Transcript Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny

Westward Expansion
and
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
What do you see in this painting?
Manifest Destiny
 The belief (concept, idea) that the United States
was destined (fate,ordained by God) to spread
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
 The three justifications of Manifest Destiny:
We need more land because our population is
growing.
Americans could bring economic growth and
democracy to places where they had never existed
before.
American territorial expansion was blessed by God
because it was morally right.
Manifest Destiny
John O’Sullivan
Editor of the Democratic Review, expressed what
Americans had thought all along:
It was America’s future to expand her empire of
liberty from coast to coast.
The term was used to justify the U.S. annexation of
Oregon, New Mexico, and California and later U.S.
involvement in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
Westward Expansion
The actual growth of the United States
through territorial acquisition.
Mountain Men contribute to westward
expansion by finding ways to travel
through the Rocky Mts.
Americans risked their lives to go
west—WHY?
Expansion of the U.S.
Mountain Men

Fur trappers that spent their lives living
in the unexplored regions of the North
America.
Many lived and married Indians
Explored the far west and helped open it
up for settlement.
Every summer they gathered for
rendezvous.
– Traded Furs
– Running, Jumping, Shooting and Wrestling
contests.
Jedediah Smith
Discovered the South Pass in Wyoming.
A gap or cut in the Rocky mountains that
settlers used to get to California.
James Beckwourth
Discovered the Beckwourth
Pass.
A route for settlers to cut
through the Sierra Nevada
mountain range.
Kit Carson
Jim Bridger
Moving

Westward
Since settling at Jamestown, settlers continued to move west.
Original Thirteen Colonies (1607-1733)
Land ceded by Britain after the Revolutionary War (1783)
The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
West Florida (1810-1813)
British Cession (1818)
East Florida (1819)
British Cession (1842)
Texas Annexation (1845)
Oregon Country (1846)
Mexican Cession (1848)
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
Problems of Expansion
 Indian Removal
 Border Conflicts
 The Expansion of Slavery
States Rights issues of popular sovereignty when
determining whether a state will allow slavery or not.
Moving Westward Map
Moving Westward Map
Moving Westward Map
Moving Westward Map
Moving Westward Map
Trails
 Santa
Fe Trail-
Travel route from Independence, Missouri
to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Founded by the Spanish in 1610 and was
closed to “Americanos” until 1821 when
Mexico won its independence from Spain
and opened Santa Fe to American traders.
William Bucknell led the first wagon train
into Santa Fe in 1822.
Today, you can still see the wagon ruts on
the edge of town.
Oregon Trail
Travel route from
Independence, Missouri to
Portland, Oregon.
In 1841, settlers lured by fertile
land began making the 2000
mile journey.
In 1843, Oregon set up a
provisional government and
demanded annexation to the
United States.
Mormons
• Founded by Joseph Smith
in New York in 1830.
• Why were people
prejudiced against the
Mormons? (pg. 381)
• Founders of a great
amount of data dealing
with genealogy.
• Joseph Smith was
murdered in Illinois in
1844.
Mormon Trail
Travel route from Independence,
Missouri to Salt Lake City,
Utah.
 In 1847, Brigham Young led the
first of 15,000 Mormon settlers
Handcarts
to the Utah territory as a
In 1846, 200 Mormon’s
religious haven.
froze to death during a blizzard.
 In 1896, Utah became a state.


California Trail
Trails
Travel route from Independence, Missouri to Sacramento.
(Sutter’s Fort)
– Follow the Oregon Trail to Idaho, in Idaho the trail is going to split.
If you go north on the trail you will head to Oregon. If you go south
on the trail, you will head to California.
In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Fort near
Sacramento.
The “gold rush” brought 80,000 people to the California
territory by 1849.
In 1849, the “forty-niners, wrote a state constitution and
sought U.S. annexation.
Texas Revolution-1836
1821-Stephen F. Austin brought 300 families to Texas. They
settled on the Brazos River in southeast Texas.
 The land grant was originally given to Austin’s father by Spain.
The settlers soon learned that Mexico had won its independence
from Spain.
 As Mexican citizens, the settlers could not own slaves, had to
became Catholics, and obeyed Mexican laws. They had local selfgovernment until 1835.
 General Santa Anna became a dictator and abolished local
governments.

Texas Revolution-1836

On March 2, 1836, the Texans set up a provisional
government and declared their independence.
March 6, 1836-”Remember the Alamo”
– 183 Texans killed including: William
Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett.
– William Travis is the commander at the
Alamo
March 27, 1836-”Goliad”
– Mexican Army massacred 342 rebels at
Goliad.
April 21, 1836- Battle of San Jacinto
– Santa Anna is defeated and Texas
announces its independence.
Texas is Annexed!!!
Texas is an independent
republic from 1836-1845.
Texas becomes a state in
1845.
It enters as a slave state
Sam Houston

Sam(uel) Houston,
governor of two states,
president of the Republic
of Texas, U.S. senator,
and military hero, was
one of the most colorful
figures of 19th-century
America.
Mexican War
Mexican War-1846

Who- Mexico, Texas, and the United States.
United States- President James K. Polk, General Zachary Taylor.
Mexico-General/President Santa Anna

Why War?
Boundary of Texas/Mexican Border (MAIN REASON!)
Annexation of Texas
American Migration into California.

WhenTexas Independence-1836-Annexation-1845
War is Declared-May 13, 1846
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo-February 2, 1848
Mexican War-1846 to 1848

WhereTexas-Rio Grande River (Zachary Taylor)
New Mexico Area-Santa Fe (Kearny)
California-San Francisco and Monterey
Mexico-Mexico City (Winfield Scott)
Why- Texas had won its independence and become a U.S.
state in 1845. The Mexicans claimed the Southern border of
Texas was the Nueces River, U.S. said it was Rio Grande.
 The border clashes between the U.S. Army(Taylor) and the
Mexican army at the Rio Grande River started the war.

Mexican War-1846 to 1848
 Outcome-
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico would accept the Rio Grande River as the Texas
border and cede New Mexico and California to the United
States. (The Mexican Cession)
The United States would assume claims against Mexico
and pay Mexico $15,000,000. (Guilt Money)
 Consequences
of the Mexican War:
Sectional Tensions rise between the North and South over
the issue of slavery.
Americans acquire most of the Southwest
80,000 Mexicans become Americans almost overnight
The California Gold Rush
John Sutter (who was given 50K acres
by the Mexican govenor) and James
Marshall find gold at Sutter’s Mill near
Sacramento in 1848
In 1849, the “49ers” rush into
California to seek their fortunes, most did
not find it.
Routes to the California Gold
Rush
routes to gold rush
250,000 people will flock to California
during the four year period of the gold
rush. This growth causes problems in
both California and the US as a whole
California is annexed as a free state in
1850 and sectional tensions rise between
the North and South over slavery.
Before the gold rush Californios worked
and lived primarily large cattle
ranches. After the rush Californios lost
their property to American settlers and
Native Americans were treated harshly.
Economy booms
Economic growth was huge, San Francisco
became a center of banking, shipping and
trade. Sacramento (wine country today)
became a center of agricultural production.