Download document

Manifest Destiny
First coined by newspaper editor, John O’Sullivan in
1845.
".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and
to possess the whole of the continent which Providence
has given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty and federaltive development of self-government
entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the
space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of
its principle and destiny of growth."
Manifest Destiny

A sense of
cultural and
racial
superiority
“American Progress” by John Gast, 1872
Early
I.
II.
III.
IV.
1789- 1792 Boston sea captains trade for
furs in the Pacific Northwest. Robert Gray
names the Columbia River
1803- The Louisiana Purchase
1804-1807 explorations of the west by
Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike
1808 The American Fur Trade Company
started by John Jacob Astor
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
1822- 1840’s St. Louis – the fur trading
capital
Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson and Jim Bridger
mapped the West
The Trails – Santa Fe (1820),
Oregon(1840), California (1842), Mormon
(1847)
Missionaries in Oregon
Opening the West



Major Stephen H. Long in 1820 described the
West as "wholly unfit for cultivation,
and...uninhabitable by a people depending
upon agriculture for their subsistence.“
Led to the Great Plains being called the “Great
American Desert”
Retarded the growth
The Oregon Trail



Pioneers gathered at Independence and St.
Joseph, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, to
begin a 2,000 mile journey westward.
Between 1841 and 1867, more than 350,000
trekked along the overland trails.
Pioneers buried at least 20,000 emigrants
along the Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Trail – Albert Bierstadt, 1869
The Oregon Dispute: 54’ 40º or Fight!
 By the mid-1840s,
“Oregon Fever” was
spurred on by the
promise of free land.
 The joint British-U. S.
occupation ended in
1846.
Conflict with Britain



Both Britain and the United States claimed
Oregon which extended to Russian Alaska.
The feud was over furs.
By early 1840’s the fur market had dropped
and the U.S. and Britain settled on a boundary
the 42 parallel
Boundary Dispute in Maine






Britain considered the U.S. biggest enemy
Dispute over the border of Canada and Maine
A dispute over timber
The lumberjacks start open warfare
Settled by the Webster- Ashburton Treaty
Settles the boundaries of Maine and Minnesota
Texas


American settlement in Texas began with the
encouragement of first the Spanish, and then
Mexican, governments.
In the summer of l820 Moses Austin, a
bankrupt 59-year old Missourian, asked
Spanish authorities for a large Texas land tract
which he would promote and sell to American
pioneers.
Texas


American settlement in Texas began with the
encouragement of first the Spanish, and then
Mexican, governments.
In the summer of l820 Moses Austin asked
Spanish authorities for a large Texas land tract
which he would promote and sell to American
pioneers.
Texas


Permission to settle 300 families in Texas.
Spain welcomed the Americans for two
reasons:


to provide a buffer against illegal U.S. settlers,
who were creating problems in east Texas
to help develop the land, since only 3,500 native
Mexicans had settled in Texas
Texas


1821Mexicans rebel against Spanish rule,
winning independence.
1823 Stephen Austin establishes the first
American settlement in Tejas on land
originally granted to his father along the San
Antonio River.
Texas



1828The Senate ratifies a treaty setting the
Sabine River as the border between Mexico
and the United States.
1829Mexico refuses an American offer to buy
Tejas for $5 million
1830Alarmed at the growing number of
Americans in Tejas, Mexico imposes sharp
limits on further immigration.
Manuel Mier y Teran
Texas

1833At the San Felipe Convention, held in San Felipe
de Austin, American settlers led by Stephen Austin
vote to make Tejas a Mexican state, rather than a
dependent territory, and draft a state constitution
based on that of the United States.
Texas


1835 THE TEXAS WAR FOR
INDEPENDENCE (1835-1836)
Mexican President Santa Anna proclaims
himself dictator
When the Americans resist at an engagement
near Gonzales on the Guadalupe River, the
Texas War for Independence begins.
Texas


Nov 1835, Texans declare that they will not
accept Santa Anna’s dictatorship
Dec. 1835 a combined Anglo-Tejano force
defeat Mexican forces in San Antonio
 Parole the troops on the grounds that they
will never take arms against Texas again
Texas





Feb. 22 –March 6, 1836 The siege at the
Alamo
March 2, 1836 -Texas declares their
independence
March 28, 1836 – The Goliad Massacre
April 21, 1836 – The Texans defeat Santa
Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto
Two Treaties of Velasco
Texas


