Chapter Fourteen
The Territorial
Expansion of the
United States,
1830s–1850s
Santa Fe trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19thcentury transportation route
through central North America that
connected Missouri with Santa Fe,
New Mexico
Manifest destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th
century American belief that the
United States was destined to
expand across the continent.
Oregon trail
The Oregon Trail is a 2,000-mile
(3,200 km) historic east-west
wagon route that connected the
Missouri River to valleys in
Oregon and locations in between.
Tejanos
Term used to identify a Texan of
Mexican descent.
Empresarios
An empresario was a person who,
in the early years of the settlement
of Texas, had been granted the right
to settle on Mexican land in
exchange for recruiting and taking
responsibility for new settlers. The
word is Spanish for entrepreneur
Alamo
A 13-day siege, Mexican troops
under President General Antonio
López de Santa Anna launched an
assault on the Alamo Mission near
San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day
San Antonio, Texas).
Californios
Spanish-speaking Catholic people,
regardless of race, born in
California before 1848
Wilmot proviso
Wilmot Proviso, one of the major
events leading to the Civil War,
would have banned slavery in any
territory to be acquired from
Mexico in the Mexican War or in
the future.
Popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty or the
sovereignty of the people is the
political principle that the
legitimacy of the state is created
and sustained by the will or consent
of its people
What role did the federal government play in
the exploration o the west?
What role did the federal government play
in the exploration o the west?
What were the important consequences of
the Mexican- American War?
What kinds of people participated in the
California Gold Rush?
What kinds of people participated in the
California Gold Rush?
What key factors explain the outcome of the
election of 1848?
What key factors explain the outcome of the
election of 1848?
Chapter Focus Questions
How did the political effects of expansion
heighten sectional tensions?
How did the concept of manifest destiny affect
continental expansion?
How was the frontier development in Oregon,
Texas, and California similar and different?
Texans and Tejanos
“Remember the Alamo!”
Remember the Alamo
The Texas uprising:
alliance between Americans and Tejanos.
The Tejano elite welcomed American entrepreneurs
The Mexican state was unstable
The so-called “Second Battle of the Alamo” occurred when these two genteel antagonists,
Adina De Zavala, on the left, and Clara Driscoll on the right, disagreed over whether to
include the site’s Spanish and Mexican history (De Zavala) or whether, as Driscoll wished, to
focus only on the Anglo heroes of the 1836 defeat. Driscoll won.
Clara Driscoll.Gift of Mrs.L.T.Barrow,1978.Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library,CN96.2.
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.” SOURCE:© David Muench//CORBIS.
This sculpture is part of the Alamo Cenotaph, a memorial to the slain defenders of the Alamo
that was erected in Alamo Plaza in 1940. The two prominent figures are the famous
defenders William B. Travis (in uniform) and Davy Crockett. ©Lee Snider/Corbis.
Because Tejano leader Juan Seguin
escaped from the Alamo to rally
reinforcements, he survived the
battle, only to live to see the heroism
of Anglo leaders commemorated in
memorials like the Cenotaph, but not
the Tejanos who died with them.
Texas State Preservation Board.
Commissioned by a Dallas businessman in 1903, this famous painting hangs in the Texas
governor’s mansion in Austin. In this imaginary rendition of the battle, the omission of Tejano
defenders from the scene allowed the artist to use light and dark to sharpen the contrast
between the good Anglos and the bad Mexicans.
Robert Jenkins Onderdonk,The Fall of the Alamo.Friends of the Governor ’s Mansion,Austin.
Remember the Alamo
Tejanos played key roles in the Texas Revolution,
Frontier pattern of dealing with native people was
by:
first, blending with them
second, occupying the land
third, excluding or removing native settlers.
Part Three:
Exploring the West
The Fur Trade
Fur trade was greatest spur to exploration
American companies challenged British in 1820s.
Trappers known as mountain men:
accommodated themselves Indians
rarely came in contact with whites
viewed as the advance guard of the market revolution.
By 1840s the beaver was virtually trapped out.
The artist Alfred Jacob Miller, a careful observer of the western fur trade, shows a mountain
man and his Indian wife in his 1837 Bourgeois Walker & His Wife. Walker and his wife worked
together to trap and prepare beaver pelts for market, as did other European men and their
Indian wives. SOURCE:The Walters Art Museum,Baltimore (37.1940.78).
Government-Sponsored Exploration
The federal government promoted western
expansion
MAP 14.1 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.
