What events happened in the world during Franklin Pierce's presidency?

Answer 1

As president he was not much of a success. He vigorously pushed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which turned out to be a total failure, leading to a border war known as bleeding Kansas . Nebraska was sure to vote against slavery, so to keep the balance of slave and free states, pro-slavery people felt it was necessary to make Kansas a slave state. Besides rallies which brought in outside agitators and stirred up feelings, pro slavery thugs came in from Missouri to disrupt the election and abolitionists responded in kind. Pierce was much criticized for not sending in federal troops to stop the violence.

Pierce instigated an attempt to buy Cuba from Spain. His ministers in Europe eventually produced what became known as the Ostend Manifesto which demanded that Spain either sell Cuba to the US or lose it to a war with the US. After this document became public there was so much public outrage that he had to formally repudiate it. Besides causing a domestic and international uproar over the suggestion that the US would provoke a war to gain territory, Cuba was looked on as a potential slave state.

Pierce okayed the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico of a strip of land which is now the southern tip of Arizona and New Mexico for the purpose of building a transcontinental railroad there. (The building of a railroad was also part of the reason for the Kansas-Nebraska act. The government paid for surveys and cost-studies for a trans-continental railroad)

A rebellion in Nicaragua put a pro-slavery American in power there and the Pierce administration quickly recognized the new government there.

Maybe the best things he did:

Pierce reorganized the navy command and his able Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis put the army into good order. The treasury was well managed and the national debt was reduced from $67 million down to $31 million.

Answer 2

He sighned the kansas-nabraska act establishing new territorial govermment and ending the Missouri compromise. it provided that when the kansas and nabraska territories applied for statehood their citizens will determine whether or not the state will be free or slave
was he the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree

Answer 3

Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska act establishing a new territorial government and ending the Missouri Compromise. This act provided that when the Kansas and Nebraska territories applied for statehood their citizens would determine whether or not the state would be free or slave. Nebraska voted to be free with few problems, but serious riots and bloodshed occurred over the vote in Kansas. Pro-slavery people from out of state came in to rig the election and anti-slavery people responded in kind.