...23rd, 2014 Expansion War and Sectional Crisis What ideas did the term Manifest Digest reflect? Did it cause historical events such as the new political supports for territorial expansion, or was it merely a description of events? * In 1845, John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase Manifest Destiny; he felt that Americans had a right to develop the entire continent as they saw fit, which implied a sense of cultural and racial superiority. It was an idea that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. This led to “Oregon fever” The Oregon country stretched along the Pacific coast from the border with Mexican California to the border with Russian Alaska and was claimed by both Great Britain and the United States. “Oregon fever” raged in 1843 as thousands, lured by reports of fine harbors, mild climate, and fertile soil, journeyed for months across the continent to the Willamette Valley. 250,000 Americans had braved the Oregon Trail by 1860; many died en route from disease and exposure, although relatively few died from Indian attacks. Some of those pioneers veered off and went down to California, namely Sacramento River. To promote California’s development, the Mexican government took over the California missions and liberated the 20,000 Indians who worked on them, many of whom intermarried with mestizos and worked as laborers and cowboys on large cattle ranches. The rise of cattle ranching created a new society and economy as agents from New England firms...
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...Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, the colonization of California progressed with increased grants of rancho lands by the Mexican governors (Bean and Rawls 1983:54). Ranchos closer to the coast were generally located in the areas of the missions, but in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Valleys, rivers tended to determine rancho locations. Rancho Sanjón de Santa Rita (Rancho Santa Rita), situated along the southwestern banks and sloughs of the San Joaquin River in present-day south-central Merced County, was granted to Francisco Sobrones in 1841. Five years later, Juan Pérez Pacheco and José María Mejía received the grant to Rancho San Luís Gonzaga (Rancho San Luis), much of which was located in present-day western Merced County. Pacheco constructed his home along the Arroyo de San Luís Gonzaga. During this period, Anglo-American exploration of the area appears to have been limited to John C. Fremont’s party, which traveled portions of the San Joaquin River in present-day Merced and Madera Counties in 1844 (Kyle...
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...CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA An Interpretive History TENTH EDITION James J. Rawls Instructor of History Diablo Valley College Walton Bean Late Professor of History University of California, Berkeley TM TM CALIFORNIA: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY, TENTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2008, 2003, and 1998. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1234567890 QFR/QFR 10987654321 ISBN: 978-0-07-340696-1 MHID: 0-07-340696-1 Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Michael Ryan Vice President EDP/Central Publishing Services: Kimberly Meriwether David Publisher: Christopher Freitag Sponsoring Editor: Matthew Busbridge Executive Marketing Manager: Pamela S. Cooper Editorial Coordinator: Nikki Weissman Project Manager: Erin Melloy Design Coordinator: Margarite Reynolds Cover Designer: Carole Lawson Cover Image: Albert Bierstadt, American (born...
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