what was the greatest impediment to the annexation of texas to the united states

Manifest Destiny

Manifest destiny was the 19th century U.S. belief that the country had a divine right to expand across and take over the continent.

Learning Objectives

Evaluate how the concept of manifest destiny shaped U.S. thought and movement

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The concept of manifest destiny, coined by a newspaper editor, justified American expansion across the continent.
• The phrase "manifest destiny" suggested that expansion across the American continent was obvious, inevitable, and a divine right of the United States.
• Manifest destiny was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico.
• While many writers focus primarily on U.S. expansionism when discussing manifest destiny, others see a broader expression of conventionalities in the country'southward "mission" in the globe.

Key Terms

• expansionism: A nation's policy of broadening its territory or economical influence.
• manifest destiny: The political doctrine or conventionalities held by the United States, particularly during its expansion, that the nation had a special role and divine right to expand westward and proceeds command over the continent.
• exceptionalism: In the Usa, the conventionalities that the nation does not adapt to an established norm, and instead has a special and divine office to play.

American Expansionism

Manifest destiny was the 19th century U.S. belief that the land (and more than specifically, the white Anglo-Saxon race within it) was destined to aggrandize across the continent. Democrats used the term in the 1840s to justify the war with United mexican states. The concept was largely denounced by Whigs and vicious into decay afterwards the mid-19th century. Advocates of manifest destiny believed that expansion was not just wise, but that it was readily apparent (manifest) and could non be prevented (destiny).

The concept of U.S. expansionism is in fact much older. It is rooted in European nations' early colonization of the Americas, the establishment of the U.s. past white Anglo-Saxons from England, and the continued wars against and forced removal of the American Indians indigenous to the lands. In 1845, John L. O'Sullivan, a New York newspaper editor, introduced the concept of "manifest destiny" in the July/August issue of the U.s.a. Magazine and Autonomous Review, in an article titled, "Annexation." The term described the very pop idea of the special role of the Usa in overtaking the continent—the divine right and duty of white Americans to seize and settle the continent'south western territory, thus spreading Protestant, democratic values.

Sketch of John Fifty. O'Sullivan, 1874: John L. O'Sullivan was an influential columnist equally a beau, but is at present generally remembered simply for his use of the phrase "manifest destiny" to advocate the looting of Texas and Oregon.

Manifest Destiny and Politics

In this climate of opinion, voters in 1844 elected into the presidency James K. Polk, a slaveholder from Tennessee, because he vowed to annex Texas as a new slave country, and to take Oregon. "Manifest destiny" was a term Democrats primarily used to support the Polk Administration'due south expansion plans. The idea of expansion was also supported by Whigs like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln, who wanted to aggrandize the nation's economy. John C. Calhoun was a notable Democrat who generally opposed his party on the event, which savage out of favor by 1860.

Manifest destiny was a general notion rather than a specific policy. The term combined a belief in expansionism with other pop ideas of the era, including Us exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism. While many writers take focused on U.s. expansionism when discussing manifest destiny, others see in the term a broader expression of a conventionalities in the United states of america' "mission" in the globe, which has meant dissimilar things to unlike people over the years. For example, the belief in an U.S. mission to promote and defend republic throughout the world, every bit expounded by Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, continues to influence US political ideology to this day.

The angel Columbia was an image commonly used at the time to personify the United States. Originating from the name of Christopher Columbus, it was originally used for the 13 colonies and remained the dominant image for the female personification of the United states of america until the Statue of Liberty displaced it in the 1920s. During the era of manifest destiny, many images were produced of Columbia spreading democracy and other United States values beyond the western lands.

The Affections Columbia: This 1872 painting depicts Columbia as the "Spirit of the Frontier," carrying telegraph lines across the western frontier to fulfill manifest destiny.

Oregon and the Overland Trails

The Oregon and Overland Trails were two principal routes that moved people and commerce from the east to the west in the 19th century.

Learning Objectives

Examine how establishment of the Oregon and Overland Trails enabled diverse groups to travel west

Key Takeaways

Central Points

• The Oregon Trail covered approximately ii,000 miles from Missouri, Iowa, or Nebraska, catastrophe in the Oregon Territory.
• The Oregon Trail'south initial route was scouted by fur traders and trappers. Each year, as more settlers brought railroad vehicle trains forth the trail, new cutoff routes were discovered that made the road shorter and safer.
• The Overland Phase Company used the Overland Trail to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Both the Oregon and Overland Trail became obsolete when the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad made traveling w safer, easier, and cheaper.
• The original wave of western settler-invaders along the Oregon and Overland Trails consisted of moderately prosperous, white, US-born farming families from the eastward.
• More than contempo immigrants also migrated west, with the largest numbers coming from Northern Europe and Canada. Several thousand African Americans likewise migrated westward following the Ceremonious War.

