Manifest Destiny powerpoint.

1. “Manifest
Destiny”
Westward Expansion
“From Sea to Shining Sea”

2. The Oregon Country
• The Oregon Country was the vast area between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, north of California.
• In the early 1800s, four nations claimed the territory:
1) United States
2) Great Britain
3) Spain
4) Russia
• The first Americans in Oregon were fur traders. These American
adventurers were called Mountain Men.
• Mountain men made their living trapping beaver. The annual
rendezvous was the highlight of their year.
• Mountain man Jedediah Smith discovered the South Pass, which
became the most common way to cross the Rocky Mountains to
Oregon.
• In time Mountain Men killed off most of the beaver. Many like Kit
Carson became guides for families moving to Oregon.

3. Oregon Fever
• The first settlers to arrive in Oregon were missionaries.
Their goal was to convert Native Americans to
Christianity. (Marcus & Narcissa Whitman)
• In the early 1840s Oregon Fever swept the Mississippi
Valley. Emigrants made the trip during the Great
Migration.
• The trip to Oregon was roughly 2,000 miles and took
five or six months along the Oregon Trail.
• Families loaded up their prairie schooners and often
started from Independence, Missouri.
• From 1840 to 1845, the population of the Willamette
Valley increased from 500 people to 5,000 people.

4. “Manifest Destiny”
• Many Americans began to feel the mission of the United
States was to spread freedom by occupying the entire
continent.
• John O’Sullivan, a NY newspaper editor, declared it was
America’s “manifest destiny to overspread and possess
the whole of the continent which Providence has given
us.”
• Settlers in Oregon wanted the U.S. to have sole
ownership of the territory.
• In the election of 1844, James K. Polk supported their
wishes.
• Shortly afterward, the United States and Great Britain
agreed to the 49° N parallel as the border in Oregon.

5. Settling Texas
• Conflict in Texas began in 1803 with the Louisiana
Purchase. Americans believed that Texas was part of
the Louisiana Purchase. Spain protested.
• In the Adams-Onís Treaty (1819), America dropped all
claims to Spanish Texas.
• Most of the residents of Texas at this time were
Tejanos. To encourage settlement, the Mexican
government offered land grants to empresarios.
• Empresarios recruited families to settle in Texas.
• Moses Austin received the first land grant, but he died
before he could bring settlers.
• Stephen F. Austin took over and recruited families. The
group he recruited was called the “Old Three-Hundred.”

6. Trouble in Texas
• The colonists who came to Texas promised to
1. Learn Spanish
2. Become Mexican citizens
3. Convert to Catholicism
4. Obey Mexican law
• Most Texas settlers came from the United States.
They soon outnumbered the Mexicans in Texas.
• Americans refused to adopt Mexican ways. And the
U.S. twice offered to purchase Texas from Mexico.
• In 1830, Mexico passed a decree stopping all
immigration from the United States and placing a tax
on American made goods.
• Americans were furious. They were also angry over
Mexico’s plans to ban slavery in Texas.

7. The Texas Revolution
• After Santa Anna refused demands to make Texas a
separate state, Stephen F. Austin encouraged Texans to
prepare for independence. He was arrested.
• Santa Anna made himself dictator and discarded the
Mexican Constitution.
• In October 1835 Mexican troops attempted to take a
cannon in Gonzales, Texas. The Texans defended the
cannon, flying the “Come and Take It” flag.
• They drove back the Mexicans in the first fight of the
Texas Revolution (Lexington of Texas).
• The Texans then liberated San Antonio from the
Mexican army. However, they left the city afterwards.
• Santa Anna was furious. He sent two forces into Texas.
He led soldiers to San Antonio, and General Urrea led
forces to Goliad.

8. Remember The Alamo
• Roughly 180 men were left to defend San Antonio at the
Alamo. The leaders of the Texans were
• Davy Crockett
• James Bowie
• William B. Travis
• After a twelve day siege, in February 1836, the Mexican
army was able to break through the walls of the Alamo.
• Santa Anna said after the battle, “The Texans fought
more like devils than like men.”
• On March 2, 1836, the Texans declared independence.
• General Urrea, who had marched to Goliad, captured the
Texans, led by James Walker Fannin.
• The captured Texans were executed on Santa Anna’s
orders.

