Manifest Destiny:

The Push for Expansion

Student goal:

• You should be able to explain to me what “manifest destiny” was.

• You should be able to give examples of the types of issues that were brought up as a result of American expansion.

Early Exploration: Lewis and Clark• 1804-1806• The Corps of Discovery

What was Manifest Destiny?

• Political and social movement (throughout the 1800s)

• Term first used by John L. O’Sullivan• Manifest = “becomes clear”• Destiny = “it’s meant to happen”• “God-given right to expand”• War of 1812 opens up the WEST for expansion• Expansion creates conflicts: Slavery, war with

Mexico, war with Native tribes

The Overland Trails

Westward Expansion

Slavery in the New Territories?

• As territories were settled out West, they petitioned for statehood

• In the North, many states had banned slavery• Abolitionist movement takes hold in the North• South is determined to have as many slave

states as there are free states• Controversy over Missouri

US in 1820

Missouri Compromise• Maine would be

admitted as a free state• Missouri would be a

slave state• All future states would

be admitted in pairs = one free, one slave

• Lower boundary for Missouri would be the divide

• Temporarily resolves the issue

Indian Removal Act • Pres. Andrew Jackson pushes for its passage in

1830• Congress passes it…gives POTUS the right to

negotiate the relocation of Indian tribes• Trail of Tears…Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee,

and Seminole tribes forced to leave the Southeast region

• Forced to move to what is now Oklahoma• 1st of many removals that would happen

Texas Independence and the War with Mexico

• 1830s – White settlers settle in what is today Texas…which at that time belonged to Mexico

• With the help of the US gov’t, Texas breaks away in 1836

• 1836-1845 – Texas is an independent country• 1845 – US adds Texas as a state• Mexico sees this as a threat • By 1848, the US and Mexico are at War

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Ends the war• Mexico gave up all claims to Texas• Rio Grande used as the boundary between US

and Mexico• US gains California and New Mexico• In return, US pays Mexico $15 million