Central Terms

• Oregon Trail: A 2,000-mile (3,200 km), historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in betwixt.
• Overland Trail: A stagecoach and carriage trail in the American west during the 19th century.
• Transcontinental Railroad: A continuous railroad train line in the United States that traveled across the country and connected the Pacific declension to the Atlantic coast.

Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail was a 2,000-mile, celebrated east-west wagon road and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between. The eastern role of the trail spanned part of the futurity land of Kansas and nearly all of what are now usa of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western one-half of the trail spanned nearly of and then futurity states of Idaho and Oregon.

Oregon Trail: The path of the Oregon Trail, spanning the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.

The beginnings of the Oregon Trail were laid past fur trappers and traders from about 1811 to 1840; these early trails were just passable on foot or by horseback. By 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared increasingly further west, eventually reaching the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Each yr, as more settlers brought wagon trains forth the trail, new cutoff routes were discovered that made the road shorter and safer. Improved roads, ferries, and bridges too improved the trip. In that location were various offshoots in Missouri, Iowa, and the Nebraska Territory; the routes converged along the lower Platte River Valley almost Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory and led to rich farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains.

From the early on to mid-1830s, and particularly through the epochal years of 1846–1869, about 400,000 settlers, ranchers, farmers, miners, and businessmen and their families used the Oregon Trail and its many offshoots. The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail (from 1843), Bozeman Trail (from 1863), and Mormon Trail (from 1847), who used many of the aforementioned trails earlier turning off to their carve up destinations. Apply of the trail declined as the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, making the trip w substantially faster, cheaper, and safer. Today, modern highways such as Interstate fourscore follow the aforementioned class westward and pass through towns originally established to service the Oregon Trail.

Overland Trail

The Overland Trail (also known as the Overland Stage Line) was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American w during the 19th century. While explorers and trappers had used portions of the route since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an culling route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Stage Company owned past Ben Holladay famously used the Overland Trail to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early on 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The phase line operated until 1869, when completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad eliminated the demand for postal service service via stagecoach.

Ruts on the Oregon Trail: So many wagons traveled the Oregon Trail that ruts are still visible along some sections. This photo was taken in 2008 in Wyoming.

Who Were the Settlers?

In the 19th century, as today, relocating and starting a new life took money. Because of the initial cost of relocation, land, and supplies, as well as months of preparing the soil, planting, and subsequent harvesting before whatever produce was ready for market, the original wave of western settler-invaders along the Oregon Trail in the 1840s and 1850s consisted of moderately prosperous, white, native-born farming families from the east. More recent immigrants too migrated due west, with the largest numbers coming from Northern Europe and Canada. Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish were among the almost common. Compared with European immigrants, those from China were much less numerous, yet still significant.

In improver to a pregnant European migration west, several thou African Americans migrated west following the Civil War, equally much to escape the racism and violence of the Old South equally to discover new economic opportunities. The latter were were known as exodusters, referencing the biblical flying from Arab republic of egypt, because they fled the racism of the S, with most headed to Kansas from Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Past 1890, over 500,000 African Americans lived west of the Mississippi River.

The Western Borderland

As the nation expanded westward, settlers were motivated by opportunities to subcontract the land or "make information technology rich" through cattle or gilt.

Learning Objectives

Describe the conditions mutual in western frontier towns

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• While the motivation for private turn a profit dominated much of the movement westward, the federal regime played a supporting function in securing land and maintaining law and order.
• The rigors of life in the West presented many challenges to homesteaders, such as dry and barren land, droughts, insect swarms, shortages of materials, and lost crops.
• Although homestead farming was the primary goal of nearly western settlers in the latter half of the 19th century, a small-scale minority sought to make fortunes quickly through other ways, such as gold or cattle.
• The American West became notorious for its hard mining towns, such as Deadwood, Due south Dakota and Tombstone, Arizona, and entrepreneurs in these and other towns set up stores and businesses to cater to the miners.

Key Terms

• Homesteading: A lifestyle of cocky-sufficiency characterized by subsistence agriculture and home preservation of foodstuffs; information technology may or may non also involve the small-scale product of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household utilize or sale.

Moving Due west

The Federal Function

While the motivation for private profit dominated much of the move westward, the federal government played a supporting office in securing state and maintaining law and order. Despite the Jeffersonian aversion to, and mistrust of, federal ability, the government bore more heavily into the Westward than whatsoever other region, fueled past the ideas of manifest destiny. Because local governments in western frontier towns were often nonexistent or weak, westerners depended on the federal government to protect them and their rights.