Expansion and Indian Policy
Government looked to West as refuge for eastern
Indians.
Encroachment on new Indian Territory rapid.
The government pushed for further land concessions.
Major battles between whites and Indians occurred
after the Civil War.
MAP 14.2 Indian Territory Before the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 Indian Territory
lay west of Arkansas, Missouri, and lowa and
east of Spanish Territory. Most of the Indian
peoples who lived there in the 1830s and the
1840s had been “removed” from east of the
Mississipi River. The southern part (now
Oklahoma) was inhabited by peoples from the
Old Southwest: the Cherokees, Chickasaws,
Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. North of
that (in what is now Kansas and Nebraska)
lived peoples who had been removed from the
Old Northwest. All these Indian peoples had
trouble adjusting not only to a new climate and
a new way of life, but to the close proximity of
some Indian tribes who were their traditional
enemies.
Alfred Jabob Miller painted the busy life of Fort Laramie, a multiracial trading fort, in 1837.
Bent’s Fort, another multiracial trading center, would have looked much like this.
SOURCE:The Interior of Fort Laramie , 1858 –1860.The Walters Art Museum,Baltimore (37.1940.1).
Part Four:
The Politics of Expansion
Manifest Destiny, an Expansionist
Ideology
Journalist John O’Sullivan coined the phrase
“manifest destiny”.
Westward expansion would increase trade and
enable whites to “civilize” Indians.
Democrats saw expansion as the cure for national
ills.
Whigs feared expansion would bring up the slavery
issue.
The Overland Trails
Map: The Overland Trails, 1840, p. 397
The great trails started at the Missouri River.
The Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails
followed the Platte River into Wyoming.
The Santa Fe Trail was much harsher.
The 2,000-mile Overland Trail was a long,
expensive, and hazardous journey.
MAP 14.3 The Overland
Trails, 1840 All the great trails
west started at the Missouri
River. The Oregon, California,
and Mormon Trails followed
the Platte River into Wyoming,
crossed South Pass, and
divided in western Wyoming.
The much harsher Santa Fé
Trail stretched 900 miles
southwest across the Great
Plains. All of the trails crossed
Indian Territory and, to greater
or lesser extent, Mexican
possessions as well.
The Overland Trails
Pioneers traveled in groups, often hired a pilot.
Men were responsible for care of the animals.
Women prepared food and took care of the
children.
Problem arose when the parties reached Rockies.
Disease plagued the pioneers.
Oregon
After 1818, the United States and Britain jointly controlled
Oregon territory.
Along with fur trappers, missionaries were among the
earliest white settlers.
Conflicts with Indians resulted in periodic bloodbaths.
Disease greatly reduced the Indian population.
By the mid-1840s “Oregon Fever” broke out.
“Overland Emigration to Oregon, California, and Utah”
FIGURE 14.1 Overland Emigration to Oregon, California, and Utah, 1840–60 Before 1849, the
westward migration consisted primarily of family groups going to Oregon or Utah. The discovery of
gold in California dramatically changed the migration: through 1854, most migrants were single men
“rushing” to California, which remained the favored destination up until 1860. Over the twenty-year
period from 1840 to 1860, the Overland Trails were transformed from difficult and dangerous routes
to well-marked and well-served thoroughfares. SOURCE:John Unruh Jr.,The Plains Across (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press,1979),pp.119 –20
Oregon: Settlements
White Oregonians built closely-knit
communities.
African Americans were formally excluded.
Relations with the Indians were peaceful
until 1847
The Santa Fe Trade
New Mexico welcomed American trade
along Santa Fe Trail.
American trappers and traders assimilated
with locals.
The trail was hard, arduous, and dangerous.
High profits.
Texas from Mexican Province to State
Maps: Texas
MAP 14.4a Texas: From
Mexican Province to U.S. State
In the space of twenty years,
Texas changed shape three
times. Initially part of the
Mexican province of Coahuila y
Tejas, it became the Republic of
Texas in 1836, following the
Texas Revolt, and was annexed
to the United States in that form
in 1845. Finally, in the
Compromise of 1850 following
the Mexican-American War, it
took its present shape.
MAP 14.4b Texas: From Mexican Province to U.S. State
MAP 14.4c Texas: From Mexican Province to U.S. State
Mexican Texas
In Texas, multiethnic settlements revolved
around the presidio, mission, and rancho.
Mexican authorities sought American
settlement.
