Chapter 12 The New Territories and War with Mexico

Rivalry in the Northwest In the early 1800’s, four nations claimed the Oregon country- the huge area that lay between the pacific ocean and the Rocky Mountains north of California. Those nations were the United States, Britain, Spain and Russia. The United States wanted to annex the Oregon country in order to gain access to the Pacific, but this required getting the other three nations to give up their claims.

Oregon Country

Spain's claim was extinguished in 1819 with the signing of the Adams-Onis treaty, in which Spain agreed to limit its coast claims to the area south of California's northern border. In 1824 Russia surrendered its claim to any land south of Alaska.

Britain refused to give up its claim to Oregon when President John Quincy Adams proposed dividing Oregon at the 49 th parallel in As a result, the United States and Britain agreed to extend an 1818 agreement for joint occupation of the area. The first Americans to Oregon country were trappers and traders looking for beaver furs. Because they spent much of their time hunting and fishing in the mountains, they were often called mountain men.

Mountain Men

Beaver Pelts

Their wanderings and living in the wilderness made them very familiar with the land. Some mountain men even opened up new trails through the wilderness. After most of the beavers were gone due to extensive hunting, mountain men found new work leading groups of settlers to the west.

Settling Oregon American settlers began traveling to the Oregon country in the 1830’s, lured by reports of abundant, fertile land. The first large-scale trip west took place in 1843 when more than 1000 pioneers left Independence, Missouri, for Oregon. In the years that followed, tens of thousands of Americans made the trip.

Among the earliest settlers in Oregon were Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa. They built a Christian mission among the Cayuse people. Some settlers at the mission unknowingly infected the Cayuse with measles, which killed many of their children. Angered, the Cayuse attacked the mission in November 1847, killing the Whitman's and several others. But this tragedy did not stop the flow of settlers to Oregon.

Pioneers headed for Oregon began their trip in Missouri and traveled for 2000 miles along the Oregon Trail. The trail crossed the Great Plains, wound its way through the Rocky Mountains following the South Pass, then followed the Snake and Columbia Rivers into the Oregon country. Most Oregon-bound settlers traveled in canvas wagons called prairie schooners.

Oregon Trail

Pioneers

Prairie Schooner

The Division of Oregon Most Oregon settlers headed for the fertile Willamete Valley, south of the Columbia River. Between 1840 and 1845, the population of American settlers in the area rose from 500 to The British population remained at about 700.

While settlers were streaming into Oregon in the 1840’s, the idea of Manifest Destiny was taking hold in the United States. It held that the United States was blessed by God and destined to overspread the North American continent and expand its boundaries to the Pacific. The Idea of Manifest Destiny made Americans, including those who emigrated to Oregon, more determined than ever to annex the Oregon country and remove Britain’s claim.

Manifest Destiny

Oregon became an issue in the presidential election of James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, ran using the slogan “fifty-four Forty or Fight.” The slogan referred to the line of latitude at 54’40”N, which Democrats thought should be the nations northern border in Oregon. Polk’s opponent, Henry Clay (a Whig), did not take as strong a stand as Polk on annexing Oregon, and lost the election.

James K. Polk

Determined to make Oregon part of the United States, but unable to get Britain to agree to a boundary at 54’40”N- which would have turned over almost the whole territory to the United States- Polk decided to compromise. Polk concluded an agreement with Britain in June 1846 that split Oregon at 49’N, with the area south of that line becoming a territory of the United States.

Mexican Territory

Texas In the early 1800’s, to encourage settlement in the northern frontier, Spanish offered huge tracts of land to people willing to live there. The first grant went to Moses Austin in When he died in his son Stephen F. Austin brought 300 settlers to live on land along the Brazos and Colorado rivers.

Texas

Stephen F. Austin

New Mexico Territory In the early 1800’s, New Mexico was the name of a vast region between California and Texas. The Spanish started exploration of the area in the 1500’s and made it part of the Spanish colony of Mexico. When Mexico won its Independence in 1821, New Mexico became part of an independent Mexico. But Mexico maintained very loose control over the area, allowing New Mexico a large degree of self-government.

