When White Families Moved West, Men Were More Likely to Work Longer Hours Than Women on the Trail.

Manifest Destiny

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

Learning Objectives

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

Fundamental Takeaways

Primal Points

• The concept of manifest destiny, coined by a paper editor, justified American expansion across the continent.
• The phrase "manifest destiny" suggested that expansion beyond the American continent was obvious, inevitable, and a divine right of the U.s.a..
• Manifest destiny was used past Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with United mexican states.
• While many writers focus primarily on U.South. expansionism when discussing manifest destiny, others meet a broader expression of belief in the country's "mission" in the world.

Key Terms

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

American Expansionism

Manifest destiny was the 19th century U.S. belief that the country (and more than specifically, the white Anglo-Saxon race within it) was destined to expand across the continent. Democrats used the term in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico. The concept was largely denounced by Whigs and fell into disuse later on the mid-19th century. Advocates of manifest destiny believed that expansion was not only wise, just that it was readily apparent (manifest) and could non be prevented (destiny).

The concept of U.South. expansionism is in fact much older. It is rooted in European nations' early colonization of the Americas, the establishment of the United states of america by 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 paper editor, introduced the concept of "manifest destiny" in the July/August event of the United States Mag and Democratic Review, in an article titled, "Annexation." The term described the very pop thought of the special office of the United states of america in overtaking the continent—the divine right and duty of white Americans to seize and settle the continent's western territory, thus spreading Protestant, democratic values.

Sketch of John L. O'Sullivan, 1874: John L. O'Sullivan was an influential columnist as a fellow, but is at present more often than not remembered only for his use of the phrase "manifest destiny" to advocate the annexation of Texas and Oregon.

Manifest Destiny and Politics

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

Manifest destiny was a full general notion rather than a specific policy. The term combined a belief in expansionism with other popular ideas of the era, including US exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism. While many writers have focused on United states expansionism when discussing manifest destiny, others see in the term a broader expression of a belief in the United States' "mission" in the world, which has meant different things to different people over the years. For example, the belief in an U.S. mission to promote and defend commonwealth throughout the world, as expounded by Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, continues to influence US political ideology to this day.

The affections Columbia was an paradigm commonly used at the fourth dimension to personify the United states. Originating from the proper name of Christopher Columbus, information technology was originally used for the xiii colonies and remained the dominant prototype for the female personification of the U.s. 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 across the western lands.

The Angel Columbia: This 1872 painting depicts Columbia as the "Spirit of the Borderland," carrying telegraph lines across the western borderland to fulfill manifest destiny.

Oregon and the Overland Trails

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

Learning Objectives

Examine how institution of the Oregon and Overland Trails enabled various groups to travel w

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• The Oregon Trail covered approximately 2,000 miles from Missouri, Iowa, or Nebraska, ending in the Oregon Territory.
• The Oregon Trail'south initial road was scouted by fur traders and trappers. Each year, as more settlers brought carriage trains along the trail, new cutoff routes were discovered that fabricated the route shorter and safer.
• The Overland Phase Visitor 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 west safer, easier, and cheaper.
• The original moving ridge of western settler-invaders along the Oregon and Overland Trails consisted of moderately prosperous, white, US-born farming families from the due east.
• More contempo immigrants also migrated west, with the largest numbers coming from Northern Europe and Canada. Several yard African Americans also migrated west following the Civil War.

Key Terms

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

Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail was a ii,000-mile, celebrated eastward-west railroad vehicle route and emigrant trail that continued the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between. The eastern part of the trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas and well-nigh all of what are now united states of america of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of and so future 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 by fur trappers and traders from virtually 1811 to 1840; these early trails were only passable on pes or by horseback. Past 1836, when the first migrant railroad vehicle train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a carriage trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared increasingly further west, somewhen reaching the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Each year, as more settlers brought carriage trains along the trail, new cutoff routes were discovered that made the route shorter and safer. Improved roads, ferries, and bridges besides improved the trip. There were various offshoots in Missouri, Iowa, and the Nebraska Territory; the routes converged along the lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory and led to rich farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains.

