1. World Class Education www.kean.edu

2. Westward Continental Expansion1
Topic 3
Westward Continental Expansion
1830s-1850s

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

4. 3

5. 4
John Gast “American Progress”

6. The Ideology of American Expansion5
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

7. Causes of War with Mexico6
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

8. 7

9. 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

10. 9
Public Domain: Library of Congress

11. 10

12. Selected Readings Westward Continental Expansion11
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