Continental Expansion and
“Manifest Destiny,” 1800-1860
Continental expansion
•
•
•
•
U.S. triples in size, 1783-48
“Lower 48” borders established by 1853
No destiny in country’s shape
Contingent borders
–Treaties, wars, negotiations, force
–Decisions, choices, mistakes
–Opportunism as well as planning
–Other outcomes possible, even more likely
“Manifest Destiny”
• “Manifest”
– Obvious, self-evident, made clear
– Has become reality
• “Destiny”
– Fated, pre-ordained
– Inevitable
• “Manifest Destiny” phrase, 1840’s
– U.S. is obviously supposed to expand
– Evidence for this?
The U.S. has already expanded
Circular reasoning
John Gast, American Progress, 1872
John Gast, American Progress, 1872
“Manifest Destiny”
• Economics, population pressures
– “Bottom-up” and “top-down”
– Initiatives at multiple levels
– Private citizens more aggressive than gov’t
– High birth rate, immigration, land use patterns
• Ambiguous, undefined, in flux
– “Natural” borders?
– How big, how far?
– J.Q. Adams = stop at the Rocky Mountains?
– Jefferson = U.S. should add Cuba, obviously
“Manifest Destiny” as Idea
• Expansionism as ideology
– Jefferson = frontier as outlet
– Both major parties before the Civil War
• Very popular with voters
• J.Q. Adams and Andrew Jackson agree
1819 – worked on the same side to seize Florida
– James K. Polk – most successful President ever?
– Political debate about methods, not goals
– Slavery question: expansion of slavery into new
territory?
“Manifest Destiny” as Idea
• Racist assumptions
– North America as “empty continent”
– White/European superiority over others
– Anglo superiority over other Europeans
• Anti-Spanish, anti-Mexican sentiment
– Conquest as evidence of superiority
– Science, Progress, and God all support expansion
• Racism promoted AND limited expansion
– Debates over Mexican territory
– Racism cut in multiple directions
Forms of Expansion
• Not simply a “land grab”
– Usually, high-level international treaty
– Often peacefully negotiated
– But, inhabitants never asked
– Violence or threat of violence always there
Forms of Expansion
• Uninhabited land – Midway Island, 1867
• Purchase
– Louisiana ,1803
– Gadsden Purchase, 1853
– Alaska, 1867
Forms of Expansion
• Negotiation
– Oregon treaty, 1846
• Support revolution, then annex
– Texas – 1836, 1845
– Hawai’i – 1893, 1898
• Coercion
– Florida, 1819-1821
• “Indian Removal,” 1830’s-1890’s
– All methods, violent and otherwise
– 21st century terms: ethnic cleansing, genocide
Western
Trails,
1800-60
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Reserved.
16
Columbia
River and
Tributaries
The Oregon Boundary, 1846
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20
Forms of Expansion
War – Mexican-American War, 1846-8
Not a case of U.S. bullying Mexico
– Two modern nation-states
– Mutual conflict over boundary dispute
• Mexico with the better claim
• U.S. more aggressive
– Both certain of victory, eager to fight
– U.S. Army outnumbered in every battle
– Boundary disputes across the Americas
• Common legacy of colonialism
Still needs a good biographer
(or a good screenwriter):
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Chapter Eight:
Varieties of American Nationalism
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Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
The Missouri Compromise, 1820
26
Chapter Thirteen:
The Impending Crisis
Slave and Free Territories Under the Compromise of 1850
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Companies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
27