From the early 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 same trails earlier turning off to their separate destinations. Use of the trail declined as the starting time transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, making the trip west essentially faster, cheaper, and safer. Today, mod highways such as Interstate 80 follow the same course w 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 west 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 every bit an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails through primal Wyoming. The Overland Stage Company endemic past Ben Holladay famously used the Overland Trail to run postal service and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 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 stage line operated until 1869, when completion of the Kickoff Transcontinental Railroad eliminated the need for mail via stagecoach.

Ruts on the Oregon Trail: So many wagons traveled the Oregon Trail that ruts are nevertheless visible along some sections. This photograph 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 price of relocation, land, and supplies, also as months of preparing the soil, planting, and subsequent harvesting before any produce was gear up for market, the original moving ridge 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 also migrated west, with the largest numbers coming from Northern Europe and Canada. Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish gaelic were among the well-nigh common. Compared with European immigrants, those from People's republic of china were much less numerous, still withal significant.

In add-on to a significant European migration due west, several thousand African Americans migrated west post-obit the Civil War, as much to escape the racism and violence of the Former S equally to find new economic opportunities. The latter were were known every bit exodusters, referencing the biblical flight from Egypt, because they fled the racism of the South, with most headed to Kansas from Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. By 1890, over 500,000 African Americans lived west of the Mississippi River.

The Western Frontier

As the nation expanded westward, settlers were motivated past opportunities to subcontract the state or "make it rich" through cattle or gold.

Learning Objectives

Describe the conditions common in western frontier towns

Primal Takeaways

Central Points

• While the motivation for private profit dominated much of the movement westward, the federal government played a supporting role in securing land and maintaining law and club.
• The rigors of life in the Westward presented many challenges to homesteaders, such equally dry out and barren land, droughts, insect swarms, shortages of materials, and lost crops.
• Although homestead farming was the master goal of nigh western settlers in the latter one-half of the 19th century, a small minority sought to make fortunes quickly through other means, such as gilt or cattle.
• The American Westward became notorious for its difficult mining towns, such equally Deadwood, South Dakota and Tombstone, Arizona, and entrepreneurs in these and other towns gear up stores and businesses to cater to the miners.

Primal Terms

• Homesteading: A lifestyle of cocky-sufficiency characterized by subsistence agriculture and domicile preservation of foodstuffs; it may or may not as well involve the pocket-sized-calibration production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale.

Moving West

The Federal Role

While the motivation for private profit dominated much of the movement w, the federal government played a supporting role in securing state and maintaining law and gild. Despite the Jeffersonian aversion to, and mistrust of, federal power, the government diameter more than heavily into the West than whatever other region, fueled by the ideas of manifest destiny. Because local governments in western frontier towns were often nonexistent or weak, westerners depended on the federal regime to protect them and their rights.

The federal government established a sequence of actions related to control over western lands. First, information technology sent surveyors and explorers to map and document the land and ultimately larn western territory from other nations or American Indian tribes by treaty or force. Next, it ordered federal troops to clear out and subdue any resistance from American Indians. Information technology subsidized the construction of railroad lines to facilitate w migration, and finally, information technology established bureaucracies to manage the land (such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Country Part, US Geological Survey, and Forest Service). By the end of the 19th century, the federal government had amassed smashing size, ability, and influence in national affairs.

Transportation

Transportation was a key issue in w expansion. The Regular army (especially the Ground forces Corps of Engineers) was given full responsibleness for facilitating navigation on the rivers. The steamboat, beginning used on the Ohio River in 1811, made inexpensive travel using the river systems possible. The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries were especially used for this purpose. Army expeditions upward the Missouri River from 1818 to 1825 immune engineers to improve the technology. For instance, the Army's steamboat, the Western Engineer, of 1819 combined a very shallow draft with ane of the primeval stern wheels. During this period, Colonel Henry Atkinson adult keelboats with mitt-powered paddle wheels.

In add-on to river travel, the Oregon and Overland Trails immune for increased travel and migration to the West. The completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 dramatically changed the pace of travel in the country, as people were able to complete in a week a route that had previously taken months.

Life in the Due west

Homesteading

The rigors of life in the W presented many challenges and difficulties to homesteaders. The state was dry out and barren, and homesteaders lost crops to hail, droughts, insect swarms, and other challenges. There were few materials with which to build, and early on homes were made of mud, which did non stand upwards to the elements. Coin was a constant concern, equally the toll of railroad freight was exorbitant, and banks were unforgiving of bad harvests. For women, life was specially difficult; farm wives worked at least xi hours a day on chores and had limited admission to doctors or midwives. Notwithstanding, many women were more contained than their eastern counterparts and worked in partnership with their husbands.

