1787
Northwest Ordinance creates first organized territory of the United States
1794
Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
1803
Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States
1803—1806
Lewis and Clark Expedition
1804
Sauk Leaders sign treaty ceding 15 million acres to the U.S. government
1812—1815
War of 1812 fought between
United States and England
1818
Treaty on joint U.S.–British occupation of Oregon
1820
Missouri Compromise maintains balance of free and slave states in Union
1821
Mexican independence from Spain; opening of Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and New Mexico
1821–1840
Indian removals in Deep South and Old Southwest
1830
Mexico abolishes slavery in Texas
1832
Black Hawk War
1836
Texas declares independence from Mexico
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1837-1838
Cherokee travel from southeastern homelands to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears"
1844
James K. Polk elected president on expansionist platform
1845
Term "Manifest Destiny" coined by newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan; United States annexes the Republic of Texas
1846
United States and Mexico go to war; Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo taken prisoner in Bear Flag rebellion
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1846-1848
Mormon migration to Utah
1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican American War; gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California
1850
California admitted to the Union; Compromise of 1850
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1851-1860
More than 41,000 Chinese travel to US to work
1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act nullifies Missouri Compromise
1856
John Brown leads Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas
1860
Abraham Lincoln elected president; cotton production and prices peak
1852
Ah Tye arrives in California from China
