World Class Education www.kean.edu

Westward Continental Expansion 1 Topic 3 Westward Continental Expansion 1830s-1850s

Outline Manifest Destiny Texas Revolution (1836) 2 Outline Manifest Destiny Texas Revolution (1836) Annexation of Texas (1845) Mexican-American War (1846-1848) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) Gadsden Purchase (1853) Boundary disputes with Britain (Maine / Oregon) – resolved through negotiations

3

4 John Gast “American Progress”

The Ideology of American Expansion 5 The Ideology of American Expansion Manifest Destiny It is “by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.” John L. O’Sullivan, 1845

Causes of War with Mexico 6 Causes of War with Mexico American territorial ambition Ideology of Manifest Destiny Annexation of Texas Border dispute with Mexico – Rio Grande or Nueces River? Image: GNU Free Documentation License / Ch1902

7

8 Territory Acquired from Mexico Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) Gadsden Purchase (1853) California New Mexico Arizona Utah Nevada Parts of Colorado and Wyoming Rio Grande established as US-Mexico border 50% of Mexican territory – northern Mexico Last stage in the disentragation of the old Spanish Empire

9 Public Domain: Library of Congress

10

Selected Readings Westward Continental Expansion 11 Selected Readings Westward Continental Expansion Bernard DeVoto trilogy The Year of Decision: 1846 Across the Wide The Course of Empire Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest