DC Hist 1301 Multiple Choice

Prior to Mexico becoming an independent nation in 1821, Texas was

• an independent republic

• one of the American states.

• a French territory

• a part of Mexico and owned by Spain.

What sort of racial tensions, if any, emerged as white Americans first settled in Mexico and the Spanish West during the first half of the nineteenth century?

• Even more than the acquisition of land, white expansionists were eager to incorporate the people of Mexico as citizens to grow the population of their settlements.

• Minimal racial tensions developed because white Americans had formed agreements with Native Americans to venture across their lands.

• White Americans brought enslaved African Americans with them to Mexico and the West, and they treated Hispanics essentially the same as whites.

• Many white Americans were as prejudiced toward Hispanics as they were toward Native Americans and African Americans.

What effect did Mexico’s winning its independence from Spain have on American settlement in the Southwest?

• American settlement and expansion into the former Spanish territories increased after Mexico gained independence.

• American settlers were immediately and forcibly removed from all Mexican territories.

• Patterns of American settlement of the former Spanish, now Mexican, territories remained unchanged.

• The establishment of the new Mexican state made settlement in its territories more difficult.

Most of the American settlers in Texas went there because of

• legal problems in the United States.

• fertile, inexpensive lands.

• trading opportunities with the Indians and the Mexicans.

• the prominence of the fur trade.

What was the primary reason for pioneers’ movement West?

• to lead an isolated lifestyle devoid of capitalistic influences

• to seek to improve their lot economically, such as by farming, mining, and hunting

• to settle an uninhabited expanse of land, introducing its first cultural traditions

• to adopt and preserve Hispanic traditions that offered an alluring contrast to the eastern states

Which of the following statements accurately describes the actions of Stephen F. Austin?

• He was a prominent Mexican official who encouraged the emigration of Americans to Texas because they would help grow industry there.

• His decision to bring a group of Anglo settlers to Texas without the permission of the Mexicans sparked a major war.

• He obtained a grant to start a slaveless Anglo “colony” in Texas meant to serve as a so-called buffer between Native Americans and Mexicans.

• He actively urged Texans to revolt against the United States because he believed the state should not have to pay taxes.

Why did the Mexican government attempt to curtail the American settlement of Texas?

• Food resources in the region were already scarce, which the Mexican government feared would result in intense competition with the Americans for basic resources.

• The Americans had adopted the Mexican identity as their own to such a degree that the Mexican government feared Mexico would not reap the benefits of Americanization.

• The Mexican government worried about the intentions of the Americans living there, namely the possibility of their conspiring with the United States to take Texas.

• The Mexican government feared it would spark a war with Napoléon, who continued to have a stake in the South and held control of most of Louisiana.

Which of the following was true of the Wilmot Proviso?

• It would extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.

• Both houses of Congress approved it.

• It was clearly unconstitutional.

• It would prohibit slavery in any lands acquired from Mexico.

What was President James Polk’s role in the controversy surrounding the Wilmot Proviso?

• He enthusiastically supported it in order to protect the interests of slaveholders and the economy.

• He dismissed it as an attempt to contain slavery and argued it was unrelated to the Mexican-American War.

• He pushed Congress to pass it because he believed it would help keep the Union together.

• He argued against it so persuasively that Wilmot’s idea would have little influence on the Civil War.

Which of the following elements did the Compromise of 1850 include in its final version?

• It confirmed the border between New Mexico and Texas and ended the slave trade, but not slavery, in Washington, D.C.

• It weakened the Fugitive Slave Act to protect runaway slaves who had managed to reach the North from being returned to the South.

• It admitted Utah as a slave state because this would enforce the role of the federal government in creating such distinctions.

• It granted Texas more territory out of recognition for the heroism citizens there had shown during the Mexican-American War.