As the railroad expanded and better farm equipment became available, by the 1870s, big farms began to succeed through economies of scale. Yet small farms still struggled to stay adrift, leading to rising discontent among the farmers, who worked so hard for and so little success.

Western Frontier Towns

Although homestead farming was the primary goal of near western settlers in the latter half of the 19th century, a small minority sought to make their fortunes rapidly through other ways. Specifically, gold (and subsequently silvery and copper) prospecting attracted thousands of miners looking to get rich quickly earlier returning East. In improver, ranchers capitalized on newly available railroad lines to move longhorn steers that populated southern and western Texas. This meat was highly sought later in eastern markets, and the demand created not simply wealthy ranchers but an era of cowboys and cattle drives that in many means defines how we call back of the Due west 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, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, was an archetypal late golden town founded in 1875. Although the town was far from whatsoever railroad, xx,000 people lived in that location as of 1876. Tombstone, Arizona was a notorious mining town that flourished longer than most, from 1877 to 1929. Silverish was discovered in that location in 1877, and by 1881 the town had a population of over x,000. Entrepreneurs in these and other towns set upwardly stores and businesses to cater to the miners. Gambling and prostitution were key to life in these western towns, and only later―as the female population increased and reformers moved in―did prostitution get somewhat less mutual.

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

Equally wealthy men brought their families west, 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-form women arrived in the 1880s with their husbands. These women began to organize churches, schools, civic clubs, and other community programs to promote family unit values.

Western mining towns: The first gold prospectors in the 1850s and 1860s worked with easily portable tools that allowed them to follow their dream and effort to strike it rich (a). It did non take long for the most accessible minerals to be stripped, making way for large mining operations, including hydraulic mining, where high-force per unit area h2o jets removed sediment and rocks (b).

Women in the Westward

Women were vitally of import in the settlement of the West.

Learning Objectives

Describe the experience of women in the western frontier

Fundamental Takeaways

Fundamental Points

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

Fundamental Terms

• barn raisings: A collective activeness of a community in which a edifice is assembled collectively by members of the community.
• prostitution: Engaging in sex activity with another person in exchange for bounty, such equally money or other valuable goods.
• Grange: A farmers' clan organized in 1867. Officially chosen The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. The association operates at the local, county, and country levels past sponsoring social activities, community service, and political lobbying and promoting economic and agronomical unity in communities.
• brothel: A business firm of prostitution.

Farm Life

During the early on years of settlement on the Great Plains, women played an integral role in ensuring family unit survival past working the fields alongside their husbands and children. This was in improver to their handling of many other responsibilities, such as child-rearing, feeding and clothing the family and hired easily, and managing the housework. Every bit late every bit 1900, a typical farm wife could expect to devote 9 hours per day to chores such as cleaning, sewing, laundering, and preparing food. 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 detect employment in the newly settled towns as teachers, cooks, or seamstresses, they originally were deprived of many rights. Women were not permitted to sell holding, sue for divorce, serve on juries, or vote. For the vast bulk of women, work was non in towns for money, only on the subcontract. Despite these obstacles, the challenges of farm life eventually empowered women to intermission through certain legal and social barriers. Many lived more equitably as partners with their husbands than did their eastern US counterparts. If widowed, a wife typically took over responsibleness for the farm, a level of management very rare back eastward, where the subcontract would fall to a son or another male relation. Pioneer women fabricated important decisions and were considered by their husbands to exist more equal partners in the success of the homestead. This was because of the necessity that all members had to work hard and contribute to the farming enterprise for it to succeed. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first 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 besides played a crucial role in the community. People living in rural areas created rich social lives for themselves, often sponsoring activities that combined work, food, and entertainment, such as barn raising, corn husking, quilting bees, Grange meetings, church building activities, and school functions. Women likewise organized shared meals, potluck events, and extended visits between families.

Homesteading family: Many women traveled west with family groups, such every bit the mother in this 1886 photograph.

