View
1.246
Download
4
Category
Tags:
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
Manifest Destiny
US Westward Expansion
Manifest Destiny
• Popularized by newspaper editor, John L. Sullivan
• Expression of Americans’ unique mission • Belief in America as the vessel of the progress
of civilization
Manifest Destiny
• a combination of idealism and racism• took hold in the U.S. during the mid-19th C.• drove Americans to expand their nation across
the North American continent
James K. Polk
• 1845-1849• “Young Hickory”• Embodied the concept of
Manifest Destiny• US grew into a
continental nation under JKP
Results
• Territories Gained– Texas (annexed 1845)– Oregon Country (compromise of 1846)– Mexican Territory (annexed 1848)
“Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, contiguity….Our claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self government entrusted to us. It is a right such as of the tree to space of air and earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and growth….It is in our future more than our past, or in the past history of Spanish exploration or French colonial rights, that our True Title is to be found. Oregon can never be to England anything but a mere hunting ground for furs and peltries…In our hands it must fast fill in with a population destined to establish a noble young empire…”
Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
• More than a pathway to Oregon – the only practical corridor to entire western US
• Exceptionally difficult– 2,000 miles– 1 in 10 died– Many walked entirety in bare feet– Cholera, poor sanitation & accidental gunshots
were top causes of death (NOT Native Americans)
The Great Migration
• 1843 – began massive move• Westward wagon train• Btwn. 1843-1869, over ½ million people
migrated west– Some to Oregon (farmland)– Others to California (1849 Gold Rush)
• Died down in 1869 when transcontinental railroad was completed
US – Mexican War
• May 13, 1846 - Polk signed a declaration of war against Mexico
• Hoped to: – secure the border of Texas – gain the commercially valuable territories of
California and New Mexico
US Mexican War
• Polk’s 3-Part Strategy1. Ordered Navy to blockade Mexico’s coastlines2. Zachary Taylor’s army was to push into
Northeast Mexico3. A second army would march west to occupy New
Mexico & California• If Mexico would not sell, then Polk would
take by force
Kearny’s Army of the West
• U.S. Colonel Stephen Kearny• 30 years military experience
in the western plains• Mission: to conquer the
western half of North America
Army of the West
• 1600+ soldiers headed west along Santa Fe Trail• Marched 900 miles from Fort Leavenworth to
Santa Fe• Once NM was occupied, they were to march
another 1,000 miles to San Diego• Video clip
Antiwar Factions
• Against territorial expansion – fear of expanding slavery
• Wilmot Proviso– David Wilmot (PA)– Attached to funding for war– Required a “no slavery” agreement in any new
territory– Defeated (passed in HOR, defeated in Senate)
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
• Ended US-Mexican War (Mexico surrendered)• Negotiated by (US reps only)– Nicholas Trist, chief clerk – State Dept.– Gen. Winfield Scott, representative of Polk
• Terms– Relinquished all claims to Texas– Recognized Rio Grande as Southern boundary of US– Mexico ceded to the US Upper California & New
Mexico (known as the “Mexican Cession”)– Includes present-day AZ, NM, parts of UT, NV & CO
Consequences of War
• 13,000 American lives• Long-lasting tensions with Mexico• Training ground for Civil War (incl. Robert E.
Lee & Ulysses Grant)
Simulation Activity
• Life on the Oregon Trail….
Recommended