Deck 13: Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict, 1840-1848

Question 1

In 1860 what groups accounted for three-fourths of all foreign-born Americans?

A) Irish and Germans
B) Irish and English
C) Germans and Dutch
D) Russians and Italians
E) Swiss and Norwegians

Answer 1

Irish and Germans

Question 2

Why was John Tyler's ascendancy to the presidency a disaster for the Whig party?

A) He was a former Democrat.
B) He was a states' rights advocate.
C) He vetoed a bill to create a new national bank.
D) He vetoed bills that would postpone reducing the tariff.
E) All of these choices

Answer 2

All of these choices

Question 3

Which of the following was not one of the causes of increasingly tense relations between the Mexican government and the American residents in Texas after 1830?

A) The instability of Mexican politics
B) Attempts by the Mexican government to prohibit importation of slaves
C) The failure of the Mexican government to pay $2 million in debts owed to American citizens.
D) The bitter memories that American residents held of the Alamo and the Goliad massacre.
E) The desire of the Mexican government to sell Texas to the United States.

Answer 3

The desire of the Mexican government to sell Texas to the United States.

Question 4

What was the main reason most European immigrants came to the United States between 1815 and 1860?

A) Religious freedom
B) Reform urges
C) Economic advancement
D) Political freedom
E) European military upheavals

Question 5

Which of the following did the Whig political program in 1840 include?

A) A low protective tariff
B) Passage of an independent treasury act
C) Annexation of Texas
D) Government-financed internal improvements
E) Abolition of slavery

Question 6

In the 1820s, Mexico attempted to attract American settlers to Texas by

A) promising to make Texas a Protestant state.
B) providing generous land grants to recruiting agents.
C) introducing a viable economic commodity in long horn cattle.
D) forcing Native Americans to leave Texas for New Mexico.
E) offering any settler $1,000 and 200 acres of land.

Question 7

Which statement accurately describes travel to Oregon or California on the overland trails during the 1840s?

A) The route was well mapped out and well surveyed.
B) By this period the route detoured around any formidable barriers.
C) Indian massacres wiped out a high percentage of all emigrants.
D) Emigrant families traveled alone in single wagons so that they would not be slowed by the needs of other families.
E) Emigrants cooperated closely with each other and traveled in huge wagon trains.

Question 8

Along the overland trail, how did the duties of men and women compare?

A) Women drove the wagons, and men packed and unpacked them.
B) Men milked the cows, and women helped in standing guard against Indian raids.
C) Most women packed and unpacked the wagons in addition to performing their traditional duties.
D) Men and Women shared all duties equally.
E) All of these choices.

Question 9

Which one of the following was not one of the results of the California gold rush?

A) Its population increased dramatically.
B) Slaves, free blacks, Indians, Chinese, and Anglos eagerly joined together in the gold fields.
C) The issue of slavery in the Mexican Cession was pushed to the forefront of national politics.
D) The sleepy town of Yerba Buena became a city of 50,000.
E) Minters from all over the world descended upon California.

Question 10

Which of the following was one of the reasons why some antislavery northerners believed there was a southern conspiracy to extend slavery into the Southwest?

A) Texas was being settled by German, pro-slavery immigrants.
B) Abolitionists had uncovered a plot by southerners to invade Mexico and reinstitute slavery.
C) Slaveholder Andrew Jackson had accepted southern participation in the Battle of the Alamo.
D) There was southern talk of creating an independent nation out of the Texas Territory.
E) President Tyler, a states' rights Democrat from Virginia, maneuvered to arrange the annexation of Texas.

Question 11

Great Britain and the United States almost went to a war between in the 1840s because of a dispute over

A) trade along the St. Lawrence Waterway.
B) fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland.
C) which country had the rightful claim to gold in Alaska.
D) the border between the Oregon territory and British Columbia.
E) whether Great Britain should help Mexico grow cotton.

Question 12

A potato blight brought about "The Great Famine," a period of starvation in

A) Ireland.
B) England.
C) Germany.
D) France.
E) Italy.

