Editing 1840s (section)

=== North America ===

==== Canada ====

In the prior decade, the desire for [[responsible government]] resulted in the abortive [[Rebellions of 1837–1838]]. The [[Report on the Affairs of British North America|Durham Report]] subsequently recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.<ref name=Buckner>{{cite book|title=Canada and the British Empire|editor= Buckner, Philip|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|pages=37–40, 56–59, 114, 124–125|isbn=978-0-19-927164-1}}</ref> The [[Act of Union 1840]] merged the Canadas into a united [[Province of Canada]] and responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Romney|first=Paul|date=Spring 1989|title=From Constitutionalism to Legalism: Trial by Jury, Responsible Government, and the Rule of Law in the Canadian Political Culture|journal=Law and History Review|volume=7|issue=1|page=128|doi=10.2307/743779|jstor=743779|s2cid=147047853 }}</ref> The signing of the [[Oregon Treaty]] by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the [[Oregon boundary dispute]], extending the border westward along the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]]. This paved the way for British colonies on [[Colony of Vancouver Island|Vancouver Island (1849)]] and in [[Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)|British Columbia (1858)]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Evenden|first=Leonard J|author2=Turbeville, Daniel E|title=Geographical snapshots of North America|editor=Janelle, Donald G|publisher=Guilford Press|year=1992|page=[https://archive.org/details/geographicalsnap0000unse/page/52 52]|chapter=The Pacific Coast Borderland and Frontier|isbn=978-0-89862-030-6|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/geographicalsnap0000unse/page/52}}</ref>
* [[March 11]], [[1848]] – [[Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine]] and [[Robert Baldwin]] became the first [[Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada]] to be democratically elected under a system of [[responsible government]].
* [[April 25]], [[1849]] – [[James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin]], the [[Governor General of Canada]], signs the [[Rebellion Losses Bill]], outraging [[Montreal]]'s [[English-Canadian|English]] population and triggering the [[Montreal Riots]].

==== United States ====
* [[January 18]], [[1840]] – ''The Electro-Magnetic and Mechanics Intelligencer'' used electricity for power of the [[Printing press|press to print]] it.
* [[February 18]], [[1841]] – The first ongoing [[filibuster]] in the [[United States Senate]] begins and lasts until [[March 11]].
* [[August 16]], [[1841]] – U.S. President [[John Tyler]] vetoes a [[Bill (law)|bill]] which called for the re-establishment of the [[Second Bank of the United States]]. Enraged [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] members riot outside the [[White House]] in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
* March – [[Commonwealth v. Hunt]]: the Massachusetts Supreme Court makes strikes and unions legal in the United States.
* [[May 19]], [[1842]] – [[Dorr Rebellion]]: Militiamen supporting [[Thomas Wilson Dorr]] attack the arsenal in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], but are repulsed.
* [[January 23]], [[1845]] – The [[United States Congress]] establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
* [[March 4]], [[1845]] – The [[United States Congress]] passes legislation overriding a presidential [[veto]] for the first time.
* [[February 26]], [[1846]] – The [[Liberty Bell]] is cracked while being rung for George Washington's birthday.
* [[March 1]], [[1847]] – The state of [[Michigan]] formally abolishes the [[death penalty]].
* [[March 4]], [[1847]] – The [[30th United States Congress]] is sworn into office.
[[File:First US Stamps 1847 Issue.jpg|thumb|300px|<div style="text-align: center;">The first U.S. postage stamps have portraits of [[Benjamin Franklin]] and [[George Washington]]. Though highly collectable, they are far from being the most valuable.</div>]]
* [[July 1]], [[1847]] – The United States issues its first [[postage stamp]]s ''(pictured)''.
* [[January 31]], [[1848]] – Construction of the [[Washington Monument]] begins in [[Washington, D.C.]]
* [[March 3]], [[1849]] – The [[United States Congress]] passes the [[Gold Coinage Act]] allowing the minting of [[gold]] [[coin]]s.

===== Slavery =====
* [[March 9]], [[1841]] – ''[[United States v. The Amistad|Amistad]]'': The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] rules in the case that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into [[slavery]] illegally.
* [[August 11]] (Wednesday) Frederick Douglass spoke in front of the [[Anti-Slavery Convention]] in [[Nantucket, Massachusetts]].
* May – [[Frederick Douglass]]'s ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]]'' written by himself is published by the [[Boston]] Anti-Slavery Society.