1836 In the fall, Sam Houston is elected the first
President of the Republic of Texas, outpolling
Stephen Austin 4-to-1, and Texans vote to seek
annexation by the United States
1837 Congress refuses to annex Texas, bowing to
abolitionist opponents who call it a "slavocracy." But
President Andrew Jackson recognizes the Republic of
Texas on his last day in office.
Texas


1842 Responding to years of harassment along
the Texas border, Mexican troops strike San
Antonio, because of a Texan attack on Santa
Fe.
1845 Outgoing President John Tyler signs a
congressional joint resolution to annex Texas
and make it part of the union. Leads to war
with Mexico
The Slidell Mission: Nov., 1845
 Mexican recognition of the Rio
Grande River as the TX-US
border.
 US would forgive American
citizens’
claims against the Mexican govt.
 US would purchase the New
Mexico
area for $5,000,000.
John Slidell
 US would buy California at any
price.
The U.S. - Mexican War



War against Mexico added half a million
square miles of territory to the United States.
First American war fought almost entirely
outside the United States
First American war to be reported, while it
happened, by daily newspapers.
The U.S. - Mexican War



Cause of the Mexican War - movement of
American pioneers into lands claimed by
Mexico
1845 Mexico expelled the American
ambassador and cut diplomatic relations.
President offered $5 million if Mexico agreed
to recognize the Rio Grande River as the
southwestern boundary of Texas.
The U.S. - Mexican War


Also offered up to $5 million for the province
of New Mexico and $25 million for California.
Polk was anxious to acquire California
Polk ordered Brigadier General Zachary Taylor
to march 3,000 troops southwest from Corpus
Christi, Texas, to "defend the Rio Grande"
River
The U.S. - Mexican War



April 25, 1846, a Mexican
cavalry force crossed the
Rio Grande and clashed
with a small American
squadron
Polk asked Congress to
acknowledge that a state of
war already existed
“Shed American blood
upon the American soil."
Wilmot Proviso, 1846
Provided, territory from that, as an
express and fundamental condition
to the acquisition of any the
Republic of Mexico by the United
States, by virtue of any treaty which
may be negotiated between them,
and to the use by the Executive of
the moneys herein appropriated,
neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude shall ever exist in any
part of said territory, except for
crime, whereof the party shall first
be duly convicted.
Congr. David Wilmot
(D-PA)
The U.S. – Mexican War


Opponents denounced the war as an immoral
land grab by an expansionistic power against a
weak neighbor that had been independent
barely two decades.
Critics also argued that the war was an
expansionist power play dictated by an
aggressive Southern slave owners intent on
acquiring more slave states.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo



Mexico ceded to the United States only those areas
that Polk had originally sought to purchase.
Mexico ceded California, Nevada, Utah, New
Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and
Wyoming to the United States for $15 million and the
assumption of $3.25 million in debts owed to
Americans by Mexico.
The treaty also settled the Texas border dispute in
favor of the United States, placing the Texas-Mexico
boundary at the Rio Grande River.
Results of the Mexican War?
1. The 17-month war cost $100,000,000 and 13,000+
American lives (mostly of disease).
2. New territories were brought into the Union which forced the explosive
issue of SLAVERY to the center of national politics.
* Brought in 1 million sq. mi. of land (incl. TX)
3. These new territories would upset the balance of power between North and
South.
4. Created two popular Whig generals who ran for President.
5. Manifest Destiny partially realized.
The Mexican Cession
Territorial Growth to 1853
Free Soil Party
Free Soil!
Free Speech!
Free Labor!
Free Men!
 “Barnburners” – discontented northern Democrats.
 Anti-slave members of the Liberty and Whig Parties.
 Opposition to the extension of slavery in the new
territories!
WHY?
The 1848 Presidential Election Results
√
California Gold Rush


January 24,1848 James Marshall, a veteran of
the Bear Flag Revolt, discovers gold on the
American River while building a lumber mill
for John Sutter
1849Forty-niners heading for California's gold
fields


network of trails across the continent,
Forty-niners come west by ship, sailing around
Cape Horn or crossing by canoe and donkey train
through the jungles of Panama
California Gold Rush



1849 year's end, over 80,000 fortuneseekers have made their way to California
nearly tripling the territory's population
1850 California enters the Union.
Anti immigration sentiment – Foreign
miner laws