The federal government established a sequence of actions related to command over western lands. Kickoff, it sent surveyors and explorers to map and document the country and ultimately acquire western territory from other nations or American Indian tribes by treaty or forcefulness. Adjacent, it ordered federal troops to clear out and subdue any resistance from American Indians. It subsidized the construction of railroad lines to facilitate westward migration, and finally, it established bureaucracies to manage the land (such equally the Bureau of Indian Diplomacy, Land Office, US Geological Survey, and Wood Service). By the end of the 19th century, the federal authorities had amassed great size, power, and influence in national affairs.

Transportation

Transportation was a key issue in westward expansion. The Army (especially the Army Corps of Engineers) was given full responsibility for facilitating navigation on the rivers. The steamboat, first used on the Ohio River in 1811, made cheap travel using the river systems possible. The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries were especially used for this purpose. Army expeditions up the Missouri River from 1818 to 1825 immune engineers to improve the technology. For case, the Army's steamboat, the Western Engineer, of 1819 combined a very shallow draft with one of the earliest stern wheels. During this menstruum, Colonel Henry Atkinson adult keelboats with paw-powered paddle wheels.

In addition to river travel, the Oregon and Overland Trails allowed for increased travel and migration to the West. The completion of the beginning transcontinental railroad in 1869 dramatically changed the pace of travel in the country, as people were able to consummate in a week a route that had previously taken months.

Life in the West

Homesteading

The rigors of life in the West presented many challenges and difficulties to homesteaders. The country was dry and barren, and homesteaders lost crops to hail, droughts, insect swarms, and other challenges. There were few materials with which to build, and early homes were fabricated of mud, which did not stand upwardly to the elements. Coin was a constant business organization, as the cost of railroad freight was exorbitant, and banks were unforgiving of bad harvests. For women, life was especially difficult; subcontract wives worked at to the lowest degree 11 hours a day on chores and had express access to doctors or midwives. All the same, many women were more independent than their eastern counterparts and worked in partnership with their husbands.

As the railroad expanded and ameliorate farm equipment became available, past the 1870s, big farms began to succeed through economies of scale. Notwithstanding small farms nonetheless struggled to stay adrift, leading to rising discontent amidst the farmers, who worked so hard for and then little success.

Western Frontier Towns

Although homestead farming was the master goal of nearly western settlers in the latter half of the 19th century, a small minority sought to make their fortunes rapidly through other means. Specifically, gold (and subsequently silver and copper) prospecting attracted thousands of miners looking to become rich quickly earlier returning E. In add-on, ranchers capitalized on newly available railroad lines to move longhorn steers that populated southern and western Texas. This meat was highly sought after in eastern markets, and the demand created not only wealthy ranchers but an era of cowboys and cattle drives that in many means defines how we think of the Westward today. Although neither miners nor ranchers intended to remain permanently in the West, many individuals from both groups ultimately stayed and settled at that place.

The American West became notorious for its hard mining towns. Deadwood, Southward Dakota, in the Blackness Hills, was an archetypal late golden town founded in 1875. Although the town was far from any railroad, twenty,000 people lived in that location every bit of 1876. Tombstone, Arizona was a notorious mining town that flourished longer than nearly, from 1877 to 1929. Silver was discovered there in 1877, and by 1881 the town had a population of over 10,000. Entrepreneurs in these and other towns fix stores and businesses to cater to the miners. Gambling and prostitution were central to life in these western towns, and but later on―equally the female population increased and reformers moved in―did prostitution become somewhat less common.

The popular image of the Wild Due west portrayed in books, television, and film has been one of violence and mayhem. The lure of quick riches through mining or driving cattle meant that much of the West indeed consisted of crude men living a crude life, although the violence was exaggerated and even glorified in the dime-store novels of the day. The exploits of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and others made for skillful stories, just the reality was that western violence was more isolated than the stories might advise. These clashes often occurred equally people struggled for the scarce resources that could make or break their chance at riches, or as they dealt with the sudden wealth or poverty that prospecting provided.

Every bit wealthy men brought their families w, the lawless landscape slowly began to modify. Abilene, Kansas is one case of a lawless town, replete with prostitutes, gambling, and other vices, that transformed when middle-grade women arrived in the 1880s with their husbands. These women began to organize churches, schools, civic clubs, and other community programs to promote family values.

Western mining towns: The commencement gilt prospectors in the 1850s and 1860s worked with hands portable tools that allowed them to follow their dream and try to strike it rich (a). Information technology did not have long for the most accessible minerals to be stripped, making fashion for large mining operations, including hydraulic mining, where loftier-pressure water jets removed sediment and rocks (b).

Women in the Due west

Women were vitally important in the settlement of the West.

