Manifest Destiny and the Acquisition of Land

Level 2

Vocabulary

• Sectionalism: a loyalty to a section of the country instead of the nation itself

• Diplomats: a person appointed by a government to conduct negotiations and continue friendly relations

• Military Dictator: government in which the military is in charge of the country

• Oregon Trail: a route used to migrate west to Oregon

• Annex: add to

• Transcontinental Railroad: a train route that crossed America

Essential Question

• How did the acquisition of land help to increase sectionalism?

“(It is)… our manifest destiny to overspread and topossess the whole of the continent whichProvidence has given us for the development ofthe great experiment of liberty.” John L. O’Sullivan,

newspaper columnist, 1845

The Acquisition of Louisiana

• 1803 US wanted access to the Mississippi and wanted to purchase New Orleans from Napoleon Bonaparte (France)

• President Jefferson authorized the diplomats to spend $10 million

• Diplomats paid $15 million for all of the French lands in the west about 4 cents an acre

• Doubled the US; 820,000 square miles

• Eventually 13 states were created from the land

Lewis and Clark

• Lewis and Clark were commissioned by President Jefferson to explore the Northwest to find a waterway linking the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.

• Sacajawea, a Shoshone, guided them through the terrain.

• Interactive map

Acquisition of Land in the North

• Convention of 1818 signed between US and Britain – Secured the land

known as the Red River Basin as part of the US

– Oregon Territory would be jointly occupied by both countries

The Acquisition of Florida

• Problems:

– Native tribes like the Creek and Seminole conducted raids on settlements in GA

– Runaway slaves found refuge in Florida

• Actions:

– 1818 Jackson went to Florida with about 3,000 soldiers and took Fort Pensacola and Fort Marks

– Spain was fighting rebels in Latin America and couldn’t risk the war with the US

• Result:

– Secretary of State John Quincy Adams worked out a treaty with Spain called the Adams-Onis Treaty went into effect in 1821 which allowed the US to buy Florida for $5 million; also gave up claim to the Pacific Northwest

The Acquisition of Texas

• American settlers poured into the North Mexican province

• Mexico had freed their slaves in 1821• Texans wanted to keep their slaves because of cotton• Mexico achieved Independence from Spain but fell under

a military dictatorship under General Lopez de Santa Anna who abolished Mexico’s Constitution which had guaranteed states’ rights to provinces like Texas (1836)

• Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836– Santa Anna invaded the Republic of Texas to win back the

territory– Attacked the Texans at the Alamo (small Catholic mission

with cotton groves around it called alamos in Spanish)– Heroes like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were there– 187 frontiersmen barricaded themselves there and defended

it for 13 days from 5,000 Mexican troops– Mexican troops beat the Texans and then killed every

soldier, soaked their bodies in gasoline and then burned them

• 7 weeks later rallying under the battle cry “Remember the Alamo” Houston defeated Santa Anna during the Battle of San Jacinto and took Santa Anna prisoner; chased the Mexican army back into Mexico

• Sam Houston became the President of the “Lone Star Republic”

• Texas requested admittance to the US but was rejected until 1845 because it was a slave state

The Acquisition of the Northwest

• Polk won the election of 1844 with a campaign of “Re-annexation of Texas and Re-occupation of Oregon”; claiming Texas was part of the Louisiana Purchase and Oregon asserted US claims in the Northwest

• Anti-slavery advocates were worried that Texas would join the union and feared it would be carved up into 5 states which would tilt the balance in the Senate to pro-slavery

• Desired to extend Oregon’s border to 54,40’.

• Americans flooded the Oregon territory in 1842 by using the Oregon Trail

• Rally cry “54,40’ or Fight!”• US and Britain made a compromise

creating the border at the 49th north latitude

The Acquisition of the Southwest

• President Polk offered Mexico– $4.5 million to settle claims for damages

from the Mexican civil wars if Mexico would accept that the Rio Grande was Texas’s southern border.

– $5 million for New Mexico– $25 million for California

• Mexico was insulted• New military coup again ousted a

moderate government and replaced it with a military dictatorship with General Mariano Paredes as leader

• Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor into disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers.

• Mexican force ambushed an American patrol and killed 11 led to the battle of Buena Vista

• Congress declared war• Interactive timeline

The Acquisition of the Southwest

• The Mexican War:– Polk ordered General

Winfield Scott to take Mexico City.

– Captain Robert E. Lee moved in and won the battle. Two officers serving under Lee were McClellan and Grant.

– 1,733 killed in combat total

– 11,550 died from lack of medical care

– 16% of soldiers died

The Acquisition of the Southwest

• Americans swept into New Mexico with the help of the Mormon Brigade.

• CA had little to no resistance leaving Mexico and became the “Bear Flag Republic” awaiting annexation into the US.

• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo 1848 : Mexico gave up New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and CA (called the Mexican Cession) and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of the US; US paid $15 million

The Acquisition of the Southwest

• Gadsden Purchase• US wanted to create a

southern transcontinental railroad joining the west and the south.

• 1853 Gadsden went to negotiate with Mexico for the land.

• Mexico needed money and accepted $10 million for the land.

• After the Civil War a southern transcontinental railroad was built through this territory to CA.

Essential Question

• How did the acquisition of land help to increase sectionalism?