Manifest Destiny, Oregon and Texas

1. MANIFEST
DESTINY

3. 1. Joint occupation – shared ownership of an area
2. Mountain men – frontiersmen hired to trap animals for fur in the West,
especially in the Rocky Mountains
3. Missionary – a person sent to promote Christianity in a foreign country
4. Tejano – a Mexican person who lived in Texas
5. Empresario – a person who recruited settlers in Texas
6. Decree – an official order

4. 7. Annex – to take control of a territory
8. Pelt – the skin and fur of an animal
9. Wagon train – a group of covered wagons traveling together
10. Dictator – a ruler with total power over a country

5. • Manifest Destiny refers to
the idea that the United
States must expand its
boundaries to the Pacific
Ocean
- The term was first
used in a New York
newspaper in the 1840s.
- Editor John O’Sullivan
declared that it was
“Manifest Destiny (obvious
fate) to… possess the whole
of the continent.”

6. OREGON
• In the 1840s and 1850s, many set out to settle in Oregon Country
- This area included today’s Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and
parts of Montana and Wyoming


8. • In the early 1800s, four nations claimed parts of the Oregon Country – the U.S.,
Great Britain, Spain, and Russia
- In the Adams-Onis Treaty, Spain gave up their claim to Oregon, and in
1824 Russia gave up its claim
• In 1819, John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State at the time) worked out an
agreement with Britain for joint occupation of the area
• Over the years, Americans settling in Oregon pushed for a resolution of control
over the area

9. • The first Americans to reach
the Oregon Country were fur
traders
• In 1808 New York merchant
John Jacob Astor organized
the American Fur Company,
one of the most successful fur
businesses in the U.S.
• Astor’s business relied on
mountain men who made a
living trapping animals and
trading their pelts
FYI: Astor’s great-grandson
John Jacob Astor IV died in
the sinking of the Titanic in
1912

10. • Among the first settlers of the
Oregon Country were missionaries
• Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife
Narcissa built a mission among the
Cayuse people in 1836
• A measles epidemic killed many of
the Cayuse children
• The Whitmans were blamed for
bringing the disease. The Cayuse
attacked the mission in 1847, killing
the Whitmans and others

11. • In the early 1840s, Americans who had been affected by the economic
depression left the U.S. and went to the Oregon Country
• These pioneers traveled in wagon trains, gathering in Independence, Missouri
and following the Oregon Trail, a 2,000 mile route that started in Missouri and
ended in Oregon

12. • Oregon became a major issue in the
1844 election
• When James K. Polk became president,
he supported the idea that the U.S.
should have sole ownership of the
Oregon Country and was determined to
make Oregon part of the U.S.
• Britain would not accept a border where
Polk proposed, because they did not
want to give up their claim entirely.
• In 1846 the U.S. and Great Britain
compromised, and set a new border

14. TEXAS
• Americans also had their sights set on Texas
• The U.S. had dropped any claim to the region in the Adams-Onis Treaty;
Texas was part of Mexico, which belonged to Spain


15. • Most residents of Texas at the time were Tejanos
• To promote the growth of the region, empresarios organized land grants and
recruited American families to settle in Texas
• The first land grant was settled by Stephen F. Austin, who organized a colony in 1825
• Austin recruited 300 families to settle there; this successful colonization made him a
leader among the settlers and earned him the nickname “Father of Texas”

16. • Mexico passed colonization laws for the new settlers to follow
• The colonists agreed to learn the Spanish language, become Mexican
citizens, and convert to Catholicism
• By 1830 Americans in Texas outnumbered Mexicans, and most of
them had not adopted Mexican ways
• The Mexican gov’t issued a decree which stopped all immigration
from the U.S. and discouraged trade between the U.S. and Texas
• Texans were angered; they depended on trade from the U.S.

17. • In 1833 General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna became president of Mexico
• Stephen Austin met with Santa Anna and convinced him to remove the ban on
American settlers; however, Santa Anna refused to allow Texas to be a separate
state (another of Austin’s demands)
• When Austin sent a letter back to Texas to start carrying out plans to achieve
independence, the Mexican gov’t had him arrested

18. • Santa Anna named himself dictator and
overthrew Mexico’s constitution

19. • Unrest in Texas led to open
conflict
• Texans drove back Mexican
troops in the town of Gonzales
in 1835, the first battle of the
Texas Revolution
• Former Tennessee
Congressman Davy Crockett
joined the fight for Texas’
independence

20. • After the Texans liberated San Antonio from the control of a Mexican force,
Santa Anna brought a army to get it back
• He found a Texan group barricaded inside a mission called the Alamo
• Davy Crockett had arrived at the Alamo with a Texan named Jim Bowie and 26-
year-old commander William B. Travis

21. • Travis sent out messages to
the people of Texas and to
the U.S. asking for help
• For 12 days, Travis and his
army defended the Alamo
against Santa Anna’s troops
• On March 6, 1836, The
Mexicans entered the Alamo
and killed Crockett, Bowie,
Travis, and all other
defenders of the mission

23. • Four days before the fall
of the Alamo, American
settlers and Texans
officially declared
independence from
Mexico and established
the Republic of Texas
Sam Houston was named
Commander in Chief of the
Texas forces

24. • Six weeks after the Alamo, Houston
led an army at San Jacinto, near
Santa Anna’s camp
• On April 21, the Texans led a surprise
attack on the Mexican camp
shouting, “Remember the Alamo!”
• The Texans killed more than 600
soldiers and captured Santa Anna
• On May 14, 1836 Santa Anna signed
a treaty that recognized the
independence of Texas

25. • Houston was elected president of the new republic.
• He asked the U.S. to annex Texas, but President Andrew Jackson refused, not
wanting to upset the balance between slave states and free states
• Martin Van Buren and John Tyler also failed to annex Texas; it remained an
independent republic

26. • Under President James Polk,
Congress passed a resolution to
annex Texas
• Texas became a state on December
29, 1845