Chapter 13 Section 3 notes

Why did Americans take an interest in the New Mexico Territory?

New Mexico Territory

• Ruled by Mexico in the early 1840s.

• Included all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado.

What attracted Americans to parts of the New Mexico Territory?

• Reading books about the Southwest

• Trade—William Becknell led traders from Franklin, Missouri, to Santa Fe in present-day New Mexico. The route they followed became known as the Santa Fe Trail.

What was life like for Native Americans on California’s missions and ranches?

Missions RanchesSpanish missionaries built 21 missions along the California coast.Each mission included a church and the surrounding land.Each mission produced enough for its own needs. Missions also supplied meat, grain, and other foods to the forts nearby.Native Americans herded sheep and cattle and raised crops for the missions. Mission life was hard.Native Americans lived at the missions and learned about the Roman Catholic faith.

• To encourage economic growth, the Mexican government took land from the missions and gave it to wealthy people.

• These people set up huge cattle ranches, where Native Americans tended the cattle and other animals.

• The Indian and Mexican cowhands who worked on the ranches were called vaqueros. They were excellent riders and ropers. Their traditions influenced later cowhands.

Why did many Americans support the idea of westward expansion? Every year, more Americans moved west. The U.S. government offered to buy California

from Mexico. Some Americans wanted control of the ports at San Francisco and San Diego. Many people believed that Americans had a right and duty to spread their culture and its

democratic government all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This belief was called Manifest Destiny. Manifest means clear or obvious. Destiny means something that is sure to happen.

Many Americans believed that expansion would open new opportunities for the United States economy.

Some people believed that white Americans were superior to Native Americans and Mexicans and deserved to take the land from those people.