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Louisiana Purchase
• United States bought 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France
• East to the Mississippi - West to the Rocky Mountains – South to the Gulf of Mexico – North to the Canadian border
• Part of all of 15 states were created from the land deal
• One of the most important Achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency
o The Americans thought it was their divine right to buy the land from France so they could accomplish their dream of the country being from sea to shining sea. -
Erie Canal
• 364 mile long water route connecting the Hudson River (Albany) with the Great Lakes (Buffalo)
• When it opened in 1825 it revolutionized trade, commerce, and transportation
• The two week wagon or stagecoach trip became possible in 5 days
• Cargo rates fell to 10% of their previous cost
o The Erie Canal was built so it would become easier to ship goods to places towards the west, allowing people to travel westward to land that weren’t theirs. -
Indian Removal Act
• Jackson encouraged Congress to adopt the Removal Act of 1830
o Established a process where the President could grant land west of the Mississippi river to Indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands
o The law allowed the Indians financial and material assistance to travel to the new locations and start new lives
o Guaranteed that the Indians would live on their new property under the protection of the US government forever.
o They thought that it was their right to take the land of NA -
Texas Independence
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Texas Independence
• Six weeks after the Alamo a large Texan army under Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto
o Santa Anna was forced to acknowledge Texas’ independence and withdrew his forces
• Texas wanted to join the US but both Mexico and the antislavery forces in the US opposed it’s admission into the Union. o The Alamo started because the American Texans thought they could live on the Mexicans land because they thought they had the right to settle on the land even though it wasn’t theirs. -
The Alamo
• Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of heroic resistance and a cry in their struggle for independence
• April 21, 1836 Sam Houston and about 800 Texans defeated Santa Anna’s force of 1,500 men at San Jacinto shouting, “Remember the Alamo!” as they fought.
• In May, Mexican troops in San Antonio were ordered to withdraw and to destroy the Alamo’s defenses as they left -
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The Alamo
• On February 23, a Mexican force that had 1,800 to 6,000 men began a blockade of the fort• The Texans held out for 13 days, but on the morning of March 6th Mexican forces broke through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and beat them • The Mexican commander, Santa Anna, ordered his men to take no prisoners and only a few of the Texans were spared.o The Alamo started because the Texans thought they could live on the Mexican's land because they thought they had the right to. -
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Trail of Tears
• 1840s tens of thousands of Native Americans had been driven off their land in the southeaster states and were forced to move to Oklahoma
o Federal government promised that their land would remain undisturbed forever but as the white settlement pushed westward The “Indian country” shrank and in 1907 Oklahoma became a state and the Indian territory was gone forever
o The Americans thought that it was their divine right to be able to take the land away and make them go on the trail of tears -
Trail of Tears
Federal troops and state militias captured the Cherokees into stockades
o The troops were warned to treat the Cherokees kindly but the roundup was disturbing
o Families were separated, elderly and ill were forced out of their homes at gunpoint, giving people only moments to collect their cherished possessions
• White looters followed, ransacking homesteads as the Cherokees were led away -
Oregon Trail
• The Oregon Trail was a wagon road stretching 2170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley
• From the 1840s – 1880s, thousands trekked westward, settling on the western frontier
• Many people traveled on the Oregon trail to get to places like Missouri, California, and other western states
• 20,000 people died along the Oregon trail for various reasons
o The Oregon trial has to do with manifest destiny because they used it to settle in land had the divine right to own. -
Texas Annexation
• The president wrote a Treaty of Annexation, an event that caused Mexico to cut off political relations with the US and got it passed
o The US government dispatched John Slidell to Mexico to negotiate the border dispute
o Slidell failed and Polk used news of battle to get Congressional support for a declaration of war against Mexico
o The Texas Annexation has to do with Manifest Destiny because they thought it was their divine right to be allowed to add Texas to their country. -
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Mexican American War
• Mexican cavalry attacked a group of US soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of General Zachary Taylor
• After a few Mexico’s losses, they turned to General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who had been living in exile in Cuba
• US troops landed in Veracruz and took over the city
• Santa Anna had resigned and the US waited for a new government capable of negotiations to form
o This had to do with manifest destiny because people of the United States thought they had more land. -
Mexican American War
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Wilmot Proviso
• The Wilmot Proviso was designed to end slavery within the land that was gained because of the Mexican-American War
• Fearing the addition to a pro-slave territory, David Wilmot planned his improvement to the bill
• The improvement was didn’t pass because of the southern-dominated Senate
• The antislavery declaration influenced the national political situation.
o Its part of Manifest Destiny because they were setting rules for the first time on the new land -
California Gold Rush
• James Wilson Marshal found flakes of gold
• A few days after Marshall’s discovery, the Mexican-American war ended giving California to the US
• Marshall tried to keep news of the discovery quiet but word got out
• The Gold Rush sped up California’s admission the Union as the 31st state• In 1849 California requested to enter the US
o The gold rush has to do with manifest destiny because people believed they had the divine right to own the gold that they found even if it wasn’t their land. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Mexico surrendered upper California and New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado
• Mexico gave up all claims to Texas and accepted the Rio Grande as the southern boundary with the US
o The US paid Mexico $15,000,000 for the land
o The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo has to do with manifest destiny because they thought that because they beat the Mexicans in war it was divine right to own more land than when they started. -
Compromise of 1850
• Divisions over slavery territory gained in the Mexican-American War was resolved with the Compromise of 1850
• Senators of Kentucky, Massachusetts, and South Carolina disputed a bill with all of these dealings
• The compromise allowed Congress to stay away from sectional and slavery issues for many years
o The compromise of 1850 allowed the people of the United States to decide if the state would be a free state or not determining who would live there. -
Califronia Becomes a State
• Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, 9 days before they signed the peace treaty
• The biggest gold rush in history started and people rushed into California looking for fist-sized gold nuggets
• After a debate between slave and free-soil states, congress accepted California as a free labor state under the Compromise of 1850
o This has to do with manifest destiny because people thought it was thier right to be allowed to own California. -
Gadsden Purchase
• The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the US and Mexicoo US agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that became Arizona and New Mexicoo Provided the land required for southern transcontinental railroad Mexico agreed to selling 45,000 square miles south of the New Mexico territory for $15 million
o This has to do with manifest destiny because the United States wanted even more land from Mexico and they thought they could own the land. -
Ostend Manifesto
• Southern slave owners wanted Spanish-held Cuba
• Slavery existed on the island but a rebellion in Haiti mad Spanish officials to contemplate freeing them
• The Southerners didn’t want freed slaves so close to their shores so they thought Manifest Destiny should be extended to Cuba
• 1854 Pierre Soulé, James Buchanan, and John Y. Mason met in Belgium to investigate the possibility of buying Cuba from Spain
• The three men warned Spain that the had to sell Cuba to the United States or they would
