1. Manifest Destiny
NCSCOS Goal 2
Page 18

2. Manifest Destiny Overview

3. Manifest Destiny
-theory that the US should expand across the continent
Americans believed they should possess all land for settlement
Louisiana Purchase
Doubled the size of the U.S., Americans move onto new land
War of 1812
No challenges from foreigners in America, esp. England
Lure of the West
Most moved West to get land, trade goods, and face new challenges on the frontier
When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, he dreamed that the U.S. would become an “empire for liberty” by expanding across the continent “with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation.”
In the 1840s, expansion fever gripped the country. Americans began to believe that their movement westward and southward was destined and ordained by God.

4. It is America’s “manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent…that the God of nature and nations has marked it for our own.” It is “God’s plan” to expand our “great experiment with liberty.”
~John O’Sullivan, 1845

5. Mormons Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
-religious group founded by Joseph Smith , 1827
Founded by the Book of Mormon written on 12 Tablets
-Smith was killed by a mob denouncing his views
People questioned views, success, and polygamy
Joseph Smith and a growing band of followers decided to move west and settled in Illinois in Within five years, the community numbered 20,000. However, when Smith’s angry neighbors printed protests against polygamy, the Mormons’ practice of having more than one wife, Smith destroyed their printing press. As a result, in 1844 he was jailed for treason. An anti-Mormon mob broke into the jail and murdered Smith and his brother.

6. Mormons -Brigham Young led the group west to Utah, 1847
New leader took Mormons away from violence to Salt Lake City
-formed a thriving community
Learned to work together to farm very dry area
Learned to irrigate the desert
Helped others moving West

7. Texas -immigrants from U.S. move into Mexican Texas
Stephen F. Austin leads the settlers
Eventually more Americans in Texas than Mexicans
-Mexico tries to regain control of Texas
Closes slavery in and immigration to Mexico
-Mexico feared a plot by the U.S. to acquire Texas
Santa Anna went to Texas with 6,000 troops (rebellion)
As Texas’ Anglo population surged, tensions grew with Mexico over cultural differences, as well as slavery. The overwhelmingly Protestant settlers spoke English rather than Spanish, and many of the settlers were sugar farmers who brought their slaves with them. Mexico, which had abolished slavery, insisted that the Texans free their slaves. Mexican president Santa Anna sealed Mexico’s borders and taxed trade heavily. Austin appealed to Santa Anna, now becoming a Mexican dictator, to allow the Texans self-government. In return, Santa Anna jailed Austin and declared Texas in revolution.

8. Texas -Battle of the Alamo, 1836 Texans defeated All 180 men killed
-Texans eventually defeat Mexican Army and declare independence
“Remember the Alamo!”
-1836, Lone Star Republic
Texas an independent nation
Sam Houston serves as President of Texas

9. Battle of Tippecanoe, Seminole Wars
Western Lands
-Indian conflicts
Battle of Tippecanoe, Seminole Wars
Indian Removal
Indian Removal Act, 1830
Trail of Tears
Laramie Treaty, 1851
Starts the reservation system
Sets boundaries for tribes
Broken Treaties
The U.S. government responded to settlers’ fears of attack by calling a conference near Laramie, Wyoming. The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie provided Native Americans control of the Central Plains. In turn, these Native Americans promised not to attack settlers and to allow the construction of government roads and forts. The government pledged to honor the boundaries and to make payments to the Native Americans. The U.S. government repeatedly violated the terms of the treaty.

10. Northern route across central plans to the West, fur trade
Western Lands
-Oregon Territory
-Oregon Trail
Northern route across central plans to the West, fur trade
Independence to Portland
Missouri to Oregon
Donner Party
Group that became snow-bound; resorted to cannibalism
-“54-40 or Fight”
-James K. Polk
Believer in Manifest Destiny
Wanted to annex all of Oregon
-election of 1844
In 1844, Democrat James K. Polk’s presidential platform called for annexation of the Oregon Territory. Reflecting support for Polk’s views, newspapers adopted the slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!,” referring to the northern limit of the disputed Oregon Territory. By the mid-1840s, however, the fur trade was in decline, and Britain’s interest in the territory waned. On the American side, Polk’s advisors deemed the land north of 49’ latitude unsuited for agriculture. The two countries peaceably agreed in 1846 to extend the mainland boundary along the 49th parallel, establishing the current U.S. boundary.

11. Oregon Trail

13. Mexican War -Texas finally annexed in 1845
-promise of newly elected Polk
-border dispute arises with Mexico
Is border along Rio Grande?
-Polk sends troops
-war breaks out after border skirmish
Mexican troops shoot American border patrols
General Zachary Taylor
General Winfield Scott
Invade and defeat Mexico

15. Mexican War -Mexico defeated
California and New Mexico defeated; Mexico invaded
-Mexican cessation of lands in the west 1848
Give up
-California, Nevada, NM, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming
Polk gets dream of Manifest Destiny
For Mexico, the war in which it lost at least 25,000 lives and nearly half its land marked an ugly milestone in its relations with the United States. America’s victory came at the cost of about 13,000 lives. Of these, nearly 2,000 died in battle or from wounds and more than 11,000 perished from diseases, such as yellow fever. However, the war enlarged the U.S. territory by approximately one-third.

16. -Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo -Mexican cessation
Spoils of War
-Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
-Mexican cessation
Americans paid Mexico $15 million, promised to protect Mexicans living in U.S.
-Gadsden Purchase
Strip of land purchased from Mexico for $10 million
Wanted for railroad use
-Zach Taylor elected President
In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande border for Texas and ceded NM and CA to the U.S. The U.S. agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, and the treaty guaranteed Mexicans living in these territories freedom of religion, protection of property, bilingual elections, and open borders. Fiver years later, President Franklin Pierce authorized his emissary James Gadsden to pay Mexico an additional $10 million for anther piece of land, which became known as the Gadsden Purchase.

17. Began dangerous mining towns Gold found in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill
Spoils of War
-California Gold Rush
Began dangerous mining towns
Gold found in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill
1849 Gold Rush
Thousands of people from all around the world went to CA
Settled the West
“The blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his sickle, the baker his loaf, and the tapster his bottle. All were off for the mines…I have only a community of women left, and a gang of prisoners, with here and there a soldier who will give his captain the slip at first chance. I don’t blame the fellow a whit; seven dollars a month, while others are making two or three hundred a day!”

18. Manifest Destiny Realized