MANIFEST

DESTINY

1. Joint occupation – shared ownership of an area

2. Mountain men – frontiersmen hired to trap animals for fur in the West, especially in the Rocky Mountains

3. Missionary – a person sent to promote Christianity in a foreign country

4. Tejano – a Mexican person who lived in Texas

5. Empresario – a person who recruited settlers in Texas

6. Decree – an official order

7. Annex – to take control of a territory

8. Pelt – the skin and fur of an animal

9. Wagon train – a group of covered wagons traveling together

10. Dictator – a ruler with total power over a country

• Manifest Destiny refers to the idea that the United States must expand its boundaries to the Pacific Ocean

- The term was first used in a New York newspaper in the 1840s.

- Editor John O’Sullivandeclared that it was “Manifest Destiny (obvious fate) to… possess the whole of the continent.”

OREGON

• In the 1840s and 1850s, many set out to settle in Oregon Country

- This area included today’s Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming

• In the early 1800s, four nations claimed parts of the Oregon Country – the U.S., Great Britain, Spain, and Russia

- In the Adams-Onis Treaty, Spain gave up their claim to Oregon, and in 1824 Russia gave up its claim

• In 1819, John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State at the time) worked out an agreement with Britain for joint occupation of the area

• Over the years, Americans settling in Oregon pushed for a resolution of control over the area

• The first Americans to reach the Oregon Country were fur traders

• In 1808 New York merchant John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company, one of the most successful fur businesses in the U.S.

• Astor’s business relied on mountain men who made a living trapping animals and trading their pelts

FYI: Astor’s great-grandson John Jacob Astor IV died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912

• Among the first settlers of the Oregon Country were missionaries

• Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa built a mission among the Cayuse people in 1836

• A measles epidemic killed many of the Cayuse children

• The Whitmans were blamed for bringing the disease. The Cayuse attacked the mission in 1847, killing the Whitmans and others

• In the early 1840s, Americans who had been affected by the economic depression left the U.S. and went to the Oregon Country

• These pioneers traveled in wagon trains, gathering in Independence, Missouri and following the Oregon Trail, a 2,000 mile route that started in Missouri and ended in Oregon

• Oregon became a major issue in the 1844 election

• When James K. Polk became president, he supported the idea that the U.S. should have sole ownership of the Oregon Country and was determined to make Oregon part of the U.S.

• Britain would not accept a border where Polk proposed, because they did not want to give up their claim entirely.

• In 1846 the U.S. and Great Britain compromised, and set a new border

TEXAS

• Americans also had their sights set on Texas

• The U.S. had dropped any claim to the region in the Adams-Onis Treaty; Texas was part of Mexico, which belonged to Spain

• Most residents of Texas at the time were Tejanos

• To promote the growth of the region, empresarios organized land grants and recruited American families to settle in Texas

• The first land grant was settled by Stephen F. Austin, who organized a colony in 1825

• Austin recruited 300 families to settle there; this successful colonization made him a leader among the settlers and earned him the nickname “Father of Texas”

• Mexico passed colonization laws for the new settlers to follow

• The colonists agreed to learn the Spanish language, become Mexican citizens, and convert to Catholicism

• By 1830 Americans in Texas outnumbered Mexicans, and most of them had not adopted Mexican ways

• The Mexican gov’t issued a decree which stopped all immigration from the U.S. and discouraged trade between the U.S. and Texas

• Texans were angered; they depended on trade from the U.S.

• In 1833 General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna became president of Mexico

• Stephen Austin met with Santa Anna and convinced him to remove the ban on American settlers; however, Santa Anna refused to allow Texas to be a separate state (another of Austin’s demands)

• When Austin sent a letter back to Texas to start carrying out plans to achieve independence, the Mexican gov’t had him arrested

• Santa Anna named himself dictator and overthrew Mexico’s constitution

• Unrest in Texas led to open conflict

• Texans drove back Mexican troops in the town of Gonzales in 1835, the first battle of the Texas Revolution

• Former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockettjoined the fight for Texas’ independence

• After the Texans liberated San Antonio from the control of a Mexican force, Santa Anna brought a army to get it back

• He found a Texan group barricaded inside a mission called the Alamo

• Davy Crockett had arrived at the Alamo with a Texan named Jim Bowie and 26-year-old commander William B. Travis

• Travis sent out messages to the people of Texas and to the U.S. asking for help

• For 12 days, Travis and his army defended the Alamo against Santa Anna’s troops

• On March 6, 1836, The Mexicans entered the Alamo and killed Crockett, Bowie, Travis, and all other defenders of the mission

• Four days before the fall of the Alamo, American settlers and Texans officially declared independence from Mexico and established the Republic of Texas

Sam Houston was named Commander in Chief of the Texas forces

• Six weeks after the Alamo, Houston led an army at San Jacinto, near Santa Anna’s camp

• On April 21, the Texans led a surprise attack on the Mexican camp shouting, “Remember the Alamo!”

• The Texans killed more than 600 soldiers and captured Santa Anna

• On May 14, 1836 Santa Anna signed a treaty that recognized the independence of Texas

• Houston was elected president of the new republic.

• He asked the U.S. to annex Texas, but President Andrew Jackson refused, not wanting to upset the balance between slave states and free states

• Martin Van Buren and John Tyler also failed to annex Texas; it remained an independent republic

• Under President James Polk, Congress passed a resolution to annex Texas

• Texas became a state on December 29, 1845