===== Settlement =====
[[File:USA Territorial Growth 1850.jpg|thumb|300px|United States territorial growth from 1840 to 1850]]
* [[May 11]], [[1841]] – [[Charles Wilkes|Lt. Charles Wilkes]] lands at [[Fort Nisqually]] in [[Puget Sound]].
* [[August 4]], [[1842]] – The [[Armed Occupation Act]] is signed, providing for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the Peninsula of [[East Florida]].
* [[August 9]], [[1842]] – The [[Webster–Ashburton Treaty]] is signed, settling the dispute over the location of the [[Maine]]–[[New Brunswick]] [[Canada–United States border|border between the United States and Canada]], and establishing the United States–Canada border east of the [[Rocky Mountains]].
* [[May 22]], [[1843]] – The first major [[wagon train]] headed for the American Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from [[Elm Grove, Missouri]], on the [[Oregon Trail]].
* [[March 3]], [[1845]] – [[Florida]] is admitted as the 27th [[U.S. state]].
* [[December 2]], [[1845]] – [[Manifest destiny]]: U.S. President [[James K. Polk]] announces to Congress that the [[Monroe Doctrine]] should be strictly enforced and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
* [[December 29]], [[1845]] – [[Texas]] is admitted as the 28th [[U.S. state]].
* [[June 15]], [[1846]] – The [[Oregon Treaty]] establishes the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] as the border between the United States and Canada, from the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]].
* [[1846]] – The portion of the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] that was ceded by [[Virginia]] in [[1790]] is re-ceded to [[Virginia]].
* [[December 28]], [[1846]] – [[Iowa]] is admitted as the 29th [[U.S. state]].
* [[July 24]], [[1847]] – After 17 months of travel, [[Brigham Young]] leads 148 [[Mormon pioneers]] into [[Salt Lake Valley]], resulting in the establishment of [[Salt Lake City]].[[File:Flag of Wisconsin.svg|thumb|[[May 29]]: [[Wisconsin]] admitted as the 30th [[U.S. state]].]]
* [[May 29]], [[1848]] – [[Wisconsin]] is admitted as the 30th [[U.S. state]].
* [[1848]] – The [[Illinois and Michigan Canal]] is completed.
* [[March 3]], [[1849]] – [[Minnesota]] becomes a [[Territories of the United States|United States territory]]

===== Native Americans =====
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce was predicted to have been born in the 1840s.

===== Presidents =====
The United States had five different Presidents during the decade. Only the [[1880s]] would have as many. [[Martin Van Buren]] was president when the decade began, but was defeated by [[William Henry Harrison]] in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1840|U.S. presidential election of 1840]]. Harrison's service was the shortest in history, starting with [[Inauguration of William Henry Harrison|his inauguration]] on March 4, 1841, and ending when he died on April 4, 1841.

Harrison's vice president, [[John Tyler]], replaced him as President (the first such Presidential succession in U.S. history), and served out the rest of his term. Tyler spent much of his term in conflict with the Whig party. He ended his term having made an alliance with the Democrats, endorsing [[James K. Polk]] and signing the resolution to annex Texas into the United States.

In the [[1844 United States presidential election|Presidential election of 1844]], [[James K. Polk]] defeated [[Henry Clay]]. During his presidency, Polk oversaw the U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War and subsequent annexation of what is now the southwest United States. He also negotiated a split of the Oregon Territory with Great Britain.
[[File:ElectoralCollege1848-Large.png|thumb|180px|[[November 7]]: [[U.S. presidential election, 1848|The first US presidential election held in every state on the same day]] sees [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] [[Zachary Taylor]] of [[Virginia]] defeat [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Lewis Cass]] of [[Michigan]].]]
In the [[1848 United States presidential election|U.S. presidential election of 1848]], [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] [[Zachary Taylor]] of [[Louisiana]] defeated [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Lewis Cass]] of [[Michigan]]. Taylor's term in office was cut short by his death in 1850.

===== California =====
{{Main|Alta California|Mexican Cession|California Gold Rush}}
In the first part of the 1840s, the modern state of [[California]] was part of a larger province of [[Mexico]], called "[[Alta California]]". The region included all of the modern American states of [[California]], [[Nevada]] and [[Utah]], and parts of [[Arizona]], [[Wyoming]], [[Colorado]] and [[New Mexico]].

