The United States & Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny: the strong belief by Americans that God intended them to control North America

Native Americans Each stage of American expansion in the 1700s and 1800s came at the expense of the Native Americans who already occupied most of the continent. Just like Europeans in Africa and Asia viewed those peoples as inferior, Americans viewed the Native Americans as being a lesser culture and took little concern for their rights

U.S. in 1800 The United States in 1800 consisted only of the lands ceded by the British in the Treaty of Paris which had ended the American Revolution This included everything east of the Mississippi River, except Florida, which belonged to Spain

The Louisiana Purchase Purchased by Pres. Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon’s France in 1803 Gave US control of the port of New Orleans, full control of the Mississippi River and most of the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains Doubled the size of the country Cost only about $.03/acre

Florida Disputed between US and Spain between 1810 and 1819 Americans began to settle there, asked for protection from Indians Spain agreed to forfeit Florida to the US if the US agreed to make no claims against Texas

The Monroe Doctrine Issued by Pres. John Monroe in 1823 Declared that the U.S. would intervene if European nations attempted to establish any new colonies in the Americas Aimed at preventing Spain from trying to retake old colonies

Texas Once Mexico won its independence from Spain, the US offered to buy Texas from Mexico, but was refused In 1836, the Texicans (mostly white American immigrants) declared independence from Mexico The Republic of Texas was an independent nation for nine years (1836 -45) In 1845, Texas agreed to be annexed by US, leading to a war between the US and Mexico

Annexation of Oregon 1846 After threats of war, Britain and the US peacefully resolved their dispute over where the boundary should lie between US and Canada in the Oregon Territory, splitting the region along the 49th parallel

The Mexican War 1846 – 1848 After the US annexed Texas and then insultingly offered to buy California from Mexico, the two nations went to war The US won and forced an unfavorable peace treaty on Mexico to end the war Mexico gave up California, Nevada, Utah, and most of Arizona to the US as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Gadsden Purchase In 1853, the US purchased a 30,000 sq. mile strip of desert from Mexico for $10 million The land was needed to build a southern transcontinental railroad from New Orleans to California (the railroad was never built, however, due to the American Civil War)

US & Japan In 1853, the U.S. Navy under Commodore Perry sailed a fleet of American warships into Tokyo Bay U.S. demanded that Japan open itself to trade Japan agreed to allow American ships access to Japanese ports because they knew they could not win a fight Japan would hold a long resentment against the U.S. for the incident

Purchase of Alaska The US purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867 The US wanted Russian competition out of North America, and the Russians were already overstretched and could not easily defend Alaska Most Americans questioned the purchase, but as it turned out, Alaska was loaded with gold & oil!

Annexation of Hawaii American sugar planters, who had overthrown the native Hawaiian monarchy, established a temporary government, believing that the US would annex Hawaii immediately US Pres. Grover Cleveland was furious with the way the sugar planters had manipulated the coup to look like it was US backed and blocked attempts to annex Hawaii The independent Republic of Hawaii existed from 1893 - 1898 US finally annexed Hawaii in 1898 under Pres. McKinley

Spanish-American War April – August, 1898 US demanded that Spain free its remaining colonies in the Caribbean Sea, especially Cuba, due to claims of human rights abuses When the American battleship USS Maine, which had been sent to Cuba to monitor the situation, exploded in Havana Harbor killing hundreds of Americans, the US quickly assumed it to be an attack and went to war with Spain US dominated the Spanish, in the end taking Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands as the spoils of war

The Platt Amendment After the U.S. had “freed” Cuba following the Spanish-American War, they required that the Cuban constitution include a clause allowing the U.S. to intervene in Cuba at any time Cuba also had to give the U.S. permanent control of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay

The Roosevelt Corollary 1904 amendment to the Monroe Doctrine Allowed the U.S. to intervene anywhere in Latin America to stabilize economies and ensure payment of any foreign debts Europe had loaned money to Latin American countries, who had defaulted on the debts; European governments had begun threatening to take direct control of Latin American countries which had defaulted

The Panama Canal Connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans French had begun the canal in 1880, but gave up in 1893 after 22,000 worker deaths U.S. took over the project in 1904, completing it in 1914 U.S. controlled the canal until 1999, when it was turned over to the Panamanian government

US Expansionism