What was oregon before it became a state

The Oregon Territory stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains, encompassing the area including present-day Oregon, Washington, and most of British Columbia. In , under terms of the Transcontinental Treaty, Spain ceded its claims to the territory to the United States.

Shortly thereafter the United States contested a unilateral Russian move to grant its citizens a fishing, whaling, and commercial monopoly from the Bering Straits to the 51st parallel. In President Monroe promulgated his doctrine , which put Russia on notice that the United States did not accept Russian attempts at monopoly.

In reality, Indians moved from winter to summer villages and camps to hunt, fish and gather food. In turn, Indians did not understand white customs. As a result, Indian-white relations were marked by frequent skirmishes. In , Cayuse Indians attacked the Whitman mission at Waiilaptu and killed 14 people. The immediate cause of the attack was an epidemic of measles, brought by immigrants, which devasted the Indians.

They believed Marcus Whitman introduced the disease to get Indian lands and horses. More fundamentally, the conflict between the two cultures caused great tensions between Indians and whites. To make matters worse, as whites came into Oregon, their demands for land increased. The Whitman Massacre and settlers' demands for protection finally caused Congress to move on the issue of territorial status, and Oregon became a United States territory on Aug.

In , Congress passed the Donation Land Act, which recognized most land claims filed under the provisional government. Single white males over age 21 could claim acres. If married they could claim an additional acres for their wife. Widows could hold title to land, but single women could not. Territorial officials began their terms on March 3, , in Oregon City, when Oregon was still predominantly wilderness.

Homesteads usually consisted of one room log houses with vegetable gardens and a few acres planted in wheat. With little hard currency available, wheat was the primary medium of exchange.

Few roads existed, so water was the quickest way to move crops and supplies. Some settlers laid out townsites from their claims. After winning the election, Polk articulated his foreign policy goals: settlement of the Oregon dispute with Britain, annexation of Texas, and the acquisition of California from Mexico.

The acquisition of California represented a significant expansion of American interest in Mexican territory and promised to complicate an already tense Mexican-American relationship over Texas.

James Knox Polk. Migrants Travel West on the Oregon Trail. Roosevelt Arch. Inside the Gateway Arch. Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, which was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mids to emigrate west.

Nevada Nevada is the seventh largest of the 50 states, but is one of the most sparsely populated. West Virginia When the state of Virginia voted to secede from the United States during the Civil War , the people of the rugged and mountainous western region of the state opposed the decision and organized to form their own state, West Virginia, in support of the Union.

Oklahoma The land that today makes up Oklahoma was added to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase of Alaska The largest state in area of the United States, Alaska was admitted to the union as the 49th state in , and lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent.