"Growth of a Nation" Narration
Part 1: Completion of Territory (1789 - 1853) The original thirteen United States clung to the Atlantic coast. As a result of the Revolutionary War, England ceded her holdings east of the Mississippi River.
The new states of Vermont in New England, Kentucky, and Ohio had been admitted by 1803, when President Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the new nation. Jefferson thus obtained the outlet of the Mississippi River and her tributaries at New Orleans. Louisiana was made a state in 1812 to solidify the acquisition of this key port.
In 1812 a second war began with Great Britain. British Canada was attacked on the Great Lakes; Washington DC was burned; and a British invasion of New Orleans was foiled by Andrew Jackson. The war ended in a stalemate in 1815.
The states of Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Main, and Missouri were quickly admitted to the Union. Three were slave states; three were free.
This maintained an equal number of slave and free states in the Senate, and the south's ability to stall legislation and maintain slavery in the Union. However, under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, future slavery was prohibited north of the southern boundary of Missouri.
Friendlier relations ensued with Great Britain. In 1818, the 49th parallel, or latitude, was agreed upon as the border west to the Rocky Mountains. Beyond that lay the Oregon Country, to be settled by citizens of both nations.
Spain, a waning power, held the land to the west and south of the new nation, including much of Central and South America. In a treaty of 1819, Spain agreed to the 42nd parallel as a limit to northern expansion. For certain adjustments, she ceded Florida to the United States.
As this treaty was signed, Latin America was in revolt. All the South American nations were independent by 1824. Mexico achieved independence in 1821.
Unlike Spain, Mexico opened her borders to American settlers. Texas was colonized in 1821. The Texans revolted against the Mexican government in 1835, and became an independent nation the following year.
As the nation expanded, the native American tribes east of the Mississippi River were removed west, in forced marches, to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.
Arkansas was admitted in 1836 as a slave state, and Michigan in 1837 as a free state.
The settlement of the west began in earnest in the 1840's. Many people followed the Oregon Trail, which ran across the Great Plains along the Platte River, past the Great Salt Lake in the Rockies, and ending in Oregon on the Pacific coast.
Florida was admitted as a slave state in 1845, as was Texas, including all the land north of the Rio Grande River claimed by Texas.
Mexico could not accept what she considered a land grab of her territory, and the Mexican War of 1846 to 48 followed. The Americans won in New Mexico, California and northern Mexico, but only the conquest of Mexico City in 1847 forced the Mexican government to surrender.
Mexico ceded to the United States Texas and the entire southwest, including California, where gold was discovered just as this peace treaty was signed.
In 1846, as this war was beginning, Great Britain agreed to extend the 49th parallel as the northern border to the Pacific coast, thus adding the Oregon Territory to the United States.
During this war, the Mormons, persecuted in the east, trekked across the Great Plains and settled by the Great Salt Lake.
Iowa and Wisconsin were admitted as free states during the war.
California became a free state in 1850. At the same time, Texas was reduced in size.
The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 completed the territory of the continental United States.