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Maine Dispute, Oregon Fever. AP U.S 1. British Hate. U.S hatred of Britain during the 19 th century came about periodically and had to be ended by a treaty or war Anti-British feelings were due to several reasons 1- Memories of two previous wars
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Maine Dispute, Oregon Fever AP U.S 1
British Hate • U.S hatred of Britain during the 19th century came about periodically and had to be ended by a treaty or war • Anti-British feelings were due to several reasons • 1- Memories of two previous wars • 2- pro-British federalists had died out, to those Jacksonian Democrats • 3- British travelers spoke poorly of American “tobacco spitting, slave auctioneering, lynching, and other unsavory features”
War of the pen • America at the time was a borrowing nation, Britain a lending nation • A provocative incident on the Canadian frontier brought passions to a boil in 1837 • American steamer, Caroline, was attacked on the Niagara River • Only 1 American was killed
More tension • In 1841 in the Bahamas, British officials offered asylum to 130 Virginia slaves who rebelled and captured American ship the Creole • These several events and feelings combined to create a very tension filled century between these two countries
Manipulating the Maine Maps • Controversy in 1840s involved Maine boundary dispute • British wanted to build road from Halifax to Quebec • Proposed route ran through disputed territory • Tough lumberjacks from Maine and Canada entered disputed land and ugly fights occur • Titled “Aroostook War” • Britain sent a statesman to the U.S to negotiate and they eventually do
Arrangement • Basically, they split the difference so Americans retained about 7,000 square miles of the 12,000 total • British got less land but won the Halifax-Quebec route • Overlooked bonus in the same treaty • The British in adjusting the boundary farther west, surrendered 6,500 square miles which was later found to contain priceless Mesabi iron ore of Minnesota • SO HA CANADA!
Oregon Fever Populates Oregon • So called Oregon Country was an enormous wildernes • Went from west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean • North of California to the line of 54-40 the present southern tip of the Alaska panhandle • All of parts of the area were at one time claimed by four nations: Spain, Russia, Britain and the U.S • Two eventually drop out: Spain got rid of its share in the Florida Treaty of 1819 • Russia retreated to 54-40 by treaties of 1824 and 25 with U.S and Britain
Best colonizing effect of Britain was the Hudson’s Bay Company which traded with Indians of Pacific Northwest for furs • U.S presence was strengthened by missionaries and other settlers • These missionaries were instrumental in saving Oregon for the United States • They stimulated interest in a faraway land that many Americans earlier assumed would not be settled for centuries
PEACE • Scattered American and British pioneers lived peacefully side by side • By 1846 about 5,000 Americans had settled south of the Columbia River • Some of them “border ruffians” experts with bowie knifes and “revolving pistols” • British could only muster about 700 subjects north of Columbia River
Curious Fact • Only a relatively small segment of Oregon Country was actually controversial by 1845 • Area in dispute was quad-rangle between the Columbia River on the south and east, 49th parallel on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the west • This becomes a big part of the election of 1844 along with several other issues such as Manifest Destiny, Texas, etc.
Californios • At the conclusion of the Mexican War, there were about 13,000 descendants of Spanish and Mexican conquerors who had once ruled California • AKA: Californios • Spanish first arrived in California in 1769 • They outraced Russian traders to bountiful San Franciscan Bay • Father Junipero Serra established 21 missions along the coast
Indians were encouraged to adapt Christianity and sometimes were forced to become farmers and herders while suffering from disease, etc. • Oftentimes these maltreated Indians were part of the lowest rung of the Spanish society • Californios were high up on that “ladder”
Transfer of Power • They were pioneers from the Mexican heartland of New Spain, they traveled to California • Mexico emptied its jails and sent settlers to the barely populated north and gave power from the missions over to governmental authorities • This program ended the immense power of the missions • During the 1830s the power of the missions weakened, and much of their land was given to Californios
Californios glory faded when Americans won the War with Mexico • They were overwhelmed by a rush of white gold rushers (87,000) after Sutter’s Mill discovery in 1848 • Starting in 1910 hundreds of thousands of young Mexicans would flock into California and the southwest • However the land was much different than years before when the Californio ancestors settled it