Unit 9: Territorial Expansion

• Early Expansion


  • Fur trade
  • Federal government promoted western expansion by sending out exploratory and scientific expeditions that mapped the West and brought back artists' re-creations
  • Indigenous policy: Removal and Relocation
  • Native Land Concessions
  • Indian Removal Act (1830), "Trail of Tears", Reservations
  • Compromise and Concession
  • Some attempts at "Americanization" - loss of traditional culture, child boarding schools, adopting Christianity, learning English
• History comes back around.
• Exploration of the Continent, 1804–30

  Lewis and Clark's "voyage of discovery" of 1804–06 was the first of many government-sponsored western military expeditions. Crossing the Great Plains in 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was captured by the Spanish in their territory and taken to Mexico, but returned in 1807 via Texas. Major Stephen Long, who crossed the Plains in 1819–20, found them "arid and forbidding." Meanwhile, fur trappers, among them the much-traveled Jedediah Smith, became well acquainted with the West as they hunted beaver for their pelts.
• John Gast: '"It is the benign domestic influence of [her] allegorical figure, […] Gast seems to indicate, that is responsible for the smooth and uplifting transformation of wilderness into civilization."'
• American Progress


  • Representative of an Angel, a higher calling, and motherhood.
  • Telegraph wires: She is bringing technology and innovation to the uncivilized west.
  • Similar sentiment as the telegraph wires. Trains push west to show advancement.
  • Native Americans are being pushed off of the land by the incoming settlers.
  • Covered Wagons are in reference to overland travelers to Oregon, etc.
  • Animals' (especially bison) population numbers declined by expansion from east
  • The Stagecoach represents North Eastern Money coming into the new territory
  • The men here represent the southern farmer, remaining in the south
  • While, these men represent the southern farmers who have left to move west
  • Rolling hills and open water ways
  • Jagged Mountains and a steep coast
  • The East is warm and welcoming
  • The West is dark and ominous
• By 1872, the United States had already expanded to the Pacific Ocean
• So this is after the War with Mexico
• So the painting AMERICAN PROGRESS is basically celebrating what had already happened
• But in 1816, we hadn't spread that far yet.
• This was before the annexation of Texas and before the Mexican War
• John Melish could have drawn the map of the United States to just include American territory.
• Instead he drew the continent from sea to sea
• Why did Americans think they were so special?

  This theory that Americans are special is called "American Exceptionalism" It is the idea that America has had such a unique history and has become so powerful that there's something really special about it.
• In 1845, journalist John O'Sullivan coined the phrase "manifest destiny"
• Manifest Destiny


  • Westward expansion would increase trade, enable whites to "civilize" the Indians, and spread democracy
  • Whigs feared expansion would bring up the slavery issue
• Oregon Trail


  2,000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon
• Cost $500-$1000 ($10,000-$20,000 today) to travel trail so you're probably selling your farm or working off price of passage
• 10% chance of dying on trail
• Indigenous American attacks (most feared) only 0.5%
• Oregon's first exclusion law as in 1844: all black residents over 18 had to leave or would face whippings
• Texas


  • Stephen F. Austin promoted American emigration
  • Texas big enough to hold three communities briefly: Comanches- hunting grounds on frontier, Mexicans- ranches and missions in south, Slaveholding Americans- cotton in eastern and south central sections; viewed as extension of Mississippi and Louisiana
  • In 1828, a new Mexican centrist government broke the balance when it sought to control Texas by restricting immigration, outlawing slavery, raising taxes
  • Americans came to see their own culture as superior
• Texas War for Independence

  • War broke out in 1835
  • The Mexican army overwhelmed Americans at the Alamo
  • At the San Jacinto River, Sam Houston's forces victory led to a treaty granting independence to the Republic of Texas and fixing the southern boundary at the Rio Grande
• The History Channel: The Alamo
• Texas uprising


  • alliance between American and native-Spanish speakers, Tejanos
  • Tejanos played key roles in the Texas Revolution, but excluded from positions of power after independence
  • Frontier pattern of dealing with native people: first, blending with them, second, occupying the land, third, excluding or removing native settlers
• This modern photograph of the Alamo chapel by the well-known landscape photographer David Muench conveys the pristine and rather nostalgic atmosphere of the site that describes itself as "the Cradle of Texas liberty."
• Texas Republic and Election of 1844

