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….