Ranching and Mining Towns

While homesteaders were often families, gold speculators and ranchers tended to be single men in pursuit of fortune. The few women who went to these wild outposts were typically prostitutes, and fifty-fifty their numbers were express. In 1860, in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada, for example, at that place were reportedly only 30 women in a boondocks with some 2,500 men.

Women found occupations in all walks of frontier life. Some women worked in brothels despite the harsh and dangerous working conditions. Many Chinese women, for example, came to the western camps as prostitutes to brand money to send back home. Some of the "painted ladies" who began equally prostitutes somewhen owned brothels and became businesswomen in their own right. However, life for these immature women remained a challenging one as western settlement progressed. A handful of women, no more than 600, braved both the elements and male-dominated culture to become teachers in several of the more established cities in the West. Fifty-fifty fewer arrived to support their husbands or operate stores in the mining towns.

Toward the latter office of the 19th century, wealthy men began bringing their families westward, and the more often than not lawless landscape slowly began to alter. Heart-course women arrived in the 1880s with their husbands and established boarding houses, organized church societies, and worked as laundresses and seamstresses. These women began to organize churches, school, borough clubs, and other community programs to promote family unit 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 postal service, and the subsequent Page Act of 1875 to prohibit transportation of women into the United States for employment equally prostitutes. However, the brothels continued to operate and remained popular throughout the Due west despite reformers' efforts.

Famous Women of the Westward

The western borderland besides 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 calorie-free when, at age 15, she won a shooting lucifer with traveling show marksman Frank E. Butler (whom she later married). The couple joined Buffalo Bill's 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 after 1928) was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Quondam West. She committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States. Her crime gained notoriety primarily because she was a woman. Many details of Hart'southward life are uncertain, with available reports often varied and contradictory.

Nellie Cashman

Ellen "Nellie" Cashman (1845–1925) became known across the American Westward and in western Canada as a nurse, restaurateur, businesswoman, Roman Catholic philanthropist in Arizona, and gold prospector in Alaska. A native of County Cork, Republic of ireland, she and her sis were brought as immature children to the United states by their mother around 1850 to escape the poverty of the Bang-up Famine. Cashman established her get-go boarding 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.

Later on moving to Tombstone, Arizona, around 1880, Cashman built the Sacred Middle Catholic Church and did charitable work with the Sisters of St. Joseph. In the tardily 1880s, Cashman ready 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 subsequently trip.

Annexing Texas

After a series of skirmishes with Mexico, the Republic of Texas won independence in 1836 and was annexed into the The states in 1845.

Learning Objectives

Examine the economic motivations behind the Mexico and Texas state of war and the subsequent annexation of Texas by the U.s.

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• Following Mexico's gaining independence from Spain in 1821, American settlers immigrated to Texas in large numbers, intent on taking the land from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation to create a new US slave country.
• Anglo-American settlers in Texas were not pleased with United mexican states'southward religious practices, legal system, and 1829 abolition of slavery.
• In March 1836, the Consultation in Texas declared independence from Mexico and drafted a constitution calling for a US-style judicial organization and an elected president and legislature.
• The Boxing of the Alamo was a pivotal indicate in the Texas Revolution; the Republic of Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836.
• The beginning overtures to annex the new Republic of Texas to the Usa began in 1837, but the United states declined, assertive it would lead to war with Mexico.
• Texas's looting to the Usa was ultimately accomplished in 1845 during the final days of the Tyler administration.

Fundamental Terms

• Republic of Texas: An independent sovereign country in North America that existed from March 2, 1836 to Feb nineteen, 1846.
• Sam Houston: A 19th-century American statesman, political leader, and soldier, best known for his leading role in bringing Texas into the The states.
• looting: The permanent acquisition and incorporation of a territorial entity into another geopolitical entity (either adjacent or non-contiguous).

Us Migration into Texas

American expansionists had long coveted the expanse of Kingdom of spain'south empire known as Texas. After the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty established the boundary between Mexico and the U.s.a., more than American expansionists began to move into the northern portion of the Mexican province of Coahuila y Tejas. Following Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, U.s. settlers immigrated to Texas in even larger numbers, intent on taking the land from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation in order to create a new U.s. slave state.