9. Texas is Annexed
• Sam Houston was commander in chief of the Texas forces.
• Houston made plans to surprise Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
• The Texans shouted “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!”
• The Mexican army lost 600 soldiers. But no Texans lost their lives.
• Santa Anna was captured shortly after the battle of San Jacinto
and signed a treaty recognizing Texas independence in 1836.
• Sam Houston was elected the first president of Texas. He asked
the U.S. to annex Texas.
• But Texas was a slave state, and it would upset the balance
between slave and free states in the Union.
• James K. Polk was elected president in 1844 and supported
Manifest Destiny.
• Texas was annexed to the United States in 1845, becoming the 28th
state.

10. Gaining the West
• New Mexico was the region between Texas and
California. Because of its size, Mexico had little control.
• William Becknell was the first American trader to reach
Santa Fe in 1821. His route became known as the Santa
Fe Trail.
• Spanish explorers and missionaries were the first
settlers in California.
• Missions were very important to the settlement of
California. Missions were used to convert Native
Americans to Catholicism.
• Mexican settlers bought land in California and built
ranchos similar to plantations in the South. Rancheros
treated Native Americas working their land like slaves.

11. Tensions Increase
• Americans wanted to reach the Pacific Ocean, which
would include California.
• The new American President, James K. Polk, twice
offered to buy New Mexico and California. Mexico
refused both times.
• Polk plotted to pull Mexico into a war. If they started it,
he could justify the war to Congress and the people.
• When the U.S. annexed Texas, tensions increased. In
addition to claiming the annexation was illegal, they
disagreed over the location of the border:
– Mexico: Border was the Nueces River
– United States: Border was the Rio Grande
• Polk sent John Slidell to offer $30 million for New
Mexico and California. Mexico refused and announced
plans to reclaim Texas.

12. War with Mexico
• President Polk sent Zachary Taylor to the disputed
territory south of the Nueces River. The Mexican
government sent troops north of the Rio Grande.
• After the Mexican troops attacked, James K. Polk said
that Mexico had shed American blood on American soil. On
May 13, 1846, Congress declared war against Mexico.
• Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass both opposed the
war with Mexico.
• Polk had a three part war plan:
1. Drive Mexico out of the disputed territory
2. Seize California and New Mexico
3. Take the capital, Mexico City
• All three parts were successful. The U.S. lost 1721 men
and 11,000 to disease. The war cost the U.S. $100 million.

13. The Mexican Cession
• Mexico fared much worse than the U.S. After the war,
Mexico lost half its territory.
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848
ending the Mexican War. The terms were:
– Mexico gave up all claims to Texas and agreed to the Rio Grande
as the border
– In the Mexican Cession Mexico ceded California and New
Mexico to the U.S.
– The United States paid Mexico $15 million for the territory.
• In 1853 the United States paid Mexico $10 million for a
small strip of land along the southern edge of Arizona
and New Mexico.
• This was called the Gadsden Purchase. With the
Gadsden Purchase, America reached its present size and
completed Manifest Destiny.

14. The California Gold Rush
• In 1848 gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill on the
American River in California.
• 80,000 people came to California looking for gold in
1849. Those people were called forty-niners.
• Many gold seekers came by sea. Some came overland.
• The Treat of Guadalupe Hidalgo made Californios
citizens of the U.S. and also guaranteed their rights to
their land.
• But Californios had to prove they owned the land or
white settlers could move in and claim it.
• People built boomtowns in California and cities
flourished.
• The Gold Rush doubled the world’s supply of gold.

15. Statehood for California
• Very few forty-niners became wealthy. They found little gold and
wasted money the had earned on gambling.
• Merchants made HUGE profits. They were able to charge whatever
they wanted for goods.
• During the Gold Rush, a dozen eggs cost a miner $10.
• Levi Strauss made a fortune selling sturdy denim pants to miners.
• Many miners were lonely (few female miners). They spent their time
gambling, drinking and fighting.
• There were no police, so vigilantes took the law into their own hands.
• The Gold Rush ended in a few years but had long lasting effects on
California’s economy.
• California applied for statehood in 1850. Its application caused a
crisis in Congress because it would upset the balance between slave
and free states.
• California eventually became a state later that same year.

16. Mormons go to Utah
• The Mormons moved to Utah to fulfill their visions of a godly life.
• Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church in New York in 1830.
They supported polygamy.
• The Mormons left New York because of opposition to their way of
life and headed to Illinois.
• Joseph Smith was killed by a mob in Illinois. Brigham Young took
over, leading the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
• In 1846 12,000 Mormons went to Utah in the single largest
migration in American history.
• They settled in Deseret, later known as Salt Lake City. They
planned towns, built irrigation systems, and developed industries.
• Utah became a territory in 1850 with Brigham Young as its
governor.
• Because of many conflicts with the American government, Utah did
not become a state until 1896.