The 1800s: expansion, the Civil War and reform

The country grew very quickly in the first half of the century, by purchase, by treaty and by war.

• In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France, the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country.
• Lewis and Clark explored the new territory from 1804 to 1806, helped by Sacagawea, a Native American woman.
• The War of 1812 was fought against Great Britain, and during it Francis Scott Key wrote the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The Mexican–American War (1846–1848) gave the United States California and much of the South-West.
• Many people moved west, and the Native Americans were forced from their lands; the Trail of Tears (1830s) was the forced march of the Cherokee. The gold rush of 1849 brought people to California.
• Railroads, telegraph and new factories connected and changed the country. The first transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869.

The Civil War (1861–1865) was fought between the Northern states (the Union) and the Southern states (the Confederacy). It is the most asked event of the century.

• The main causes were slavery, economic reasons and states’ rights, that is, the question of how much power the states had.
• Abraham Lincoln was the president during the Civil War. He was elected in 1860, and the Southern states left the Union after his election.
• The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed the enslaved people in the Confederate states. The 13th Amendment (1865) ended slavery in the whole country.
• Important battles include Gettysburg (1863). Ulysses S. Grant led the Union army, and Robert E. Lee led the Confederate army. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865, and Lincoln was shot a few days later.
• After the war, Reconstruction tried to rebuild the South and to give rights to formerly enslaved people, with the 14th and 15th Amendments.

Exam tip: Civil War: 1861–1865; Lincoln; Emancipation 1863; 13th Amendment 1865.

Many Americans worked to end slavery and to win equal rights. Some of them are asked about in the test.

• Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a famous speaker and writer against slavery. Harriet Tubman helped many enslaved people escape on the Underground Railroad.
• Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights and the right to vote. The Seneca Falls convention (1848) was the first women’s rights convention.
• Women won the right to vote nationally in 1920, with the 19th Amendment.
• The 14th Amendment (1868) gave citizenship to people born in the United States and guaranteed equal protection of the laws.