PreWar Expansion

1
Pre-War Expansion Tension

• 1820-1850

2
Everything is big in Texas

• Mexico wins independence from Spain in 1823
• Wants settlers to populate Texas, even Anglos
• Austin family owns large amount of land
• Stephen F. Austin brings 300 families
• By 1830, American settlers outnumber Mexicans 3
  to 1

3
including conflicts over slavery

• 1829--Mexico outlaws slavery, requires immigrants
  to convert to Roman Catholicism
• Didnt stop settlers from coming and ignoring the
  law
• Change in Mexican government heightens tensions
• Santa Anna becomes dictator
• Insists on enforcing laws in Texas
• Settlers, led by Sam Houston, declare independent
  Republic of Texas in March, 1836
• The Lone Star Republic

4
Remember the Alamo!

• Santa Anna captures town of Goliad
• Captures Alamo in San Antonio, killing all
  American defenders
• But, at Battle of San Jacinto River, Houstons
  forces capture Santa Anna
• Coerced into signing treaty granting Texas
  Independence
• Mexican legislature rejects the treaty

5
State of Denial (get itstate)

• Houston applies for annexationto be added as a
  new state
• Denied by Jackson, Van Buren
• John Tyler would like to, but couldnt get
  annexation approved by Congress
• until later when he gets involved in some
  creative legislating

6
Meanwhile in Maine

• Border with New Brunswick (British Canada) not
  well-defined
• Leads to Aroostook War
• battle of the maps between lumbermen
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty
• Splits the disputed territory
• Settles boundary of Minnesota Territory
• U.S. ends up with iron-rich Mesabi range
• But there are more problems with the British

7
Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!

• In 1840s, Oregon Territory stretched as far north
  as Alaska
• Had been claimed by four countriesSpain, Russia,
  Britain, and U.S.
• Spain gave up claim with Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)
• Excellent farming land, spurns Oregon Fever
• Influence of Manifest Destiny
• Many Americans feel that it is time to annex
  Texas, Oregon, and get California from Mexico

8
Tyler leaves a mess

• Democrat James Polk elected in 1844
• Outgoing President Tyler persuades Congress to
  pass a joint resolution that Texas should be
  annexed
• Only needed simple majority to approve
• Polk agrees to divide Oregon with Britain at the
  49th parallel
• Also grants Britain Vancouver Island and
  navigation rights on the Columbia River

9
Jimmy Polks War

• Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico City in spring
  of 1845to
• Persuade Mexico to sell California and New Mexico
  (offered 30 million)
• Settle the Mexico-Texas border dispute
• Mexico claims it was the Nueces River, U.S. the
  Rio Grande
• At the same time, Polk orders General Zachary
  Taylor to move toward the rio Grande with 1,500
  men
• 11 Americans killed in an ensuing skirmish
• Declaration of war approved on May 10, Polk
  claiming that Mexico had shed American blood on
  the American soil

10
Democrats beginning to split

• Wilmot Proviso passes House during first year of
  the war
• Opens door for the free-soil Democrats
• Not all against slavery
• Some, like Wilmot, wanted territory where whites
  would not have to compete with black labor, slave
  or free

11
A Complete Victory

• War a military debacle for Mexico
• American forces take Santa Fe, the New Mexico
  territory and southern California with a force of
  approximately 1,500 men
• John C. Fremont leads overthrow of Mexico in
  California, backed by a few dozen soldiers, some
  navy officers, and settlers
• Declares California independence
• The Bear Flag Republic
• Taylors army of 6,000 drives Mexicans out of
  Texas
• Winfield Scotts army of 14,000 captures Mexico
  City in September 1847

12
Consequences of the War

• Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoMexican Cession
  (1848)
• Mexico recognizes Rio Grande as the border
• U.S. pays 15 million for California and New
  Mexico
• Battle over slavery intensifies
• Many Whigs see it as an immoral war for the
  expansion of slavery
• Wilmot Proviso may have been the act that
  ultimately led to war

13
The expansion of Manifest Destiny

• Ostend Manifesto
• Polk offers to purchase Cuba from Spain for 100
  million
• When Franklin Pierce elected (1852), secretly
  sends diplomats to Ostend, Belgium, to negotiate
  the sale of Cuba
• Leaked to the press and dropped
• Walker Expedition
• Southern adventurers try to establish a
  proslavery empire in Central America
• Take over Nicaragua in 1855, recognized by US in
  1856
• Coalition of Central American countries execute
  Walker in 1860
• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)
• Britain-U.S. agree that neither would exclusively
  control a future canal in Central America
• Gadsden Purchase
• Pierce pays 10 million to buy land (now part of
  NM AZ) for a railroad in the Southwest