Learning Objectives

Draw the experience of women in the western frontier

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• Women held many responsibilities during the west expansion, such as managing the move of households overland, establishing social activities in pioneer settlements, and sharing the hard labor of farming new state.
• Frontier life was highly social, and women participated in many activities with their neighbors such equally befouled raising, corn husking, and quilting bees.
• Some women plant work in the sexual activity trade in early mining towns.
• Eventually, borderland towns attracted women who worked every bit laundresses and seamstresses, and organized church building societies and other reform movements.
• The western frontier besides gave ascent to many famous women who countered traditional gender roles, such as Annie Oakley, Pearl Hart, and Nellie Cashman.

Key Terms

• befouled raisings: A collective action of a community in which a edifice is assembled collectively by members of the community.
• prostitution: Engaging in sexual action with another person in exchange for compensation, such as money or other valuable goods.
• Grange: A farmers' clan organized in 1867. Officially called The National Grange of the Society of Patrons of Husbandry. The association operates at the local, county, and state levels by sponsoring social activities, customs service, and political lobbying and promoting economical and agronomical unity in communities.
• brothel: A house of prostitution.

Farm Life

During the early on years of settlement on the Groovy Plains, women played an integral role in ensuring family survival by working the fields alongside their husbands and children. This was in addition to their handling of many other responsibilities, such as kid-rearing, feeding and article of clothing the family and hired hands, and managing the housework. As late every bit 1900, a typical subcontract wife could wait to devote nine hours per twenty-four hour period to chores such as cleaning, sewing, laundering, and preparing nutrient. Two additional hours were spent cleaning the barn and chicken coop, milking the cows, caring for the chickens, and tending the family garden.

While some women could find employment in the newly settled towns as teachers, cooks, or seamstresses, they originally were deprived of many rights. Women were non permitted to sell property, sue for divorce, serve on juries, or vote. For the vast majority of women, piece of work was non in towns for money, but on the farm. Despite these obstacles, the challenges of farm life eventually empowered women to interruption through sure legal and social barriers. Many lived more equitably as partners with their husbands than did their eastern US counterparts. If widowed, a married woman typically took over responsibility for the farm, a level of management very rare back east, where the farm would fall to a son or another male relation. Pioneer women made of import decisions and were considered by their husbands to be more equal partners in the success of the homestead. This was considering of the necessity that all members had to piece of work difficult and contribute to the farming enterprise for it to succeed. Therefore, it is not surprising that the starting time states to grant women's rights, including the right to vote, were those in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest, where women pioneers worked the land adjacent with men.

Outside the family, women also played a crucial role in the community. People living in rural areas created rich social lives for themselves, oftentimes sponsoring activities that combined work, food, and amusement, such as barn raising, corn husking, quilting bees, Grange meetings, church activities, and school functions. Women as well organized shared meals, potluck events, and extended visits between families.

Homesteading family: Many women traveled westward with family unit groups, such as the female parent in this 1886 photograph.

Ranching and Mining Towns

While homesteaders were oftentimes families, gold speculators and ranchers tended to exist single men in pursuit of fortune. The few women who went to these wild outposts were typically prostitutes, and even their numbers were limited. In 1860, in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada, for example, there were reportedly only thirty women in a boondocks with some ii,500 men.

Women constitute occupations in all walks of borderland life. Some women worked in brothels despite the harsh and dangerous working conditions. Many Chinese women, for example, came to the western camps every bit prostitutes to make coin to send back dwelling house. Some of the "painted ladies" who began as prostitutes somewhen endemic brothels and became businesswomen in their own right. However, life for these young women remained a challenging one as western settlement progressed. A scattering of women, no more than than 600, braved both the elements and male-dominated civilization to become teachers in several of the more established cities in the West. Even fewer arrived to support their husbands or operate stores in the mining towns.

Toward the latter part of the 19th century, wealthy men began bringing their families westward, and the by and large lawless landscape slowly began to change. Middle-class women arrived in the 1880s with their husbands and established boarding houses, organized church societies, and worked equally laundresses and seamstresses. These women began to organize churches, school, civic clubs, and other community programs to promote family values. They fought to remove opportunities for prostitution and other vices they felt threatened their values. Protestant missionaries eventually joined the women in their efforts, and Congress responded by passing both the Comstock Law (named after its chief proponent, anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock) in 1873 to ban the spread of "lewd and lascivious literature" through the post, and the subsequent Page Deed of 1875 to prohibit transportation of women into the United states for employment as prostitutes. However, the brothels continued to operate and remained popular throughout the West despite reformers' efforts.

Famous Women of the West

The western borderland too gave rise to many famous women, including Annie Oakley, Pearl Hart, and Nellie Cashman.

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley (1860–1926) was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter whose talent first came to light when, at age xv, she won a shooting match with traveling show marksman Frank E. Butler (whom she later married). The couple joined Buffalo Beak'south Wild West show, and later Oakley became a renowned international star, performing before royalty and heads of state.