Anglo-Americans, primarily from the southern United States, began emigrating to Mexican Texas in the 1820s at the asking 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 bulk in Texas and speedily became dissatisfied with Mexican rule. The soil and climate were conducive to expanding slavery and the cotton wool kingdom. To many whites, it seemed not only their God-given right only besides their patriotic duty to populate the lands beyond the Mississippi River, bringing with them American slavery, civilisation, laws, and political traditions.

Rising Tensions

Anglo-American settlers in Texas, who were primarily Protestant, were discontented with Mexico's prohibition of public practice of religions other than Catholicism. They were likewise dissatisfied with the Mexican legal system, which was markedly dissimilar from the representative commonwealth and jury trials institute in the United States. Of greatest concern, even so, was the Mexican government's 1829 abolition of slavery. Most U.s.a. settlers were from southern states, and many had brought slaves with them. Mexico tried to conform them past maintaining the questionable exclamation that the slaves were indentured servants. However, American slaveholders in Texas distrusted the Mexican government and wanted Texas to be a new U.s.a. slave state. The smashing 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

Fifty-v delegates from the Anglo-American settlements in Texas gathered in 1831 with demands including creation of an independent state of Texas dissever from Coahuila. When ordered to disband, the delegates reconvened in early Apr 1833 to write a constitution for an independent Texas. While Mexican President Full general Antonio López de Santa Anna, agreed to many of their demands, he did not grant statehood. The Consultation delegates met again in March of 1836. They alleged their independence from Mexico and drafted a constitution calling for a US-style judicial system and an elected president and legislature. Notably, they as well established that slavery would not be prohibited in Texas. Many wealthy Tejanos supported the push for independence, hoping for liberal governmental reforms and economic benefits.

Boxing 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 Battle of the Alamo, as information technology came to be called, lasted from February 23 to March half-dozen, 1836. This was a pivotal upshot in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-24-hour interval siege, Mexican troops under Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission, and all of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna'south perceived cruelty during the battle inspired many Texians—both Texas settlers and adventurers from the U.s.a.—to bring together the Texian Army. Buoyed by a desire for revenge, the Texians defeated the Mexican regular army at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, ending the revolution. Sam Houston became the showtime president of the Republic of Texas, elected on a platform that favored annexation to the United states.

Boxing of the Alamo: The Fall of the Alamo, painted by Theodore Gentilz fewer than ten years after this pivotal moment in the Texas Revolution, depicts the 1836 set on on the Alamo complex.

Lone Star Republic and the Issue of Annexation

Mindful of the fell debates over Missouri that had led to talk of disunion and war, Usa politicians were reluctant to annex Texas or, indeed, even to recognize information technology every bit a sovereign nation. Annexation would about certainly trigger war with Mexico, and admission of a land with a large slave population, though permissible under the Missouri Compromise, would again bring the issue of slavery to the fore. Texas had no choice merely to organize itself every bit the independent Lone Star Commonwealth. To protect itself from Mexican attempts to reclaim it, Texas sought and received recognition from France, Great britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The United States did not officially recognize Texas as an independent nation until March 1837, nearly a year later the concluding victory over the Mexican ground forces at San Jacinto.

Uncertainty about its future, nonetheless, did non discourage Americans committed to expansion, especially slaveholders, from rushing to settle in the Alone Star Republic. Between 1836 and 1846, its population about tripled. Past 1840, American slaveholders had brought about 12,000 enslaved Africans to Texas. In keeping with the plan of indigenous cleansing and white racial domination, Americans in Texas generally treated both Mexican Tejano and American Indian residents with contempt, eager to displace and dispossess them.

In August 1837, Memucan Hunt, Jr., the Texan minister to the The states, submitted an annexation proposal to the Van Buren administration. Believing that annexation would atomic number 82 to state of war with Mexico, the assistants declined Hunt's proposal. After 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 of america until 1845 in the concluding days of President Tyler's administration.

Tyler and Texas

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

Learning Objectives

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

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• President John Tyler oft used the linguistic communication of manifest destiny to promote expansionist policies.
• Tyler applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, forbidding Britain from exerting influence at that place, and paved the way for the annexation of Hawaii as a land many years later.
• While Tyler knew that re-election was unlikely, he worked to catechumen his political defeat into a success for the looting of Texas, thereby securing his political legacy.
• On Feb 26, 1845, half dozen days earlier Polk took office, Congress passed the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas, and Tyler signed the neb into law iii days before the end of his term.
• At that place was an ongoing border dispute between the Commonwealth of Texas and Mexico prior to annexation; Texas claimed the Rio Grande every bit its border while United mexican states maintained that it was the Nueces River.

