| Term | Definition |
|---|
| frontier | the land that forms the farthest extent of a nation's settled regions |
| land grants | government's gifts of land |
| rancheros | owners of ranches |
| expansion | extending land beyond it's existing borders |
| William Becknell | led wagon train from Independance, Missouri, to Santa Fe, NM; 800 miles long; started Santa Fe Trail |
| John Jacob Astor | German; first fur-trading expedition to Oregon; established American Fur Company at Fort Astor |
| mountian men | fur trappers of the Northwest |
| rendezvous (RAHN day voo) | a meeting where trappers would trade fur and supplies |
| Marcus and Narcissa Whitman | went to Oregon to preach to the Cayuse Indians; had trouble; were not trusted |
| Stephen Austin | led a group of some 300 Americans into Texas |
| dictatorship | a one-person rule |
| siege | an attack in which one force surronds a city or fort |
| Sam Houston | led a small army in a surprise attack against Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto; shouted "Remember the Alamo!" |
| annex | to add on |
| James K. Polk | called for annexation of Texas and Oregon; became president in 1845 |
| cede | give up |
| John C. Frémont | took control of Bear Flag Rebellion |
| Joseph Smith | New York farmer |
| polygamy | the practice of having more then one wife at a time |
| Brigham Young | Mormon leader; led Mormons to Great Salt Lake in 1847; in the next few years some 15,000 more made the trip |
| forty-niners | name given to people who came to California in search of gold |
| water rights | legal rights to use the water in a river, stream, or other body |
| vigilantes | self appointed law enforcers |
| Oregon Trail | route that stretched from Missouri to Oregon; trip was hazardous; long trains of wagons |
| women (in the west) | worked alongside men; the West was faster to give rights to them; they were able to vote in the Wyoming Territory in 1869 |
| manifest destiny | the belief that the United States was to expand to the West as far as possible; to stretch from the two oceans |
| Oregon | the annexation of this state was a deal with the British; the United States got all of the land south of 49 degrees North; territory becomes the states of Washington, Oregon and part of Idaho |
| democratic | this is the kind of government that the Texans wanted, it started the Texan's war for independance |
| slave and free | these are the two kind of states that were in the Union; if Texas entered as one of these states, it would upset the balance |
| California | African Americans, Native Americans, Chinese, and otheres setteled into this state, making its population very diverse |
| Alamo | Santa Anna laid seige here, trying to squash the Texan's rebellion |
| Mexican-American War | the war in which President Polk provoked a Mexican attack on the US which sparked it; Northerners called it Mr. Polk's war |
| Santa Anna | became President of Mexico in 1833; overturned Mexico's constitution and set up a dictatorship; layed seige on the Alamo |
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