New Mexico

To boost its economy, Mexico welcomed American traders. As word spread of higher selling prices in Santa Fe, more traders began to sell their goods there. The trail to New Mexico and Santa Fe became known as the Santa Fe Trail. The trail was used until the arrival of the railroad in As trade with Mexico increased, so did the number of Americans who went there to settle. As the idea of Manifest Destiny took hold, many Americans thought the United States should acquire New Mexico.

Santa Fe Trail

California Spanish Culture Spanish explorers and missionaries were the first Europeans settlers in California. Starting in the 1760’s, the Spanish set up a chain of missions, settlement run by priests, near the California coast between San Diego and Sonoma. There were 21 missions by 1820 When Mexico became independent, California became a state.

In 1833 the government of Mexico abolished the missions. Mexico sold huge tracts of mission land to settlers, who set up large farms and cattle ranches called ranchos. The owners of the ranchos, called rancheros, used Native Americans to tend their farms and cattle. By the early 1800’s, Americans had been arriving in California for many years on trading or whaling ships that stopped along the coast, or as travelers (such as mountain men) who had come overland from the east.

In the 1840’s American families began to settle in California. But by 1845 the number of Americans in California was still only about 700. As more and more people who had seen California sent glowing reports about its mild climate, natural resources, and beauty to friends and families in the eastern U.S., an increasing number of Americans became interested in settling California and adding it to the United States. President Polk twice offered to buy California and New Mexico from Mexico during the mid- 1840’s, but was turned down.

War with Mexico The annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845 worsened relations between Mexico and the united States, which had already been bad for years. The two countries also could not agree on the border between Mexico and Texas. Mexico said the border was at the Nueces River, the United States placed the border at the Rio Grande. Mexico’s claims placed the border about 150 miles North of the United States claims.

Texas Border Dispute

The United States offered Mexico $30 million for California and New Mexico if Mexico would accept the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas. Mexico refused the offer and announced its intention to retake Texas. In response the U.S. sent General Zachary Taylor across the disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.

General Zachary Taylor

Mexican soldiers attacked some of Taylor's troops in this disputed area on April 24, American’s who wanted war with Mexico claimed that Mexico had shed American blood on American soil. Many Americans turned their anger on Mexico, and on May 11, Congress declared war on Mexico. Some Americans opposed war with Mexico. Abraham Lincoln, a member of congress, thought Tailors troops had been attacked in Mexican territory, meaning there were no grounds for retaliation or war.

Some people, such as antislavery activist Fredrick Douglass, feared that expansion into the West would carry slavery with it. Polk had a three part plan to win the war with Mexico: 1.Drive Mexican troops out of the disputed territory of Texas. 2.Seize New Mexico and California. 3.Capture Mexico’s capital, Mexico City.

General Zachary Taylor accomplished the first goal by the first part of American forces under General Stephen Watts Kearney captured Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, without a fight on August 18, Kearney then led his troops overland toward California. In June 1846 a small group of Americans seized the town of Sonoma, north of San Francisco, and proclaimed the independent Republic of California.

It was also called the Bear Flag Republic after the illustration of a bear on its flag. In July 1846 an American naval squadron captured the ports of Monterey and San Francisco. The commander of the squadron, Commodore John Sloat, declared California a part of the United States. Sloat then went on to capture San Diego and Los Angles. By January 1847 California was fully under the control of the united States.

Bear Flag Republic

In September 1847 American forces under the command of General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City, completing the last part of President’s Polk’s plan to win the war with Mexico. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war with Mexico. It was signed in February In the treaty, Mexico gave up all claims to Texas and fixed the border at the Rio Grande.

In what was called the Mexican Cession, Mexico also gave California and New Mexico to the United States in return for $15 million. In 1853 the United States paid Mexico an additional $10 million for a strip of land along the southern edge of present-day Arizona and New Mexico, called the Gadsden Purchase. With the purchase the adjoining 48 states of the mainland reached its present day.

Gadsden Purchase

United States after the War