Transcript Manifest Destiny

The United States &
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny: the strong belief by Americans
that God intended them to control North America
Native Americans
• Each stage of American
expansion in the 1700s and
1800s came at the expense
of the Native Americans
who already occupied most
of the continent.
• Just like Europeans in Africa
and Asia viewed those
peoples as inferior,
Americans viewed the
Native Americans as being a
lesser culture and took little
concern for their rights
U.S. in 1800
• The United States in 1800
consisted only of the
lands ceded by the British
in the Treaty of Paris
which had ended the
American Revolution
• This included everything
east of the Mississippi
River, except Florida,
which belonged to Spain
The Louisiana Purchase
• Purchased by Pres. Thomas
Jefferson from Napoleon’s
France in 1803
• Gave US control of the port
of New Orleans, full control
of the Mississippi River and
most of the land between
the Mississippi River and
the Rocky Mountains
• Doubled the size of the
country
• Cost only about $.03/acre
Florida
• Disputed between US
and Spain between
1810 and 1819
• Americans began to
settle there, asked for
protection from Indians
• Spain agreed to forfeit
Florida to the US if the
US agreed to make no
claims against Texas
The Monroe Doctrine
• Issued by Pres. John
Monroe in 1823
• Declared that the U.S.
would intervene if
European nations
attempted to establish
any new colonies in the
Americas
• Aimed at preventing
Spain from trying to
retake old colonies
Texas
• Once Mexico won its
independence from Spain, the
US offered to buy Texas from
Mexico, but was refused
• In 1836, the Texicans (mostly
white American immigrants)
declared independence from
Mexico
• The Republic of Texas was an
independent nation for nine
years (1836 -45)
• In 1845, Texas agreed to be
annexed by US, leading to a
war between the US and
Mexico
Annexation of Oregon
• 1846
• After threats of war,
Britain and the US
peacefully resolved
their dispute over
where the boundary
should lie between US
and Canada in the
Oregon Territory,
splitting the region
along the 49th parallel
The Mexican War
• 1846 – 1848
• After the US annexed Texas
and then insultingly offered
to buy California from
Mexico, the two nations
went to war
• The US won and forced an
unfavorable peace treaty on
Mexico to end the war
• Mexico gave up California,
Nevada, Utah, and most of
Arizona to the US as part of
the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo
Gadsden Purchase
• In 1853, the US purchased
a 30,000 sq. mile strip of
desert from Mexico for
$10 million
• The land was needed to
build a southern
transcontinental railroad
from New Orleans to
California (the railroad
was never built, however,
due to the American Civil
War)
US & Japan
• In 1853, the U.S. Navy
under Commodore Perry
sailed a fleet of American
warships into Tokyo Bay
– U.S. demanded that Japan
open itself to trade
– Japan agreed to allow
American ships access to
Japanese ports because
they knew they could not
win a fight
– Japan would hold a long
resentment against the
U.S. for the incident
Purchase of Alaska
• The US purchased Alaska
from Russia for $7.2 million
in 1867
• The US wanted Russian
competition out of North
America, and the Russians
were already overstretched
and could not easily defend
Alaska
• Most Americans questioned
the purchase, but as it
turned out, Alaska was
loaded with gold & oil!
Annexation of Hawaii
• American sugar planters, who
had overthrown the native
Hawaiian monarchy, established
a temporary government,
believing that the US would
annex Hawaii immediately
• US Pres. Grover Cleveland was
furious with the way the sugar
planters had manipulated the
coup to look like it was US
backed and blocked attempts to
annex Hawaii
• The independent Republic of
Hawaii existed from 1893 - 1898
• US finally annexed Hawaii in
1898 under Pres. McKinley
Spanish-American War
• April – August, 1898
• US demanded that Spain free its
remaining colonies in the
Caribbean Sea, especially Cuba,
due to claims of human rights
abuses
• When the American battleship
USS Maine, which had been sent
to Cuba to monitor the situation,
exploded in Havana Harbor killing
hundreds of Americans, the US
quickly assumed it to be an attack
and went to war with Spain
• US dominated the Spanish, in the
end taking Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the Philippine Islands as the
spoils of war
The Platt Amendment
• After the U.S. had “freed”
Cuba following the
Spanish-American War,
they required that the
Cuban constitution include
a clause allowing the U.S.
to intervene in Cuba at any
time
• Cuba also had to give the
U.S. permanent control of
the naval base at
Guantanamo Bay
The Roosevelt Corollary
• 1904 amendment to the Monroe
Doctrine
• Allowed the U.S. to intervene
anywhere in Latin America to
stabilize economies and ensure
payment of any foreign debts
• Europe had loaned money to
Latin American countries, who
had defaulted on the debts;
European governments had
begun threatening to take direct
control of Latin American
countries which had defaulted
The Panama Canal
• Connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
• French had begun the canal in 1880, but gave up in 1893 after
22,000 worker deaths
• U.S. took over the project in 1904, completing it in 1914
• U.S. controlled the canal until 1999, when it was turned over
to the Panamanian government
US Expansionism