Cardinal Terms

• James 1000. Polk: The 11th President of the United states of america (1845–1849).
• John Tyler: The 10th President of the United states of america (1841–1845), afterward being the 10th Vice President of the United States (1841).
• manifest destiny: The political doctrine or conventionalities held by the U.s., peculiarly during its expansion, that the nation had a God-given right to expand toward the West.

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 due west expansion. He had long been an advocate of expansion toward the Pacific, and of costless 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 beyond the Pacific. He applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, told Britain not to interfere there, and began the process toward eventual US annexation of Hawaii. In 1842, Secretarial assistant of Country Daniel Webster negotiated the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain, which ended where the border between Maine and Canada lay. However, Tyler was unsuccessful in concluding a treaty with the British to fix Oregon's boundaries. On Tyler'due south terminal total twenty-four hour period in office, March iii, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Matrimony equally the 27th state.

Americans at this time asserted a right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country'south borders, especially in Oregon, California, and Texas. Past the mid-1840s, US expansionism was articulated in the credo of manifest destiny. Major events in the western movement of the Usa population were the Homestead Act, a law by which, for a nominal cost, 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 Blitz of 1849, the Colorado Golden Rush of 1859, and the completion of the nation'southward First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

The Upshot of Texas

Following the slaveholder Tyler's interruption with the Whigs in 1841, he had begun to shift back to his onetime Democratic party. Withal, its members were not ready to receive him. He knew that with lilliputian gamble of re-ballot, the but way to save his presidency and legacy was to move public opinion in favor of the Texas outcome, and he formed his ain political political party to lobby the Democratic Party in favor of looting.

Tyler supporters with signs reading "Tyler and Texas!" held their nominating convention in Baltimore in May 1844, just every bit the Autonomous Political party was also nominating its presidential candidate. With their loftier visibility and energy, they were able to strength the Democrats' hand in favor of looting. Ballot afterward ballot, 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 found 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 credence letter that annexation was his truthful priority, rather than re-election.

President Tyler entered negotiations with the Republic of Texas for an looting treaty, which he submitted to the Senate. On June 8, 1844, the treaty was defeated 35 to 16, well below the two-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 1 opposed and ten supported it in the southward.

Election of 1844

Tyler was unfazed, however, and he felt annexation was now inside achieve. He called for Congress to annex Texas by joint resolution rather than by treaty. Former President Jackson, a staunch supporter of annexation, persuaded presidential candidate Polk to welcome Tyler dorsum into the Democratic party, and ordered Democratic editors to terminate 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'south narrow victory over Dirt in the November election was seen by the Tyler administration as a mandate for completing the resolution.

Annexation

Afterwards the ballot, the Tyler administration consulted with President-elect Polk and set out to attain annexation via a joint resolution. The resolution alleged that Texas would be admitted as a state every bit long equally it approved annexation by January i, 1846, that it could split itself into 4 boosted states, and that possession of the Republic's public land would shift to the country of Texas upon its access. On Feb 26, 1845, 6 days before Polk took function, Congress passed the joint resolution, and Tyler signed the bill into law on March 1, only 3 days before the end of his term.

On July iv, 1845, the Texan Congress endorsed the American annexation offer with but 1 dissenting vote, and began writing a state constitution. The citizens of Texas approved the new constitution and the annexation ordinance on Oct 13, 1845, and President Polk signed the documents formally integrating Texas into the U.s.a. on December 29, 1845.

Texas and Mexico Edge

Prior to annexation there was an ongoing border dispute between the Commonwealth of Texas and Mexico. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border, while Mexico 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 by the former Republic. Taylor moved into Texas, ignoring Mexican demands to withdraw. Indeed, Taylor marched equally far s as the Rio Grande, where he began to build a fort near the river'south mouth on the Gulf of United mexican states. The Mexican authorities regarded this activeness every bit a violation of its sovereignty.

The Democracy 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 merely taken under Texas governance past Robert Neighbors in 1850, over four years later on annexation. Neighbors was not welcomed in New Mexico. Texas connected to claim New Mexico as far as the Rio Grande, supported by the rest of the South and opposed by the North and by New United mexican states 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 connected expansion of the United States, including the annexation of Texas.

