Nation of Nations 3/e Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, and Stoff
	Online Learning Center

KEY EVENTS

1834 McCormick patents mechanical reaper: increased production of wheat

1837 John Deere patents steel plow: western prairies opened to farming

1840-1860 Expansion of railroad network: western trade reoriented toward the East

1846-1854 Mass immigration to United States: nativist feeling intensifies

1849-1860 Cotton boom: southern prosperity in the 1850s

1850 Illinois Central is first land grant railroad: governments aid permits railroad construction in the sparsely populated west

1852 Pierce elected president

1853 Gadsden Purchase: U.S. obtains land from Mexico for a proposed southern transcontinental railroad route

Know Nothings begin expanding: advent of a third party unified by anti-immigrant feelings

1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act passed: repeal of Missouri Compromise produces great northern outcry

Republican party founded: sectional party tries to capitalize on anti-Nebraska sentiment in the North

Ostend Manifesto: group of American ministers advocate taking Cuba by force if Spain will not sell the island

Peak of immigration

1854-1855 Height of Know Nothings’ popularity: corresponds to peak of immigration

1855 Fighting begins in Kansas: increases sectional tensions

Republican party organizes in key northern states: but makes little headway against the Know Nothings

1856 Free State "government" established in Kansas: reaction to election fraud by proslavery forces

Sack of Lawrence: strengthens the Republican party

Caning of Charles Sumner: incident strengthens the Republican party

Pottawattomie massacre: violence escalates in Kansas as a result of John Brown's murders

First railroad bridge built across the Mississippi: railroads tighten economic links binding the north and west

Buchanan elected president: Democrats narrowly beat back the Republican challenge

1857-1861 Panic and depression: Democrats weakened by economic downturn

1857 Dred Scott decision: ruling that Congress cannot prohibit slavery from a territory creates a political furor

Lecompton Constitution drafted: recognizes the legality of slavery in Kansas

1858 Congress rejects Lecompton Constitution: Democratic party badly divided along sectional lines

Lincoln-Douglas debates: establish Lincoln as a national Republican leader

1859 John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry: southern fears, disunion sentiment intensify

1860 Democratic party ruptures at Charleston: party divides along sectional lines

Lincoln elected president: first national triumph of a sectional antislavery party

South Carolina secedes

1861 Rest of Deep South secedes

Confederate States of America established

Crittenden Compromise defeated: hopes for peaceful settlement dashed

War begins at Fort Sumter: Confederacy resists Lincoln's effort to resupply the fort

Upper South secedes: four more states, led by Virginia, join the Confederacy

Copyright ©1998 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
For further information about this site contact mhhe_webmaster@mcgraw-hill.com.