• Characterize the state of American science and technology in the mid-nineteenth century as reflected in the American exhibits at the Crystal Palace.

• Describe the contributions of American inventors and the federal government to scientific and technological advances.

• Show how competing demands for westward expansion and antislavery reshaped the political system during the 1850s and led to the rise of a new party, the Republicans.

• Chart the escalation of the sectional crisis, beginning with the election of 1856 and ending with the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for president.

• Describe the four candidates who ran for president in 1860, their proposals, their constituencies, and the eventual election result.

1838–42 Lieutenant Charles Wilkes’s United States Exploring Expedition.

1848 American Association for the Advancement of Science founded in Philadelphia.

1848–61 Federal government surveys the West in "The Great Reconnaissance."

1850 Compromise of 1850.

Order of the Star-Spangled Banner (Know-Nothings) founded in New York.

1851 London’s Crystal Palace exhibition.

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Franklin Pierce defeats Winfield Scott in the presidential election.

Whig Party begins disintegrating.

1854 Ostend Manifesto divulges American plans to seize Cuba from Spain.

Gadsden Purchase from Mexico provides a route for a southern railroad.

Commodore Matthew Perry undertakes diplomatic mission to Japan.

Kansas-Nebraska Act reopens Louisiana Territory to slavery.

Republican Party founded on antislavery platform.

1855–60 Thirteen-volume Pacific Railroad Reports published.

1856 John Brown commits the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas.

Preston Brooks canes Charles Sumner in the Senate.

Know-Nothing Party divides into "North Americans" and "South Americans."

James Buchanan defeats John C. Frémont and Millard Fillmore in presidential election.

1857 Dred Scott decision undermines free-soil movement.

Panic of 1857 begins.

1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates win support for Republican cause and Abraham Lincoln.

1859 John Brown launches raid on national armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1860 Lincoln is elected president in four-way race with less than 40 percent of the popular vote.