14.3 War with Mexico pp. 457-461

Objectives: Define Manifest Destiny. Explain how Manifest Destiny led the United States to fight a war with Mexico in the 1840s.

Review: 1. What region included the present-day states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Canada? 2. The rough-and-tumble explorers who trapped furs in the Oregon Country were called __________________ ______________. 3. Define rendezvous— 4. Name the African American mountain man who discovered a pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 5. The _______________ _______________, which linked Independence, Missouri, with the Oregon Country, became a major highway across the country. 6. Define annex— 7. What was James K. Polk’s campaign slogan in 1844? 8. What parallel (latitude line) was finally accepted as the dividing line in the Oregon Country between the U.S. and British Canada?

Review: 9. Define Tejanos— 10. Define empresarios— 11. Who carried out his father’s plan for organizing a colony in Texas? 12. List three things American colonists had to agree to before moving into Texas. 13. Who was the new head of the Mexican government? 14. What is considered the first battle in the Texas war for independence? 15. Where did fewer than 200 Texans hold off a massive Mexican army for nearly two weeks before being defeated and annihilated? 16. List three famous defenders at the Alamo. 17. Where were hundreds of Texas prisoners massacred? 18. Where did the intense final battle of the Texas war for independence occur? 19. Who was elected president of the Republic of Texas?

A. “Manifest Destiny” (pp. 457-458) By the mid-1840s, a group of Americans wanted the United States to reach all the way to the Pacific. They believed in “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that America’s obvious, God-ordained mission was to expand and spread across the continent. They gave little thought to the Native Americans and Mexicans who would lose their lands in the process.

B. Annexation of Texas (p. 458) Southerners strongly supported extending the cotton-growing area by annexing Texas. However, for nine years Northern abolitionists blocked its admission as another slave state in the Union. Polk’s election in 1844 was considered a mandate (approval) for the annexation of Texas. In December 1845, Texas was finally admitted as the 28th state to enter the Union.

C. The Brink of War (pp. 458-459) The U.S. considered the Rio Grande River as its border with Mexico, while Mexico considered it to be the Nueces River. In April 1846, Polk sent troops across the Nueces River, which resulted in a Mexican military response that killed 11 Americans. Although war was declared, some Congressmen voted against it because they saw it as a plot to add slave states to the Union.

D. The Mexican War (pp. 459-460) In May 1846, General Zachary Taylor and his army crossed the Rio Grande, capturing Monterrey by September, and Buena Vista by February 1847. Meanwhile, General Winfield Scott led an army that won victory after victory as it marched west from Veracruz. In September 1847, after Mexico made a heroic last stand at Chapultepec, Scott took over Mexico City.

E. The Bear Flag Republic (p. 460) Soon after the war began, General Stephen Kearny forced Mexican troops in Santa Fe to flee without firing a shot. Around the same time, Captain John C. Fremont urged Americans in California to revolt against their Mexican rulers. In the summer of 1846, they announced the creation of the independent, but short-lived, Bear Flag Republic (California).

F. Making Peace (p. 461) On February 2, 1848, the Mexicans signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which it ceded all of California and New Mexico to the U.S. for $15 million. This territory is called the Mexican Cession (and includes today’s states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico). The addition of the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 completed the border between Mexico and the United States.

Review: 20. Define manifest destiny— 21. In what year did Texas become a state? 22. Which river did the U.S. consider to be its border with Mexico? 23. Which river did Mexico regard as the border? 24. Why did some Congressmen vote against war with Mexico? 25. Where did Mexican forces make a heroic last stand before U.S. troops took over Mexico City? 26. Independent California was known as the _________________ _______________ Republic. 27. Name the treaty that officially ended the Mexican War. 28. For how much money did the U.S. acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico? 29. What has the territory acquired from Mexico become known as? 30. What 1853 land acquisition completed the border between the U.S. and Mexico?