The United States Grows Larger By: Emma Conner, Luke Pectol, & N’Riyah Harper

What is Manifest Destiny? Many Americans wanted Texas to become a state. They believed in an idea called Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny meant that the United States should rule land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This idea also meant that the United States should become a larger and stronger country. James K. Polk, the President, believed in Manifest Destiny, he wanted Texas to become a state, he also tried to buy California and New Mexico from Mexico but Mexico refused.

How did the Mexican War help the United States grow larger? In 1845 the United States Congress voted for Texas to become a state. This made Mexico very angry and a war started between the United States and Mexico. The United States and Mexico both sent soldiers to Rio Grande, where the United States thought to be Texas’ border, and started fighting. Soon after the United States captured California, New Mexico, and Mexico City, Mexico surrendered. The United States’ leaders and Mexico signed a peace treaty in 1848 that stated the United States owned a large piece of Mexico land and that Texas belonged to the United States. Rio Grande became the border between Texas and Mexico and all of the Mexicans Southwest would become American citizens. The land that the United States gained was called the Mexican Cession. The land from the Mexican Cession became California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Colorado. The United States now owned land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Americans paid Mexico $10 million for the land in the Gadsden Purchase to build a railroad across the southern part of the United States. Years later, they did build a railroad there.

How did Mexican Americans help the United States? Mexicans in the Southwest became American citizens after the Mexican War. They were called the Mexican Americans. They taught Americans how to grow food on land where there was little rain, they helped build railroads for the United States, and helped other Americans find gold and silver in the Southwest. They taught Americans how to be cowboys. Mexican Americans helped the United States change a law that was unfair to women. Before the Mexican war, a married American woman could not own property. Her husband owned everything. After the war, Americans changed the law so that women could own property with their husbands like Mexico did.

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Pictures Mexican Cession- the land that the United States gained from signing the peace treaty with Mexico. James K. Polk- the President during this time. ( )