Pearl Hart

Pearl Hart (c. 1871 to afterwards 1928) was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Old West. She committed 1 of the concluding recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States. Her criminal offence gained notoriety primarily because she was a woman. Many details of Hart's life are uncertain, with available reports often varied and contradictory.

Nellie Cashman

Ellen "Nellie" Cashman (1845–1925) became known across the American Due west and in western Canada equally a nurse, restaurateur, businesswoman, Roman Catholic philanthropist in Arizona, and gold prospector in Alaska. A native of County Cork, Ireland, she and her sister were brought as young children to the United States by their female parent around 1850 to escape the poverty of the Great Dearth. Cashman established her first boarding business firm for miners in British Columbia during the Klondike Gold Rush. During her time there, she led a rescue of dozens of miners in the Cassiar Mountains.

After moving to Tombstone, Arizona, around 1880, Cashman built the Sacred Center Catholic Church and did charitable work with the Sisters of St. Joseph. In the late 1880s, Cashman set up several restaurants and boarding houses in Arizona. In 1898, she went to the Yukon for gold prospecting, and worked there until 1905. She became nationally known as a frontierswoman, with the Associated Press covering a later on trip.

Annexing Texas

Afterwards a series of skirmishes with Mexico, the Republic of Texas won independence in 1836 and was annexed into the United States in 1845.

Learning Objectives

Examine the economic motivations behind the Mexico and Texas war and the subsequent looting of Texas past the United States

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Post-obit Mexico's gaining independence from Spain in 1821, American settlers immigrated to Texas in big numbers, intent on taking the land from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation to create a new US slave land.
• Anglo-American settlers in Texas were non pleased with United mexican states's religious practices, legal organisation, and 1829 abolition of slavery.
• In March 1836, the Consultation in Texas alleged independence from Mexico and drafted a constitution calling for a US-manner judicial system and an elected president and legislature.
• The Boxing of the Alamo was a pivotal point in the Texas Revolution; the Republic of Texas won independence from United mexican states in 1836.
• The first overtures to annex the new Republic of Texas to the United States began in 1837, but the Us declined, believing it would lead to war with Mexico.
• Texas'due south annexation to the The states was ultimately accomplished in 1845 during the final days of the Tyler administration.

Central Terms

• Republic of Texas: An independent sovereign state in N America that existed from March 2, 1836 to February 19, 1846.
• Sam Houston: A 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier, best known for his leading function in bringing Texas into the U.s.a..
• annexation: The permanent acquisition and incorporation of a territorial entity into another geopolitical entity (either next or non-face-to-face).

US Migration into Texas

American expansionists had long coveted the area of Espana's empire known as Texas. After the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty established the boundary betwixt Mexico and the Usa, more American expansionists began to motion into the northern portion of the Mexican province of Coahuila y Tejas. Following United mexican states's independence from Spain in 1821, US settlers immigrated to Texas in fifty-fifty larger numbers, intent on taking the country from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation in order to create a new United states slave state.

Anglo-Americans, primarily from the southern United States, began emigrating to Mexican Texas in the 1820s at the request of the Mexican government, which sought to populate the sparsely inhabited lands of its northern frontier and mitigate attacks from American Indian tribes in the region. Anglo-Americans soon became a majority in Texas and quickly became dissatisfied with Mexican rule. The soil and climate were conducive to expanding slavery and the cotton fiber kingdom. To many whites, it seemed non only their God-given right but as well their patriotic duty to populate the lands across the Mississippi River, bringing with them American slavery, culture, laws, and political traditions.

Rising Tensions

Anglo-American settlers in Texas, who were primarily Protestant, were discontented with Mexico'due south prohibition of public practice of religions other than Catholicism. They were likewise dissatisfied with the Mexican legal arrangement, which was markedly unlike from the representative democracy and jury trials found in the United states. Of greatest business organisation, however, was the Mexican government'south 1829 abolitionism of slavery. Well-nigh The states settlers were from southern states, and many had brought slaves with them. Mexico tried to accommodate them by maintaining the questionable assertion that the slaves were indentured servants. However, American slaveholders in Texas distrusted the Mexican government and wanted Texas to be a new U.s. slave state. The great dislike for Roman Catholicism coupled with a widely held belief in American racial superiority led to a generally racist and discriminatory view toward Mexicans.

Declaring Independence

50-five delegates from the Anglo-American settlements in Texas gathered in 1831 with demands including creation of an independent land of Texas divide from Coahuila. When ordered to disband, the delegates reconvened in early April 1833 to write a constitution for an independent Texas. While Mexican President General Antonio 50ópez de Santa Anna, agreed to many of their demands, he did not grant statehood. The Consultation delegates met again in March of 1836. They declared their independence from Mexico and drafted a constitution calling for a US-style judicial system and an elected president and legislature. Notably, they too established that slavery would not exist prohibited in Texas. Many wealthy Tejanos supported the push for independence, hoping for liberal governmental reforms and economical benefits.

Battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution

Mexico had no intention of losing its northern province. Santa Anna and his army of some 4,000 troops had besieged San Antonio in February 1836. Hopelessly outnumbered, its 200 defenders fought fiercely from their refuge in an old mission known as the Alamo.

The Boxing of the Alamo, as it came to be called, lasted from Feb 23 to March vi, 1836. This was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a thirteen-24-hour interval siege, Mexican troops nether Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission, and all of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna's perceived cruelty during the battle inspired many Texians—both Texas settlers and adventurers from the U.s.a.—to join the Texian Army. Buoyed by a want for revenge, the Texians defeated the Mexican regular army at the Boxing of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, ending the revolution. Sam Houston became the first president of the Republic of Texas, elected on a platform that favored annexation to the United States.

Boxing of the Alamo: The Autumn of the Alamo, painted by Theodore Gentilz fewer than x years subsequently this pivotal moment in the Texas Revolution, depicts the 1836 assault on the Alamo complex.

Lone Star Republic and the Result of Annexation

Mindful of the vicious debates over Missouri that had led to talk of disunion and war, US politicians were reluctant to addendum Texas or, indeed, fifty-fifty to recognize it as a sovereign nation. Annexation would almost certainly trigger war with United mexican states, and admission of a state with a large slave population, though permissible under the Missouri Compromise, would once again bring the issue of slavery to the fore. Texas had no pick but to organize itself equally the contained Alone Star Democracy. To protect itself from Mexican attempts to repossess it, Texas sought and received recognition from France, Britain, Belgium, and holland. The United States did not officially recognize Texas every bit an independent nation until March 1837, well-nigh a year after the final victory over the Mexican ground forces at San Jacinto.

Uncertainty about its future, withal, did not discourage Americans committed to expansion, especially slaveholders, from rushing to settle in the Lone Star Republic. Betwixt 1836 and 1846, its population near tripled. By 1840, American slaveholders had brought virtually 12,000 enslaved Africans to Texas. In keeping with the plan of ethnic cleansing and white racial domination, Americans in Texas mostly treated both Mexican Tejano and American Indian residents with contempt, eager to displace and dispossess them.

In Baronial 1837, Memucan Hunt, Jr., the Texan minister to the United States, submitted an looting proposal to the Van Buren assistants. Assertive that annexation would lead to war with Mexico, the administration declined Hunt's proposal. Subsequently the election of Mirabeau B. Lamar, an opponent of looting, as president of Texas in 1838, Texas withdrew its offer. Texas would not become annexed to the United States until 1845 in the final days of President Tyler's administration.

Tyler and Texas

John Tyler'due south presidency was marked by a serial of moves favoring American expansionism, including the annexation of Texas.

Learning Objectives

Evaluate John Tyler'due south presidency and his political agenda that led to American expansion

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• President John Tyler frequently used the language of manifest destiny to promote expansionist policies.
• Tyler applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, forbidding Uk from exerting influence there, and paved the style for the annexation of Hawaii as a state many years later.
• While Tyler knew that re-election was unlikely, he worked to convert his political defeat into a success for the annexation of Texas, thereby securing his political legacy.
• On February 26, 1845, 6 days earlier Polk took office, Congress passed the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas, and Tyler signed the bill into law 3 days before the end of his term.
• In that location was an ongoing border dispute betwixt the Republic of Texas and United mexican states prior to annexation; Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border while Mexico maintained that information technology was the Nueces River.

Key Terms

• James K. Polk: The 11th President of the United States (1845–1849).
• John Tyler: The 10th President of the United States (1841–1845), after being the 10th Vice President of the The states (1841).
• manifest destiny: The political doctrine or conventionalities held past the U.s.a., particularly during its expansion, that the nation had a God-given right to expand toward the Westward.

President John Tyler

While John Tyler had a difficult time with domestic policy during his presidency (1841–1845), he oversaw many accomplishments in foreign policy, particularly in the areas of westward expansion. He had long been an advocate of expansion toward the Pacific, and of free trade, and was fond of evoking themes of national destiny and the spread of liberty in support of these policies. His presidency continued Andrew Jackson 's earlier efforts to promote US commerce across the Pacific. He applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, told Britain non to interfere there, and began the procedure toward eventual US annexation of Hawaii. In 1842, Secretary of State Daniel Webster negotiated the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain, which concluded where the border between Maine and Canada lay. However, Tyler was unsuccessful in concluding a treaty with the British to fix Oregon'south boundaries. On Tyler'southward concluding total day in office, March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th state.

