The Mexican War: Manifest Destiny or a Slaveholder Conspiracy?

I. Texas Fights for Independence from Mexico (1836)

A. Context: Mexican Independence from Spain (1821)

1. Stephen Austin & A Growing “Gringo” Population in Texas

2. Increasing Tension in Texas: Religion, Slavery & Santa Anna’s Dictatorship

B. The Fighting: Texans’ Defeat at The Alamo -- then Victory

C. US Neutrality: Sectionalism & Slavery

II. The US Annexes Texas

A. The Dangers of an Independent Texas

B. The 1844 Election: Polk Promises Manifest Destiny

C. Nueces or Rio Grande? US Annexation of Texas & the Border Dispute (1845)

D. Spotty Lincoln: American Blood on American Soil?

III. The Mexican-American War and Its Impact

A. Surprising Victories: California, Buena Vista, Mexico

B. The Impact1. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), The Gold

Rush & American Expansion

2. The Wilmot Proviso & the Beginning of the Sectional Crisis

C. Expansion + Slavery Debate Civil War

Documents