Chapter 9

Manifest Destiny

• Junipero Serra– Catholic missionary who established missions in the states of California, Texas, and New

Mexico– His missions helped with the growth of 2 major Californian agricultural centers

– San Jose– Los Angeles

• Jedediah Smith– Member of the “Mountain Men”

– Young beaver fur trappers in the Rocky Mountains– Helped establish new routes to cross through the Rockies

– Crossed through the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada Mountains while reaching California– “California Trail”

– Traded with Mexicans

• Brigham Young– Took over for Joseph Smith in the quest for finding a Mormon holy land

– 30 years as president of Mormon Church– 8 years as president of Utah Territory

• Stephen F. Austin– American expiditionist who led settlers east of San Antonio. Founded Austin, Texas

People

• Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna– Mexican military general who seizes power in Mexico City– Centralized power under his authority– Leads the Mexican army into Texas , attacking a small garrison at the Alamo

• Sam Houston– Only American to serve as governor of two states, Tennessee and Texas– 1st president of Texas

• James K. Polk– US President (Jacksonian Democrat)– Expansionist

– Campaign goals of annexing Texas and Oregon Territory

• Zachary Taylor– American general who leads troops into Texas in Mexican-American War– Excellently trained at West Point

People

• Winsfield Scott– General in Mexican-American War

• Robert E. Lee• Ulysses S. Grant• William T. Sherman• David Wilmot

– Whig congressmen of Pennsylvania who proposes law, Wilmot Proviso– Bans slavery in any new lands won from Mexico

– Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California– Largely disputed, really disliked

People

Junior officers in Mexican-American War, but their presence will definitely be felt in the Civil War

• Moving westward…. into Spanish territory– New Mexico

– Territory filled with an abundance of nomadic Native Americans– This made settling NM less appealing– Colonists depended on Pueblos for protection from other tribes

– At its height, 9,600 Hispanics and 14,000 Pueblos living before and among American colonists– Disease reduces the Pueblo population to 10,000 in just 65 years

– As we get into the 1800s, Apaches flee from other tribes into NM for safety, raiding Pueblo and Mexican settlements– Spanish government protected Spanish settlements through stronger defenses and bribing

– Texas– Established as a buffer zone between Mexican land south of the Rio Grande River

– California– Created as buffer to protect the region from Russian traders traveling south from Alaska– Lacking colonists, the Spanish choose to instead convert natives to Christianity to settle

and develop the land for them

Timeline of Events

• We defend our actions using the term MANIFEST DESTINY– It is and always will be our God given, natural, clear right to

expand as far as we humanly possibly can within North America

• We open up trade with both natives and Spanish– Despite Mexican apprehension, northern Mexican

settlements encouraged it– Promoted economic growth for everyone involved

– Spanish gained manufactured goods– Americans gained horses, mules, furs, silver

– Known as Santa Fe Trail

• We start expanding into the mountains– Mountain Men create trade with their crazy obsession of

beaver– The environment of the mountains made beaver pelts the

warmest thing you could find yourself in

As we move westward

• Oregon and all the wagons that went there– Oregon Trail

– Mostly farmers who took this turn, north at the South Pass (Rocky Mtns)– Journey was always a gamble. Get stuck somewhere in the mountains

during the winter and end up having to stay there until Spring– ~ 260,000 eventually made this journey

Timeline of events

• Texas– To develop and defend the province Mexico encourages Americans to

come settle the land– You did have to agree to be Mexican citizen, Roman Catholic, accept Mexican

constitution, banned slavery– So, Stephen F. Austin brings thousands of American settlers to the state

– By 1835, 30,000 Americans in Texas– Outnumbered natives (tejanos) 6:1

– Texas Revolt– New inhabitants decide to declare independence and create new republic, Lone

Star Republic– Santa Anna brings in Mexican military and crushes new republic, slaughtering many of

the resisting inhabitants – Totally backfires on Santa Anna

– The mass killings of Texans brings waves of people to Texas to “Remember the Alamo”

– Sam Houston in Battle of San Jacinto kills 630, captures 730 (only lost 32)– James K. Polk makes annexing Texas and Oregon his priority

Timeline of Events

• Mexican American War• Congress decides to annex

Texas• Used boundaries that tripled the size of

traditional Texas

• Obviously, Mexico not thrilled

• Congress declares war, Polk sends troops• Zack Taylor goes down to Texas, waits

for violence

• Mexico kills 11 Americans, declaration of war from Congress signed, sealed, delivered

• South is thrilled with war, North thinks we started this mess

Timeline of events• It looks really good for us• Mexico is backwards 3rd world nation,

we are industrialized

• Better, larger navy, more awesome artillery (things that go boom)

• Superior military officers (they all end up being Boss’ in the Civil War)

• US wins every single major battle• Army secures New Mexico while Navy gains

control of California

• Within half a year, we secure all of Polk’s goals

• He wants more!!

• Sends military into Mexico. It ends with American capture of Mexico City

• Territorial Expansion– Gadsden Purchase

– President Pierce authorized James Gadsden’s ambitions to expand the territory of the American South West through purchase – Gadsden wants this land because he his highly invested (and the president of) in

the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company– This purchase would allow him transport ($$$) into new lands

– Purchase of land that becomes New Mexico and Arizona for the purpose of a continental railroad

– Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo– Forced Mexico to give up northern 1/3rd of country– Added 1.2 million square miles

– Wilmot Proviso (go back to David Wilmot)

Timeline of events

• California Gold Rush– 80,000 fortune seekers (49ers) head to California with the hopes of

finding gold and striking it rich– Half by land, half by sea

– News of gold brought immigrants from the Pacific Rim, South America– It was a hard days night

– Used cheap metal pans, pick axes, shovels at first, swishing water around the pans once harvested, hoping to clean off the gold so that the sun would make it sparkle– Placer mining

– Massive price hikes on everything from clothes to food– Mines acted as police as well as judge, jury, and executioner

– New methods improve results– Hydraulic mining allows for hills to be cleared quicker

– Effects of it all– Mexican discrimination– California statehood

Timeline of Events

• Expansionists– People who favored territorial expansion

• Treaty of Fort Laramie– Moved Indians to territories away from primary trails that

Americans were using to move west

Other Vocab