Polk and Expansion

President James Chiliad. Polk was a strong proponent of expansionism and accomplished the conquering of Texas, Oregon, and California during his administration.

Learning Objectives

Evaluate the strategies President Polk used to achieve 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's envoy negotiated the buy of Oregon from Uk in 1846 at the 49th parallel and not the 54th parallel, as many had wanted.
• Later the 1845 annexation of Texas, border disputes between the U.s.a. and Mexico led to the Mexican–American War.
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican–American War in 1848 and led to the addition of California to the Usa.

Fundamental Terms

• Oregon Territory: An organized incorporated area of the United States that existed from Baronial 14, 1848 to February 14, 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 US annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The document that ended the Mexican–American War on February 2, 1848.

President James K. Polk

James M. Polk, at historic period 49 the youngest president at that time to exist inaugurated, set out a series of goals, two of which were explicitly related to US expansion. He intended to learn some or all of Oregon Country from United kingdom, as well as California and New Mexico from Mexico. He pledged to accomplish 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 N and the South.

Polk strongly supported expansion. Democrats believed that opening up more than land for yeoman farmers was critical for the success of republican virtue. Like near Southerners, he supported the annexation of Texas. To residual the interests of the North and the South, he too wanted to acquire the Oregon Country (present-solar day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia ), and he sought to purchase California from Mexico.

James K. Polk: Daguerreotype of President Polk taken by Mathew Brady on February 14, 1849, near the end of his presidency.

During his presidency, many abolitionists harshly criticized Polk as an instrument of "Slave Ability" and claimed that he supported the annexation of Texas, as well as the later war with United mexican states, for the purpose of spreading slavery. Polk believed slavery could non exist in the territories won from Mexico simply refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso that would foreclose information technology there.

U.Southward. Expansion nether 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 U.k. and the United states of america. Previous US administrations had offered to divide the region along the 49th parallel, which was not adequate to Britain, equally they had commercial interests along the Columbia River. Polk was at first 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 Democratic "All Oregon" demand (which chosen for all of Oregon upward to the 54–twoscore line that marked the southern boundary of Russian Alaska). The rallying cry "54–twoscore or fight!" became popular amidst Democrats.

Polk wanted territory, not war, so he compromised with the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 divided the Oregon Land forth the 49th parallel, equally in the original Usa proposal. Although in that location were many who even so clamored for the unabridged territory, the Senate canonical the treaty. Past settling for the 49th parallel, Polk angered many midwestern Democrats. Many of these Democrats believed that Polk had always wanted the boundary at the 49th, and that he had fooled them into assertive he wanted it at the 54th. The portion of Oregon territory the U.s.a. acquired subsequently formed usa of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.

Texas

Upon hearing of Polk'southward election to function in 1844, President John Tyler urged Congress to pass a joint resolution albeit Texas to the Spousal relationship. Congress complied on February 28, 1845. Texas promptly accepted the offer and officially became a land 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 war. However, just days later on the resolution passed Congress, Polk declared in his inaugural address that only Texas and the United states would decide whether to annex.

California

After the Texas annexation, Polk turned his attention to California, hoping to acquire the territory from Mexico before any European nation could exercise so. The principal interest was San Francisco Bay, equally an access point for trade with Asia. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to United mexican states to purchase California and New United mexican states for $24–30 one thousand thousand. Slidell'southward arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after word leaked that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer bounty for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive him, citing a technical problem with his credentials.

In January 1846, to increase pressure on United mexican states to negotiate, Polk sent troops under Full general Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the U.s. and Mexico. This action shortly led to the Mexican–American War, which the Usa won. As office of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, Polk achieved his goal of adding California to the United States.

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

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The Mexican Cession (in red) was caused through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War. The Gadsden Purchase (in orange) was acquired through purchase afterward Polk left office.

The war had serious consequences for Polk and the Democrats, however. It gave the Whig Party a unifying message of denouncing the state of war as an immoral human action of aggression carried out through corruption of presidential power. In the 1848 election, however, the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, a war hero, and celebrated his victories. Taylor refused to criticize Polk. Equally a event of the strain of managing the war endeavour directly and in close detail, Polk'south 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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