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Reasons
Plains Indians
Trails
Mormons
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Tejas
U.S.-Mexico War
Gold Rush
Conclusions
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Population growth
Land
Inheritance
Slavery
“Democracy”
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Divine sanction
“Superiority”
Race
Christianity
Civilization
Indians & Mexicans
John O’Sullivan, @ 1845
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Lewis & Clark, 1804
Zebulon Pike, 1806-15
Stephen Long
George Bent
Hudson’s Bay Company
Santa Fe Trail
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Pawnee, Omaha
Western Sioux (Lakota)
Comanches 
Horse
Expansion
Disease
Treaties
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1821 Independence
All citizens
Weak economy
Native peoples,
criollos, mestizos
Colonization Laws
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“Tejanos”
Liberal immigration
No property taxes
Stephen Austin
◦ Empresario & citizen
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American immigrants
Brought slaves illegally
Violated Constitution
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1830 closed border
Penalties for slave
holders
Americans immigrated
illegally
Wanted more autonomy
Austin advised
cooperation
1833-5 Santa Anna
Centralize control
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Slaveholders, poor whites, adventure seekers,
criminals illegally entered Tejas
1835 Texas constitution & STATEHOOD
INSIDE MEXICO
Santa Ana refused, and sent military
Rhetoric of American Revolution
“Freedom and Liberty”
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March 2, 1836 declared
independence
March 6, 187 Americans
& Tejanos defeated at
Alamo (San Antonio) by
7,000 military
April 1836 Sam Houston
captured Santa Ana at
San Jacinto
Santa Ana signed treaty
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Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie,
William Travis
“Last stand” and “sacrifice”
A few good men vs a “well
trained military machine”
War for independence &
liberty
“Birth” of Texas
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Internal dispute over states’ rights
Multi-ethnic coalitions and divisions
Invaded Mexico and caused an insurrection
Defending rights of white slave holders
“Army” of Indians & campesinos
Race war & religious fear
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The men who died
13 native born
Texans, 11 were
Mexican
41 born in Europe,
2 Jews, 2 blacks
133 U.S. born
Convicts, broken
marriages, debt
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Colonel Travis
ignored orders of
Houston, the Texas
general
12 tribes agreed to
neutrality
Juan Seguin
Roughly 7,000
Texans fled into
Louisiana
afterwards
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Simplifies the past
Socialize & brainwash
Patriotism, not “truth”
Blind pride and fear
Silences Mexican
views
Serves contemporary
needs
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“Individualism”
Heroes and villains
Sacrifice/martyrdom
Pride and politics
Americans as victims,
only defending
themselves
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If it is “Alamo” it
must be good
Buying the myth and
image
Consumption and
identity
Nationalisms
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Mexican Congress rejected Treaty
Refused recognition of Texas
Santa Ana re-invaded
Americans discriminated against Tejanos,
took land, erased them from history
Disputed southern border
Slavery expanded into Texas
Texans invaded New Mexico several times
Border emerged in violence and racism
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Election of 1840
William Harrison (Whig)
Died in office
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V.P. John Tyler (to 1844)
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◦ Expansionist
◦ Whigs kicked him out
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Elected 1844
Annexed Texas, 1845
Wanted California
Annexed Oregon
Access to China
Cuba, Canada, Alaska
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1836 Treaty rejected
by Mexico
Rio Nueces or the
Rio Grande?
Mexico refused $
Polk decided on war
due to debt, land,
refusal of $
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Zachary Taylor to Rio Grande
Blocked the international port at river
Violated disputed area
Mexican troops defended themselves
U.S. troops died
“U.S. attacked on U.S. soil”
Secret War in California
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Stephen Kearny-NM
Winfield Scott into
Mexico City
Annex Mexico?
“Journalism”
U.S. Marines & Navy
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“The United States are the aggressors…. We
have not one particle of right to be here....It
looks as if the government sent a small force
on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a
pretext for taking California and as much of
this country as it chooses....My heart is not in
this business."
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"...the president unnecessarily and
unconstitutionally commenced a war with
Mexico....The marching an army into the
midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement,
frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their
growing crops and other property to
destruction, to you this may appear a
perfectly amiable, peaceful, un- provoking
procedure; but it does not appear so to us."
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“I do not think there ever was a more wicked
war than that waged by the United States in
Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was
a youngster, only I had not the moral courage
enough to resign.”
-Memoirs
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February 11, 1847 The Congressional Globe
"We must march from ocean to ocean....We
must march from Texas straight to the Pacific
ocean....It is the destiny of the white race, it is
the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon Race."
American Review [writes of Mexicans]:
"yielding to a superior population, insensibly
oozing into her territories, changing her
customs, and out-living, exterminating her
weaker blood."
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"The universal Yankee Nation can regenerate .
. . the people of Mexico in a few years; and
we believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize
that beautiful country."
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1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Rio Grande = Border
500,000 sq. miles = CA, NM, NV, AZ, CO
13,000 U.S. & 20,000 Mexicans died
Cost $100 million for U.S.
Mexicans can choose U.S. citizenship
Allowed expansion of slavery
Poisoned relations with Mexico
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Joseph Smith, NY
1820s
Communal work
Patriarchy
Persecution
Utah, 1846
Brigham Young
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Families & Missionaries
Whitman Family was most well known
Walked 6 months, tried converting Cayuse Indians
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U.S.-Britain jointly
controlled territory
Oregon Trail
U.S. Pop. grew
Polk pressured U.K.
Bought territory in
1840s
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Sutter’s Mill
Gold, 1848/9
Massive Migration
and growth of the
region
Native People
 300,000 – 30,000
 1850 law enslaved
Indians for labor
 No free blacks
 Californios
 Anti-Mexican laws
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Manifest Destiny as policy
“Democracy” dependent on expansion
Made conquest seem acceptable and natural
Legacy of hostility with Mexico &
Dispossessed Mexicans
Depopulation of California Indians & more
wars with Indians
Land and resources
Conflict over slavery moved westward