The [[United States]], embarked on the [[Conquest of California]] in an early military campaign of the [[Mexican–American War]] in Alta California. The California Campaign was marked by a series of small battles throughout 1846 and early 1847. The [[Treaty of Cahuenga]] was signed on January 13, 1847, and essentially terminated hostilities in Alta California. Shortly thereafter, [[John C. Frémont]] was appointed Governor of the new [[California]] Territory, and [[Yerba Buena, California]], was renamed [[San Francisco]].

The [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], signed in February 1848, marked the end of the Mexican–American War. By the terms of the treaty, [[Mexican Cession|Mexico formally ceded]] Alta California along with its other northern territories east through [[Texas]], receiving [[USD|$]]15,000,000 in exchange. This largely unsettled territory constituted nearly half of its claimed territory with about 1% of its then population of about 4,500,000.<ref>Note: A new international boundary was drawn; [[San Diego Bay]] is one of the only two main natural harbors in California south of [[San Francisco Bay]]; the border was aligned from one Spanish league south of San Diego Bay east to the [[Gila River]] – [[Colorado River]] confluence, to include strategic San Diego and its harbor.</ref><ref>Two years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, U.S. statehood was granted in 1850.</ref>

The discovery of gold in [[Northern California]] (and subsequent discourse about that discovery in 1848) led to the [[California Gold Rush]]. In October 1848, the [[SS California (1848)|SS ''California'']] left [[New York Harbor]], rounded [[Cape Horn]] at the tip of South America, and arrived in [[San Francisco]] after the 4-month-21-day journey. Thereafter, regular [[steamboat]] service continued from the west to the east coast of the United States. During 1848, only an estimated 6,000 to 6,500 people traveled to California to seek gold that year.<ref name="Starr48">Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 50–54.</ref> By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. In 1849, an estimated 90,000 people arrived in [[California]] in 1849—of which 50,000 to 60,000 were from the United States.<ref name="Starr49note">Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57–61. Other estimates range from 70,000 to 90,000 arrivals during 1849 (''ibid.'' p. 57).</ref><ref name="Starr492">Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57–61.</ref> In 1850, [[California]] joined the union as the [[Order of U.S. statehood|31st state]].

==== Texas ====
{{main|Texas Annexation|History of Texas (1845–1860)}}

The [[Republic of Texas]] had [[Texas Declaration of Independence|declared independence]] in 1836, as part of breaking away from Mexico in the [[Texas Revolution]]. The following year, an ambassador from Texas approached the United States about the possibility of becoming an American state. Fearing a war with Mexico, which did not recognize Texas independence, the United States declined the offer.<ref>Richard Bruce Winders, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mcc9EciebFYC ''Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle over Texas''] (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), p. 41.</ref>

In 1844, [[James K. Polk]] was elected the United States president after promising to annex Texas. Before he assumed office, the outgoing president, [[John Tyler]], entered negotiations with Texas. On February 26, 1845, six days before Polk took office, the U.S. Congress approved the annexation. The Texas legislature approved annexation in July 1845 and constructed a [[Constitution of the State of Texas|state constitution]]. In October, Texas residents approved the annexation and the new constitution, and Texas was officially inducted into the United States on December 29, 1845, as the 28th U.S. state.<ref>Fehrenbach, ''Lone Star'', pp. 264–267</ref> Mexico still considered Texas to be a renegade Mexican state, and never considered land south of the [[Nueces River]] to be part of Texas. This border dispute between the newly expanded United States and Mexico triggered the [[#Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]].

When the war concluded, Mexico relinquished its claim on Texas, as well as other regions in what is now the southwestern United States. Texas' annexation as a state that tolerated slavery had caused tension in the United States among slave states and those that did not allow slavery. The tension was partially defused with the [[Compromise of 1850]], in which Texas ceded some of its territory to the federal government to become non-slave-owning areas but gained El Paso.

==== Mexican–American War ====
{{Main|Mexican–American War}}[[File:Battle Molino del Rey.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Mexican–American War]]]] [[Territorial expansion of the United States|American territorial expansion]] to the [[Pacific coast of the United States|Pacific coast]] was a major goal of U.S. President [[James K. Polk]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfhAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA658|title=The United States and Mexico, vol. 2|last=Rives|year=1913|pages=658}}</ref> In 1845, the United States of America [[Texas Annexation|annexed Texas]], which had won independence from [[Centralist Republic of Mexico]] in the [[Texas Revolution]] of 1836. Mexico did not accept the annexation, while also continuing to claim the [[Nueces River]] as its border with Texas<s>,</s> and also still considering Texas to be a province of Mexico. In 1845, newly elected U.S. President [[James K. Polk]] sent troops to the disputed area, and a diplomatic mission to Mexico. After Mexican forces [[Thornton Affair|attacked American forces]], the U.S. declared the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846–1848).

