Brigham Young and the Mormon Trail- Brigham Young took over after Smith dies in Missouri by the mob- Young starts the plan to move west, to get away from the US and the people in the US- He wanted place to start his own society and ways of life- Young goes to Jim Bridger, a fur trapper, and asks where they can settle that away from the people in the US and he tells them the Great Salt Lakes- Young doesn’t like this because the lakes are full of salt and they would have no water, but Bridger tells them how the land is fertile and they can use the snow on the mountains for water- In 1847 the Young and the Mormons head off to the west, it was the largest single movement of people in the west- The Mormons set advanced groups ahead to set up base camps and to start farming so that when the regular folk get there everything would be set up for them and be ok for thewinter- But when the people got there it was a hard time for them, large amount of crickets and grasshoppers found their way into the crops the advance groups had set up and it look like the whole trip was going to be a bust- A flock of seagulls magically come by and eat all the grasshoppers and crickets, and the Mormons are saved and start setting up irrigation systems through the mountains- Another setback was after the Mormons settled down word came from the US that the land was owned by the US and now they are a part of the US- The Mormons wanted to name their state Deseret, and have their flag to have a honey beeon it, but when they sent this word to the US they said no, the land was going to be calledUtah but the US does give Young the title of Governor of Utah- Conflict come about because of this, because when people start to move to Utah, they find that the church ran everything in the town and no one outside the church could set upshop in Utah, and when the US sent officials to Utah no one listened to them because the church ran everything in Utah- The Republican party in this same year ran on anti-slavery and anti-polygamy and this doesn’t go over well with the people in Utah, and when officials went there to change Utah, the official were run out of town- The US government hears about the officials being run out and they send a military groupto change but they got stuck in the mountains and when they reached Utah, Young saw how bad they were and agreed to the Republicans demands, this conflict was also known as The Mormon War of 1857- Another accident happened when a militia group was marching near Utah on a mountain ridge and they camp there and when they are camping there a Mormon militia comes in and kills most of the troops (123 out of 140)- The battle was called the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the US government hears about this and rounds up the Mormons that did it and kills all of that, and the governmentisn’t done there, they force the Mormons to give up control of most of their land and made them change most of their laws and ways of lifeMexican-American War- After the Louisiana purchase, the Mexican-American war was the next largest land grab by the US, it allowed the US to obtain land that is now known as the lower 48 state- James K. Polk (1845-1849)o Was elected president in 1844o Became Andrew Jackson’s right hand mano Because of Jackson, Polk was elected to take over after himo The big issue during this election was if Texas was going to be let into the US, and by letting them in allowing them into the US as a slave stateo There was also a struggle over what Texas thought they owned as land and what Mexico thought that Texas owned in land, the US has to pick what they think is right on the land rightso John Tyler the president before Polk, was the last Virginia state President, and in late 1845 Texas was allowed into the US and this is the same time Polk is being elected into the Presidencyo Polk ran on the “54’40” or Fight” meaning the at the 54’40 meridian was the top part of the US and Great Britain says no is the 42th meridian, and this almost comes to a full scale battle between themo Polk see that he will have to fight two wars if he keep up this tactic he ran on, so he works with Great Britain and they work out that they will agree on the 49th meridian as the boundary lineo Polk agrees with this and send the army to Texas, that was going to Canada to fight, and he also sends an Ambassador to talk with the Mexican officials, to buy all of Mexico’s northern territories and the disputed lando The Mexican officials do not agree to this, so there is a standoff between the US army and the Mexican army, and Polk tells the US army to move into the disputedland and set up a territory for the USo The army does and it goes over well until, May 11 1846, when a Mexican militia group kills a cavalry men, and Polk with the government declare war on Mexico, this is a backlash for Polk because the Whig party thinks that he drew the Mexican army into attackingo Polk did try set up peace talk, with Mexico and he sends Santa Anna to talk with the Mexican Official but when Santa Anna gets there he takes over Mexico and declares war on the USo The US army had 10,000 soldiers, whereas the Mexican army had 100,000 troops,but Polk had a trick up his sleeve, he had sent troops to California before talks with Mexico startedo John C. Fremont was sent to California to lead the troops to attack Mexicoo Stephen W. Kearny was sent to Mexico to attack them and to gain as much land as they could before Mexico talked of peaceo Polk tells Fremont that if he get New Mexico that he will promote him no matter what, and Fremont says ok he will do it o The people in California and New Mexico did not rely on Mexico for anything and they had a hatred for them because they did not get any support from Mexico,for goods, or troops to defend them against Indian raidso The people in California and New Mexico relied on the Santa Fe Trail to get supplies from the US and so when war talk started the sided with the USo When Pike came back to the US, he told everyone about hot they could get rich from the Santa Fe Trailo It wasn’t until Becker came along and found soldiers from Mexico that needed supplies and so he started to 60 supply trains and he and his made a 600% profit on all the supplies they sold in Santa