STUDY QUESTIONS

CALIFORNIA:  AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY (8th Ed.)

CHAPTER 7  -  THE AMERICAN CONQUEST

1. What was President Andrew Jackson's interest in acquiring California?

2. How did American suspicions of Great Britain play a large part in American thinking regarding California in the 1840s?

3. What did the Jones Incident of 1842 demonstrate?

4. Which countries during the early 1840s showed an interest in acquiring California?

5. Who was Eugene McNamara and what did he propose?

6. What was President James Polk's two-track plan to try and acquire California for the U.S.?

7. Who was John C. Fremont?  What was his role in the American Bear Flag Revolt?

8. Why did Col. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo have no objection to his arrest by American filibusters at the bear Flag Revolt?  How did his imprisonment hurt the American cause?

9. According to the text, what two things did Fremont accomplish through the Bear Flag Revolt?

10. Los Angeles was initially occupied without resistance in August 1846, but then rebelled.  What led to its revolt and how did it rapidly spread through Southern California?

11. When did resistance to American occupation of California end?

12. What was the main reason for the war between Mexico and the United States?

Key Names, Terms, and Concepts