Manifest Destiny: - God given right to expand

• Reasons
  • Hunger for land
  • New markets for goods and services
  • New immigrants created need for more living space
  • Desire for expansion of trade with China
  • Panic or depression in 1837 caused many to flee the East
  • Spreading democracy

• Mexican independence from Spain in 1821
   
• Land grants
  • To people who would settle in Texas under two conditions
    • Obey Mexican laws
    • Follow Roman Catholic Church
  • Stephen Austin
    • Led a group of settlers
   
• Mexicans not happy
  • Texans not obeying rules
  • Slaves
   
• Texas asked to become separate state
  • Mexico refused
  • Imprisoned Austin
   
• President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led an army of 6000 men into Texas
   
• The Alamo - 1836
  • Necessary to stall Mexicans until Sam Houston could raise an army
    
  • Davy Crockett

    A frontiersman, explorer and pioneer, David de Crocketagne was born on August 17, 1786, near Limestone, Kentucky, Crockett fought in the Creek Indian War under Andrew Jackson, before taking up the life of a politician. He represented Tennessee in the state legislature and then as a representative in the U.S. Congress. However, when he lost the re-election in 1835, he said "you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." He joined the Texas Revolution in the fall of 1835 and in February, 1846, he arrived at the Alamo with his group of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.

  • The fall of the Alamo. All 187 killed
  • Inspiration for Texans
   
• Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna
   
• Texans declared independence
  • Mexican government refused to recognize
  • France and Great Britain recognized independence
   
• Lone Star Republic - 1836-1846
  • President Sam Houston
   
• Texas became the 28th state - 1845
  • Slavery issue
  • Great Britain's interference was alarming
   
• Mexico was furious and recalled ambassador

• Westward expansion was the issue
   
• James K. Polk
  • Democrat
  • For annexation of Texas and Oregon
   
• Henry Clay
  • Whig
  • Unclear about views on expansion
   
• Polk won with 49.5% of popular vote

The Oregon border dispute was settled with British - Oregon Treaty - 1846

 
The Mexican War:

• American were increasingly moving to the west
   
• Polk was determined to get New Mexico and California
  • Offered to buy them from Mexico
  • Mexico flatly refused
    • Still mad about Texas
  • Polk decided to use force
   
• Polk baited Mexico with dispute over southern border of Texas
  • Rio Grande (Texas) or Nueces (Mexico) River
  • Zachary Taylor ordered to move troops accross Rio Grande River
  • Mexicans attacked
  • 16 Americans killed or wounded
   
• Congress declared war
   
• Opposition to the war
  • Unpopular in the Northeast
  • Henry David Thoreau
    • Didn't pay poll tax
    • Thrown in jail
    • "The Duty of Civil Disobedience"
  • Daniel Webster
    • Thought Polk had forced Congress into declaring war
   
• Americans won
  • Americans fired up with dreams of expansion
  • Volunteers from Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee
  • Frontier hunters crack shots
    • Indian fighters
  • Americans trained well by graduates of new Military Academy at West Point
  • Mexicans top heavy with generals
    • Ordinary soldiers not well trained
  • Americans had light mobile artillery
   
• Zachary Taylor became hero
  • "Old Rough and Ready"
   
• Santa Anna stepped down and new government made peace
   
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - 1848
  • Mexico recognized Rio Grande as border with Texas
  • U.S. got New Mexico and California
  • Mexico lost about ¹/₃ of its territory
  • Mexico was paid $15 million

• Polk refused to run
   
• Extension of slavery to the territories was the major issue
   
• Lewis Cass
  • Democrat
  • Avoided the issue of slavery
   
• Martin Van Buren
  • Free-Soil Party
    • Disgusted Democrats who favored abolition
   
• Zachary Taylor
  • Whig
  • Also avoided the issue of slavery
   
• Taylor won with 47.3% of the popular vote
   
• Free-Soil Party got 10% of vote