowed California to be admitted as a free state and the admission of New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory with slavery was left to to the decision of the people |
| Fugitive Slave Act | required all escaped slaves be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state |
| Lewis and Clark | the men hired by Thomas Jefferson to explore lands of the Louisiana Purchase |
| Sacagawea | Shoshone woman who helped to guide Lewis and Clark as they explored the Louisiana Territory |
| Sectionalism | loyalty to one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole |
| Popular Sovereignty | being able to vote; in particular, during this time, it was when the residents of a new state/territory got to decide if slavery was allowed |
| Manifest Destiny | belief that all of the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans should belong to the United States of America; the idea that the United States should control the lands from "sea to shining sea" and that this control was fated to happen |
| Trail of Tears | a series of forced relocations of approximately 60,000 Native Americans in the United States; this was to allow settlers to control more lands and resulted in the death of many Natives |
| Oregon Trail | An overland trail that settlers used to travel by covered wagon from Missouri to the west coast |
| Reservations | Land set aside for Native Americans to live |
| Transcontinental Railroad | The railroad that stretched from the east coast of the United States to the west coast |
| Wagon Train | A group of covered wagons traveling to the west together. They traveled in groups for safety. |
| Pioneer | A person who does something first |
| Pony Express | A mail system where riders got fresh horses at stops along the way to speed up delivery. It went from Missouri to California |
| California Gold Rush | the discovery of this valuable metal at Sutter's Mill led to hundreds of thousands of people moving to this state in 1848-49 to try to find this valuable substance |
| Homestead | A piece of free land that people claimed from the government. They had to live on it for five years and make improvements to keep it |
| Boomtown | towns would spring up almost overnight at places where gold was discovered |
| Land Rush | When certain prime areas of land were opened up for homesteading, people would race to claim the best plots. |