Question 13

Which statement best describes the Germans who came to the United States before 1860?

A) They were largely of urban working-class background.
B) They were mainly Catholics drawn from the poorer classes.
C) They were diverse, hardworking, and clannish.
D) They were generally poor Jewish intellectuals.
E) They were largely free-thinking radicals and political refugees.

Question 14

What did the Indians whom white emigrants encountered along the overland trail commonly do?

A) They attacked the emigrants.
B) They cooperated with the emigrants.
C) They forced the emigrants into slavery.
D) They demanded alcohol before letting the emigrants pass.
E) They stole from emigrant wagon trains.

Question 15

What was one reason that "dark horse" James K. Polk won the presidency in 1844?

A) Polk came out strongly against a protective tariff.
B) The Whig party appeared to be the party of immigration and alcohol.
C) Polk convinced many northerners that the annexation of Texas would be in their best interest.
D) He received an overwhelming popular vote.
E) His running mate was a leading temperance crusader.

Question 16

Which of the following is not one of the accomplishments of José Antonio Navarro?

A) He signed Texas' declaration of independence from Mexico.
B) He was a member of the Republic of Texas' Congress.
C) He helped write the Texas state constitution.
D) He was the first president of the Republic of Texas.
E) He escaped Mexican imprisonment to return to his native Texas.

Question 17

In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that

A) slavery was unconstitutional in Massachusetts.
B) labor unions were not illegal combinations or monopolies.
C) Massachusetts tax money could not be used to support an unjust war against Mexico.
D) segregated schools for blacks in Massachusetts did not violate the U.S. Constitution.
E) political refugees had no right to vote in state elections.

Question 18

In the 1840s, which of the following groups was not likely to support territorial expansion?

A) Irish immigrants
B) Members of the Whig party
C) Poor urban laborers
D) Land speculators
E) Southern slaveholders

Question 19

The Battle of the Alamo

A) represented the last time that Mexico aggressively attacked the United States.
B) provided a rallying point for Texans in their struggles against Mexico.
C) was a decisive victory by Texas against the Mexican army.
D) forced Mexico to grant Texas its independence.
E) enabled Mexico to stop the attempt by Texas to become independent.

Question 20

How much did the United States increase its land size by during President James K. Polk's administration?

A) 10 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 30 percent
D) 40 percent
E) 50 percent

Question 21

According to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,

A) the United States assumed the claims of American citizens' against Mexico.
B) Mexico agreed to cede Texas and California, but was allowed to lease New Mexico for twenty-five years.
C) Mexico was to pay an indemnity of $15 million for war damages.
D) Mexico agreed to form a democratic government and execute the leaders who had made war on the U.S.
E) All of these choices

Question 22

In the Mexican-American War, the Mexican armies

A) collapsed instantly in the face of a massive American offensive.
B) were able to hold off the American advance for nine months because they had four times as many troops as the Americans.
C) fought bravely and stubbornly, but unsuccessfully.
D) after being reinforced by French troops, were slaughtered at the Battle of Chapultepec.
E) offered little resistance, because most Mexican soldiers were hired mercenaries.

Question 23

"Manifest Destiny" is the belief that the United States had

A) a God-given right to exist as a nation
B) an obligation to spread American ideals across the continent
C) a destiny to conquer the world
D) an opportunity to replace greed with benevolence
E) to be willing to serve as a mediator between warring countries

Question 24

Who led the American forces that helped seize California from Mexico?

A) John Sutter
B) John O'Sullivan
C) John Slidell
D) John Frémont
E) John Sloat

Question 25

What was the Free-Soil Party's campaign slogan?

A) "Free Soil for All"
B) "Free Trade, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men"
C) "Free Men All"
D) "Free To The End"
E) "Free States, Free Territories"

Question 26

According to the doctrine of "popular sovereignty, or "squatter sovereignty,"

A) residents of a territory should be allowed to decide whether or not to permit slavery.
B) territories should extend the right to vote to all male settlers in the Far West.
C) territories should have the right to expand their territory.
D) the United States should rule Mexico directly.
E) native Indian peoples had a right to hold on to the lands they were already cultivating.