Combat operations lasted a year and a half, from the spring of 1846 to the fall of 1847. U.S. forces quickly occupied the capital town of [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México]] along the upper Rio Grande and began the [[Conquest of California]] in Mexico's [[Alta California]] Department. They then invaded to the south into parts of central Mexico (modern-day northeastern Mexico and northwest Mexico). Meanwhile, the [[Pacific Squadron]] of the [[United States Navy]] conducted a blockade and took control of several garrisons on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast farther south in lower [[Baja California Territory]]. The U.S. Army eventually captured the capital [[Mexico City]], having marched west from the port of [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]], where the Americans staged their first amphibious landing on the [[Gulf of Mexico]] coast.

The 1848 [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], forced onto the remnant Mexican government, ended the war and specified its major consequence, the [[Mexican Cession]] of the northern territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México to the United States. The U.S. agreed to pay $15 million compensation for the physical damage of the war. In addition, the United States assumed $3.25 million of debt already owed earlier by the Mexican government to U.S. citizens. Mexico acknowledged the loss of their province, later the Republic of Texas (and now the [[Texas|State of Texas]]), and thereafter cited and acknowledged the Rio Grande as its future northern national border with the United States. Including Texas, Mexico ceded an area of approximately {{convert|2500000|km2}} – by its terms, around 55% of its former national territory.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=26|title=Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)}}</ref>

==== Mexico ====
{{See also|Territorial evolution of Mexico|Centralist Republic of Mexico|Antonio López de Santa Anna}}
The 1840s for Mexico were the end of the [[Centralist Republic of Mexico|centralist government]] and the waning years the "Age of Santa Anna". In 1834, President [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]] dissolved Congress, forming a new government. That government instituted the new Centralist Republic of Mexico by approving a new centralist constitution ("[[Siete Leyes]]"), From its formation in 1835 until its dissolution in 1846, the Centralist Republic was governed by eleven [[President of Mexico|presidents]] (none of which finished their term). It called for the state militias to disarm, but many states resisted, including [[Mexican Texas]], which won its independence in the [[Texas Revolution]] of 1836.

The [[Republic of the Rio Grande]] declared its independence from Mexico in January 1840. However, the border with Texas was never determined (whether the [[Nueces River]] or the [[Rio Grande]]). The new Republic fought a brief and unsuccessful war for independence, returning to Mexico late in the year.

In 1841, Generals [[Antonio López de Santa Anna|Santa Anna]] and [[Mariano Paredes (President of Mexico)|Paredes]] led a rebellion against [[Anastasio Bustamante|President Bustamante]], resulting in Santa Anna becoming president of the [[Centralist Republic of Mexico|centralist government]] for a fifth time . Local officials in Yucatán declared independence in 1841, opposing strong autocratic rule and demanding the restoration of the [[1824 Constitution of Mexico|Constitution of 1824]], thus establishing the second [[Republic of Yucatán]].

In 1842, the region of [[Soconusco]] was annexed by Mexico as part of the state of [[Chiapas]], following the dissolution of the [[Federal Republic of Central America]].

In 1846, [[Mariano Paredes (President of Mexico)|President Paredes]] and the Congress of Mexico declared war at the beginning of the Mexican–American War. Paredes' presidential successor was deposed in a coup, replaced by [[José Mariano Salas]]. Salas issued a new decree that restored the [[1824 Constitution of Mexico|Constitution of 1824]], ending the Centralist Republic and beginning the [[Second Federal Republic of Mexico]]. After the conclusion of the Mexican–American War, [[José Joaquín de Herrera]] became the second president of Mexico to finish his term (Mexico's first president completed his in 1829). It was during this time that Yucatán reunited with Mexico. A decisive factor for the reunion was the [[Caste War of Yucatán]] (a revolt by the indigenous [[Maya peoples|Maya]] population) for which Yucatán initially sought help from Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but ultimately reunited with Mexico for help.

Herrera peacefully turned over the presidency to the winner of the Federal Elections of 1850, General [[Mariano Arista]]. Despite being exiled from Mexico in 1848, Santa Anna would [[Antonio López de Santa Anna#President for the last time, 1853–1855|return to the presidency one last time]] during the [[1850s]].

==== El Salvador ====
* February – [[El Salvador]] proclaims itself an independent republic, bringing an end to the (already ''de facto'' defunct) [[Federal Republic of Central America]].