Americans provided buffer between its
heartland and Comanches.
Mexican Texas
Stephen F. Austin promoted American
emigration.
Generally, slaveholders came to grow cotton.
Americans viewed Texas as an extension of
Mississippi and Louisiana.
Toward Texas Independence
Texas cultures:
Mexicans maintained ranches and missions in
the South.
Americans farmed the eastern and south central
sections.
The Comanches held their hunting grounds on
the frontier.
Painted by George Catlin about 1834, this scene, Commanche Village Life, shows how the
everday life of the Comanches was tied to buffalo. The women in the foreground are scraping
buffalo hide, and buffalo meat can be seen drying on racks. The men and boys may be
planning their next buffato hunt. SOURCE:Art Resource,N.Y.
Toward Texas Independence
In 1828, a new Mexican government sought to
control Texas by
restricting immigration
outlawing slavery
and raising taxes.
Americans saw their own culture as superior to
“mongrel Spanish-Indian(s).”
The Texas Revolt
War broke out in 1835.
The Mexican army overwhelmed Americans
at the Alamo.
At the San Jacinto River, Sam Houston’s
forces won.
Treaty granted independence to the Republic
of Texas
Southern boundary at the Rio Grande.
Texas and the Election of 1844
The Texas Republic developed after US rejected
admission
Fear of rekindling slave state/free state conflicts.
Within the Texas, conflicts between Anglos and
Tejanos grew
President Tyler raised the issue of annexation in
1844 with hopes of re-election
Texas and the Election of 1844
Polk won the 1844 election.
Polk called for “the re-occupation of Oregon and
the re-annexation of Texas…”
1844 election interpreted as a mandate for
expansion.
Texas became a state in 1845.
Part Five:
The Mexican-American
War
Origins of the War
Polk was committed to expanding U.S. territory.
He peacefully settled the Oregon controversy.
Increasing tensions with Mexico; broken relations.
Polk wanted to extend U.S. territory to the Pacific.
Polk encouraged a takeover of California.
A border dispute led Polk to order troops to Mexico.
Mr. Polk’s War
The dispute with Mexico erupted into war
when:
Mexico refused to receive Polk’s envoy
brief skirmish occurred on the Texas-Mexico
border.
Polk asked for war with Mexico.
Mr. Polk’s War
The call to war was politically divisive.
Mass and individual protests occurred.
The Mexican-American War
Maps: The Mexican-American War, 1846–
1848
Polk planned the war strategy
He sent troops into the northern provinces
of Mexico
New Mexico and California were
conquered.
MAP 14.5 The Mexican-American War 1846–1848 The Mexican-American War began with an
advance by U.S. forces into the disputed area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande in
Texas. The war’s major battles were fought by General Zachary Taylor in northern Mexico and
General Winfield Scott in Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Meanwhile Colonel Stephen Kearny secured
New Mexico and, with the help of the U.S. Navy and John C. Frémont’s troops, California.
The Invasion of Mexico
Victories in Mexico came hard.
Fierce Mexican resistance.
American committed brutalities against
Mexican citizens.
When General Scott captured Mexico City,
the war ended.
General Winfield Scott is shown at moment of victory, riding into Mexico City’s central square
in 1847 to accept the Mexican surrender. Triumphant lithographs like this were very popular
with the American public, who knew very little about the hardship and brutality of the sixmonth long campaign that preceded it. SOURCE:Carl Nebel,Lithegraph 1847.Special Collection University of Texas,Arlington.
American Expansion after the MexicanAmerican War
Polk had ambitions of taking over Mexico
Strong opposition made him accept Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Territory Added, 1845–1853
MAP 14.6 Territory Added, 1845–
53 James K. Polk was elected
president in 1844 on an
expansionist platform. He lived up
to most of his campaign rhetoric by
gaining the Oregon Country (to the
forty-ninth parallel) peacefully from
the British, Texas by the presidential
action of his predecessor John
Tyler, and present-day California,
Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New
Mexico, and part of Colorado by
war with Mexico. In the short space
of three years, the size of the
United States grew by 70 percent.
In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase
added another 30,000 square miles.
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.
SOURCE:Richard Caton Woodville,War News from Mexico,oil on canvas. Manovgian Foundation,on loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington,DC.
The Press and Popular War Enthusiasm
Mexican-American War was first conflict featuring
on-the-scene reporting.
Reports united Americans in temporary, emotional
community.