Question 27

In the Mexican-American War, why was the United States victorious in virtually all its encounters with Mexican forces?

A) Santa Anna refused to risk his troops in a direct fight.
B) The United States possessed superior artillery and supplies.
C) American generals employed the new military doctrine of "the static army" and remained in one location, forcing the Mexicans to travel hundreds of miles to encounter them.
D) the American army outnumbered the Mexicans at virtually every battle.
E) President Polk reassigned half of Winfield Scott's forces to General Taylor.

Question 28

Why did John C. Calhoun believe that the federal government had no power to prohibit slavery in the Mexican Cession?

A) He said that no federal rules or regulations had ever addressed the issue of slavery in American territories.
B) He believed that free states already had enough territory.
C) He believed that slaves were property, and the Constitution protected the right to property.
D) He said that since slavery had been legal in the territory when it was Mexican, slavery should continue to be legal now.
E) He argued that the resolution by Congressman David Wilmot had specifically settled the issue.

Question 29

Which of the following is an accurate statement about San Francisco during the gold rush?

A) There were approximately six times as many females as males in San Francisco.
B) Italians comprised the largest group of foreign-born residents of San Francisco.
C) Because of the need for menial labor, the city's black population was proportionally large.
D) Chinese immigrants took over most of the city's political positions.
E) Ethnic and racial tensions were high.

Question 30

President James K. Polk's objectives in Oregon included

A) a division of the territory at the 49th parallel.
B) war with Britain to acquire the territory to 54° 40'.
C) a division of the territory along the Columbia River
D) swapping British territory in Oregon for French territory in the Caribbean.
E) a peaceful, joint Anglo-American occupation of the territory.

Question 31

Empresarios were

A) land agents who worked for Mexico to recruit American settlers to come to Texas.
B) Mexican forts in Texas.
C) the Mexican territorial governors in the Southwest territories.
D) Mexican priests who ran missions in Texas and California.
E) Mexican women who owned land in Texas.

Question 32

What did President James K. Polk want from Mexico in 1845 and 1846?

A) A peaceful agreement similar to the Oregon compromise
B) Mexican recognition of an independent Texas with a southern border at the Nueces River
C) Acquisition from Mexico of California and New Mexico
D) Access to the port of Matamoras
E) All of these choices

Question 33

What military leader in the Mexican-American War became a national hero and eventually president?

A) Zachary Taylor
B) Winfield Scott
C) Robert E. Lee
D) John C. Frémont
E) John D. Sloat

Question 34

The fate of the Donner party demonstrated

A) how important it was to cooperate with the Indians.
B) how difficult it was for groups of families to successfully cross the Great Plains.
C) the unreliability of published guide books about the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
D) the high moral principles and ethical values of emigrants on the Overland Trail.
E) the limited ability of poor families to reach the far west.

Question 35

What was the Wilmot Proviso?

A) It was a stipulation that slavery be prohibited in any territory acquired in the negotiations with Mexico.
B) It was a legislative amendment that said that the United States should acquire only Texas as a result of the Mexican-American War.
C) It was a plea to apply the terms of the Missouri Compromise to any territory acquired from Mexico.
D) It was a law that provided free Texas land to former slaves who were willing to relocate.
E) It was a request to outlaw slavery in Texas if the United States won the Mexican-American War.

Question 36

From the point of view of the Whig party in 1848, why was Zachary Taylor an ideal candidate for president?

A) He was a Louisiana slaveholder and would therefore appeal to the South.
B) He would have broad national appeal because he was a Mexican-American War hero.
C) He had no connection to Clay's American System, which the party was trying to abandon.
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices

Question 37

Who led the Texas army that defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto?

A) Jim Bowie
B) Davey Crockett
C) Sam Houston
D) Stephen F. Austin
E) Henry Dallas