Americans at this time asserted a right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country's borders, especially in Oregon, California, and Texas. By the mid-1840s, Us expansionism was articulated in the ideology of manifest destiny. Major events in the western movement of the The states population were the Homestead Deed, a constabulary past which, for a nominal toll, a settler was given a championship to 160 acres of land to farm. Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–'47, the California Gilded Rush of 1849, the Colorado Aureate Blitz of 1859, and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

The Issue of Texas

Post-obit the slaveholder Tyler's intermission with the Whigs in 1841, he had begun to shift back to his old Democratic party. Yet, its members were not ready to receive him. He knew that with little adventure of re-election, the only fashion to relieve his presidency and legacy was to move public opinion in favor of the Texas effect, and he formed his own political party to vestibule the Democratic Party in favor of annexation.

Tyler supporters with signs reading "Tyler and Texas!" held their nominating convention in Baltimore in May 1844, just as the Democratic Party was also nominating its presidential candidate. With their high visibility and energy, they were able to force the Democrats' hand in favor of annexation. Ballot after election, Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren failed to win the necessary super- majority of Autonomous votes and slowly fell in the ranking. It was non until the 9th ballot that the Democrats discovered an obscure pro-annexation candidate named James M. Polk. They plant him to be perfectly suited for their platform, and he was nominated with two-thirds of the vote. Tyler considered his work vindicated and implied in an acceptance alphabetic character that annexation was his true priority, rather than re-election.

President Tyler entered negotiations with the Commonwealth of Texas for an annexation treaty, which he submitted to the Senate. On June 8, 1844, the treaty was defeated 35 to 16, well below the ii-thirds majority necessary for ratification. Of the 29 Whig senators, 28 voted against the treaty with only i Whig, a southerner, supporting it. The Democratic senators were more divided on the issue; in the north, half-dozen opposed while five supported the treaty, while i opposed and 10 supported information technology in the due south.

Election of 1844

Tyler was unfazed, yet, and he felt annexation was at present inside reach. He called for Congress to annex Texas by joint resolution rather than by treaty. Quondam President Jackson, a staunch supporter of annexation, persuaded presidential candidate Polk to welcome Tyler back into the Autonomous party, and ordered Democratic editors to cease their attacks on the him. Satisfied by these developments, Tyler dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed Polk for the presidency. Polk's narrow victory over Clay in the November ballot was seen by the Tyler administration as a mandate for completing the resolution.

Annexation

After the ballot, the Tyler administration consulted with President-elect Polk and prepare out to accomplish annexation via a articulation resolution. The resolution declared that Texas would exist admitted as a country as long as it approved annexation by January 1, 1846, that it could separate itself into iv boosted states, and that possession of the Republic's public country would shift to the land of Texas upon its admission. On Feb 26, 1845, six days earlier Polk took office, Congress passed the joint resolution, and Tyler signed the beak into constabulary on March 1, simply iii days before the end of his term.

On July 4, 1845, the Texan Congress endorsed the American annexation offer with but one dissenting vote, and began writing a state constitution. The citizens of Texas approved the new constitution and the annexation ordinance on October 13, 1845, and President Polk signed the documents formally integrating Texas into the Usa on December 29, 1845.

Texas and Mexico Border

Prior to annexation there was an ongoing edge dispute between the Republic of Texas and Mexico. Texas claimed the Rio Grande equally its border, while United mexican states maintained it was the Nueces River, and did non recognize Texan independence. President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to garrison the southern border of Texas, as defined past the quondam Republic. Taylor moved into Texas, ignoring Mexican demands to withdraw. Indeed, Taylor marched every bit far south as the Rio Grande, where he began to build a fort near the river'southward mouth on the Gulf of United mexican states. The Mexican regime regarded this action as a violation of its sovereignty.

The Republic of Texas never controlled what is now New Mexico, and the failed Texas Santa Fe Trek of 1841 was its only attempt to take that territory. El Paso was only taken under Texas governance by Robert Neighbors in 1850, over 4 years afterward looting. Neighbors was not welcomed in New Mexico. Texas continued to claim New Mexico as far as the Rio Grande, supported by the residual of the South and opposed past the Due north and by New Mexico itself. The Texas/New Mexico boundary was not established until the Compromise of 1850.

John Tyler, c. 1841: John Tyler endorsed the idea of manifest destiny to defend the continued expansion of the United States, including the annexation of Texas.

Polk and Expansion

President James K. Polk was a strong proponent of expansionism and achieved the acquisition of Texas, Oregon, and California during his assistants.