Heroes like Taylor and Scott became presidential
candidates.
Part Six:
California and the Gold
Rush
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.
SOURCE:Joseph Goldsborough Bruff,Ferriage of the Platte above the Mount of Deer Creek,July 20,1849.The Henry E.Huntington Library and Art Gallery,San Marino,CA (HM 8044,#50).
California Before the Gold Rush
The Russians had enjoyed a brisk trade in
California.
John Sutter, helped Americans emigrate to
California.
An American community grew up around
Sutter’s land grant,
Gold!
Map: California in the Gold Rush
Discovery of gold in 1848 triggered a
massive gold rush:
white Americans
Mexicans
Chinese.
Because it was the entry port and supply
point, San Francisco grew from a village of
1,000 in 1848 to a city of 35,000 in 1850.
MAP 14.7 California in the Gold Rush
This map shows the major gold camps
along the Mother Lode in the western
foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Gold seekers reached the camps by
crossing the Sierra Nevadas near
Placerville on the Overland Trail or by sea
via San Francisco. The main area of
Spanish-Mexican settlement, the coastal
region between Monterey and Los
Angeles, was remote from the gold fields.
SOURCE:Warren A.Beck and Ynez D.Haase,Historical Atlas of California (Norman:University of
Oklahoma Press,1974),map 50.
This view of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River shows established agriculture and thriving
commerce, indicated by the large sailing ship on the river, which is probably the Hudson’s
Bay Company yearly supply ship from England. It was a scene like this that led Narcissa
Whitman to call Fort Vancouver “the New York of the Pacific” .
SOURCE:Ft Vancouver,Oregon,by unknown artist (probably John Mix Stanley),1846 –48.Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,Yale University.
Gold!
San Francisco grew from 1,000 in 1848 to
35,000 in 1850.
The Forty-Niners
California’s white population grew tenfold.
Twenty percent of the miners foreigners.
California became a state in 1850.
“Where the Forty-Niners Came From”
FIGURE 14.2 Where the Forty-Niners Came From Americans drawn to the California Gold
Rush of 1849 encountered a more diverse population than most had previously known.
Nearly as novel to them as the 20 percent from foreign countries, was the regional variety
from within the United States itself.
This drawing of the bar of a gambling saloon in San Francisco in 1855 shows the effects of the
Gold Rush on California. Men from all parts of the world are gathered at this elegant bar in the large
cosmopolitan city of San Francisco, which had been only a small trading post before gold was
discovered in 1849.
SOURCE:Frank Marryat,The Bar of a Gambling Saloon , published 1855.Lithograph.Collection of the New York Historical Society,New York City (48381).
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.
SOURCE:Head of Auburn Ravine ,1852,Gold miners with Chinese laborers,California State Library (912).
The Chinese Miners
The Chinese first came to California in
1849.
They were often forced off their claims.
The Chinese worked as servants and in
other menial occupations.
Mining Camps
The mining camps were generally:
Miserable, squalid, temporary
Racism was widespread.
Most of the miners were young, unmarried,
and unsuccessful.
Supplying miners was more reliable
business.
Part Seven:
The Politics of Manifest
Destiny
The Wilmot Proviso
Northern Whigs opposed West expansion on
antislavery grounds.
Wilmot Proviso caused controversy over
new territory slavery.
A bitter debate on the Proviso raised serious
sectional issues
First breakdown of the national party system.
Free-Soil
Liberty Party indicated antislavery position in north.
The Free-Soil Party focused on stopping spread of
slavery.
Free-Soilers appealed to northern values of freedom,
individualism, racism.
They would ban African Americans from new
territories.
In 1848, the Whigs nominated a hero of the Mexican-American War, General ZacharyTaylor,
who ran on his military exploits. In this poster, every letter of Taylor’s name is decorated with
scenes from the recent war, wich had seized the popular imagination in a way no previous
conflict had done.
The Election of 1848
In the election of 1848, candidates discussed their
views on the slavery expansion
Lewis Cass, the Democrat, favored popular
sovereignty.
Whig war hero, Zachary Taylor, refused to take a
position on the Wilmot Proviso
Free-Soil Party ran Martin Van Buren as a spoiler.
By taking Democratic votes from Cass, Van Buren
helped Taylor win the election. Unfortunately,
Taylor died in office.
The Election of 1848
Van Buren siphoned Cass’s voted.
Taylor won the election.
Taylor died in office.
Millard Fillmore becomes 13th POTUS.