  • Sam Houston first President of the Republic of Texas, outpolling Austin 4-to-1
  • Texans vote to seek US annexation
  • US rejected annexation…rekindling slave state/free state conflicts
  • Within the republic, conflicts between Anglos and Tejanos grew from American theory of superiority
  • President Tyler raised issue of annexation in 1844 with hopes of re-election
  • Polk won 1844 election after calling for "the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period" (*expansion)
  • Texas: 28th state (slave state) 1845
• Mexican American War


  • Origins: James K. Polk was committed to expanding U.S. territory, peacefully settled Oregon controversy, increasing tensions with Mexico led that nation to break diplomatic relations with the United States, Polk wanted to extend U.S. territory to the Pacific and encouraged a takeover of California, a border dispute led Polk to order troops to defeat Mexico
  • Polk asked for war with Mexico ("Mr. Polk's War"), politically divisive, particularly among opponents of slavery and northerners, mass and individual protests
  • Polk planned the war strategy, sending troops into the northern provinces of Mexico, conquering New Mexico and California (Bear Flag Revolt)
  • Victories in Mexico came hard, fierce Mexican resistance met by American brutality against Mexican citizens
  • War ended when General Scott captured Mexico City, Polk had ambitions of taking over Mexico, but strong opposition made him accept the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• The unprecedented immediacy of the news reporting of the Mexican-American War, transmitted for the first time by telegraph, is captured here by Richard Caton Woodville in War News from Mexico (1848). By including an African American man and child, the artist is also voicing a political concern about the effect of the war on slavery.
• Outcome: territory!


  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexico gives up Texas and recognizes the Rio Grande as the border, Mexico gives up New Mexico and California (about 2/5 of their territory), US pays Mexico $15 million, US will pay claims made against Mexico by US citizens costing $3 million
  • Gadsden Purchase: Mexico sells to the US 30,000 square mile piece of present day Arizona and New Mexico
• J. Goldsborough Bruff, one of thousands who rushed to California for gold in 1849, sketched many events in his Overland Trail journey. Here he depicts several wagons being ferried over the Platte River. The need for individuals to cooperate is obvious. Less obvious in this sketch is the danger: most river crossing points lacked ferries, and both people and livestock often drowned trying to ford them.
• California and the Gold Rush

  • American community grew around Sutter's land grant, which participated in the independence movement from Mexico (Bear Flag Revolt)
  • The discovery of gold in January 1848 triggered a massive gold rush of white Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese
  • Forty-niners
  • California gained enough residents to become a state in 1850 (Compromise of 1850)
• Chinese first came to California in 1849 attracted by the Gold Rush. Frequently, however, they were forced off their claims by intolerant whites. Rather than enjoy an equal chance in the gold fields, they were often forced to work as servants or in other menial occupations.
• Wilmot Proviso (1846)


  • Northern Whigs opposed expansion on antislavery grounds
  • The Wilmot Proviso caused a controversy over the status of slavery in the new territories
  • Would ban slavery and involuntary servitude in territories
  • Did not pass
  • A bitter debate on the Proviso raised serious sectional issues and caused the first breakdown of the national party system
• Election of 1848


  • Candidates had to discuss their views on the slavery expansion: Lewis Cass- Democrat, favored popular sovereignty but was vague on details, Zachary Taylor- Whig war hero, refused to take a position on the Wilmot Proviso, Martin Van Buren- Free-Soil Party
  • By taking Democratic votes from Cass, Van Buren helped Taylor win the election
  • Taylor died in office (Fillmore)
• Manifest Destiny


  Belief that it was God's will to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean
• Factors that fueled Manifest Destiny


  • Nationalism
  • Racism
  • Population increase
  • Reform ideas
• Texas revolt and independence

  1. Stephen F. Austin brings 300 families

  2. Mexico requires them to be Catholic families

  3. Santa Anna proclaimed dictator in 1834

  4. Alamo attacked by Santa Anna

  5. San Jacinto River battle

  6. Texas applies to be annexed or new state
• US wanted Texas and Oregon territory but Mexico refused to cede them
• President Andrew Jackson refused to admit Texas, citing political upheaval
• Texas was eventually annexed and became the 28th state in 1845