Learning Objectives

Evaluate the strategies President Polk used to reach American expansion

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• James K. Polk called the looting of Oregon, Texas, and California main goals of his ane-term presidency.
• Polk'southward envoy negotiated the purchase of Oregon from Britain in 1846 at the 49th parallel and not the 54th parallel, as many had wanted.
• Afterwards the 1845 annexation of Texas, border disputes between the United States and United mexican states led to the Mexican–American War.
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo concluded the Mexican–American State of war in 1848 and led to the addition of California to the U.s..

Key Terms

• Oregon Territory: An organized incorporated area of the United States that existed from August fourteen, 1848 to February fourteen, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union.
• Mexican–American War: An armed conflict between the United states and Mexico spanning 1846–1848 in the wake of the 1845 United states of america annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered role of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The document that concluded the Mexican–American War on February 2, 1848.

President James Grand. Polk

James One thousand. Polk, at age 49 the youngest president at that time to be inaugurated, set out a series of goals, 2 of which were explicitly related to U.s.a. expansion. He intended to acquire some or all of Oregon Country from U.k., as well equally California and New Mexico from Mexico. He pledged to attain all of these objectives in a single term. By linking acquisition of new lands in Oregon (with no slavery ) and Texas (with slavery), he hoped to satisfy both the North and the Due south.

Polk strongly supported expansion. Democrats believed that opening up more land for yeoman farmers was critical for the success of republican virtue. Like most Southerners, he supported the annexation of Texas. To balance the interests of the Northward and the South, he also wanted to acquire the Oregon Country (present-24-hour interval Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia ), and he sought to purchase California from Mexico.

James One thousand. Polk: Daguerreotype of President Polk taken past Mathew Brady on February fourteen, 1849, near the end of his presidency.

During his presidency, many abolitionists harshly criticized Polk equally an instrument of "Slave Ability" and claimed that he supported the annexation of Texas, every bit well as the later war with United mexican states, for the purpose of spreading slavery. Polk believed slavery could not exist in the territories won from Mexico merely refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso that would forestall it there.

U.S. Expansion under President Polk

Oregon

Polk heavily pressured Britain to resolve the Oregon boundary dispute. Since 1818, the territory had been nether the joint occupation and control of the Britain and the United states. Previous Us administrations had offered to split up the region along the 49th parallel, which was not acceptable to United kingdom, as they had commercial interests along the Columbia River. Polk was at showtime willing to compromise, but when the British once again refused to accept the 49th parallel boundary proposal he bankrupt off negotiations and returned to the Autonomous "All Oregon" demand (which chosen for all of Oregon upwardly to the 54–xl line that marked the southern purlieus of Russian Alaska). The rallying weep "54–xl or fight!" became pop among Democrats.

Polk wanted territory, not war, and then he compromised with the British Strange Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 divided the Oregon State forth the 49th parallel, equally in the original U.s. proposal. Although in that location were many who however clamored for the unabridged territory, the Senate approved the treaty. By settling for the 49th parallel, Polk angered many midwestern Democrats. Many of these Democrats believed that Polk had ever wanted the boundary at the 49th, and that he had fooled them into believing he wanted information technology at the 54th. The portion of Oregon territory the United States caused afterwards formed united states of america of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.

Texas

Upon hearing of Polk's election to part in 1844, President John Tyler urged Congress to pass a joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union. Congress complied on February 28, 1845. Texas promptly accepted the offer and officially became a state on December 29, 1845. The looting angered Mexico, which had lost Texas in 1836, and Mexican politicians had repeatedly warned that annexation would lead to state of war. Withal, just days subsequently the resolution passed Congress, Polk declared in his countdown address that only Texas and the United States would decide whether to annex.

California

Afterwards the Texas annexation, Polk turned his attending to California, hoping to learn the territory from Mexico before any European nation could do then. The main interest was San Francisco Bay, as an access point for trade with Asia. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for $24–30 million. Slidell'due south arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after discussion leaked that he was at that place to purchase additional territory and non to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive him, citing a technical problem with his credentials.

In January 1846, to increase force per unit area on Mexico to negotiate, Polk sent troops nether General Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the United States and Mexico. This activity soon led to the Mexican–American War, which the The states won. Equally part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, Polk achieved his goal of adding California to the United States.

Proclamation of War Against Mexico: Polk's presidential proclamation of war against Mexico.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The Mexican Cession (in red) was acquired through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that concluded the Mexican–American War. The Gadsden Buy (in orange) was acquired through buy after Polk left office.

The state of war had serious consequences for Polk and the Democrats, notwithstanding. Information technology gave the Whig Party a unifying message of denouncing the war every bit an immoral deed of assailment carried out through abuse of presidential ability. In the 1848 election, nonetheless, the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, a war hero, and celebrated his victories. Taylor refused to criticize Polk. As a result of the strain of managing the war effort directly and in close detail, Polk's health markedly declined toward the end of his presidency.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/manifest-destiny/

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