Compromises + Acts

Causes

• By 1818, Missouri had enough population to join the Union, and the issue was will Missouri be a slave or free states. Missouri caused division in the Congress, because only one house agreed to emancipate slaves in Missouri.
• The U.S. annexed Texas in 1845 and the Mexican-American War began in 1846, because of the annexation of Texas to the Union. The war ended in 1848 with the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty. Territories gain from the Mexican-American War were New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Determining if the states would be slave or free was the issue.
• After the Compromise of 1850, Kansas and Nebraska were still undecided for slave or free. Stephen Douglas proposed popular sovereignty to both states.

Effects

• Missouri Compromise was passed by Congress in 1820, therefore Missouri was added to the Union as a slave state, and Maine would be a free state. An imaginary line: 36°30′ line was created and used to separate free and slave states in the Louisiana Territory. North of the line was free and South of the line was slavery. 
• Compromise of 1850 was passed in 1850 after the Mexican American War and the annexation of Mexican states. The importance of the Compromise of 1850 was the set a rule for the new states. California would be a free state, a stricter Fugitive Slave Law, Texas would be a slave state, and Washington D.C. would end slavery.
• Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 gave the rights to the people living in Kansas and Nebraska to choose between slave or free state.

Map of Missouri Compromise

Map of Compromise 1850