Chapter 11: Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny, 1841-1849
I.
The Social Fabric in the West
A. The New Cotton Country
1.
Native Americans had prepared the way for white settlers by
clearing the land for agriculture.
2.
Differing land quality allowed some settlers to prosper while
others did not.
a.
The Southwest replicated the South’s hierarchical structure.
B.
Westering Yankees
1.
Settlers in the former Northwest Territory found that the way had
been prepared for them.
a.
Native Americans had cleared the land for farming.
b.
Surveyors had laid out the land.
2.
The Old Northwest quickly replicated many features of New
England.
a.
Traditional institutions were established.
b.
Class differences were not as pronounced as in the
Southwest, because of relatively uniform land quality.
3.
Conditions in Oregon were favorable for settlers.
a.
Open, fertile prairies provided good farmland.
b.
Relations with Native Americans were at first quite good.
4.
Religious revivals were a feature of life in all three regions.
a.
In the Old Northwest and in Oregon, they reinforced town
life.
C.
The Hispanic Southwest
1.
Missions provided the backbone for the Spanish settlement of
California.
a.
Native Americans provided the labor that made the region
prosper agriculturally.
b.
Following independence, the Mexican government sold off
the missions to private individuals, who formed a Spanishspeaking landed elite.
2.
Interethnic and interracial harmony prevailed in some sections of
the Spanish Southwest:
a.
In northern California, around John Sutter’s settlement.
b.
In Santa Fe, where an ethnically mixed elite based on
commerce developed.
c.
In Texas, until the U.S. American population became large.
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D.
II.
The Mormon Community
1.
Climatic conditions in Utah made central management and control
desirable.
a.
The Mormon Church parceled out land according to need
and organized communal work.
b.
The Mormons did all they could to exclude non-Mormons
from Utah.
c.
On the other hand, they cultivated close relations with the
Native Americans.
The Triumph of "Manifest Destiny"
A. he Rise of Manifest Destiny
1.
The concept of manifest destiny contributed to westward
expansion.
a.
The ideology of manifest destiny drew from religion:
American possession of all of North America was God’s
design.
b.
Christian missionary organizations were advocates of
expansion for this reason.
c.
Politicians followed suit.
d.
Free movement
B.
Expansion to the North and West
1.
Expansion led to tension between the United States and Britain
over territorial differences.
2.
In the Northeast, conflict flared over the border between
Maine and Canada; a truce prevented outright war.
3.
In the Northwest, both England and the United States claimed
Oregon.
a.
The two agreed to joint occupation after the War of
1812, extending this arrangement in 1827 indefinitely.
4.
American settlers established a governmental structure in 1843
despite British objections, and aimed at union with
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C.
III.
The Politics of Manifest Destiny
1.
President Tyler favored U.S. expansion.
a.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled the border
between Maine and Canada; the United States retained
more than half of the disputed area.
b.
Tyler asserted the U.S. claim to Oregon by appointing a
territorial Indian agent.
c.
His administration negotiated a treaty to annex Texas,
which the Senate declined to ratify because of the
slavery issue.
2.
Expansion was the major issue in the presidential election of 1844.
a.
The Whigs’ candidate (Clay) opposed the immediate
annexation of Texas.
b.
Positions on the annexation of Texas led the Democrats to
nominate Polk rather than Van Buren. Polk runs on an
annex Texas agenda.
c.
The Democrats called for immediate annexation of
Texas and the acquisition of all of Oregon to 54' 40".
3.
Congress approved a joint resolution annexing Texas prior to
Tyler’s departure from office.
4.
Polk acquired much of Oregon for the United States
a.
He demanded 54' 40" as Oregon’s northern border; the
British wanted it farther south at the Columbia River.
b.
The two sides agreed on the 49th parallel.
Expansion and Sectional Crisis
A. The Texas Crisis and Sectional Conflict
1.
Tension rose with Mexico after Texas’s annexation.
a.
Texas’s boundary provided the focal point for controversy.
2.
Polk sent Slidell to purchase the Mexican Territory from Mexico
for 15 million dollars. Paredes refuses to listen to him.
3.
Polk them immediately declares war on the basis on “the halting of
American progress”
4.
Polk ordered the American army to the Rio Grande after Mexico
refused to receive his envoy to discuss the issue.
a.
The United States declared war after a Mexican attack at
the Rio Grande.
5.
Many in the United States protested against the war.
a.
Their concern arose from the connection between
expansion and slavery.
6.
The annexation of Texas focused intense attention on slavery.
a.
Southerners saw greater economic and congressional power
in the expansion of slavery.
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b.
c.
Northerners found slavery’s expansion into Texas proof
that there was a "Slave Power" conspiracy.
Appropriations for the war effort were held up by the
debate over the proposed Wilmot Proviso.
B.
War with Mexico
1.
In California, American settlers revolted against Mexico.
a.
They established the Bear Flag Republic.
2.
Polk sent an army to Santa Fe which seized the entire region
without opposition.
3.
In Mexico, the Mexicans were defeated on several fronts.
a.
Taylor Santa Anna fought to a stalemate at Buena Vista.
b.
Scott marched overland and attacked Mexico City suffering
heavy casualties along the way.
4.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war.
a.
The United States obtained Texas’s border at the Rio
Grande, all of New Mexico, and California.
b.
Mexico received $15 million and U.S. payment for war
damages caused by Mexico in Texas.
C.
The Antislavery Crusade and Women’s Rights
1.
Antislavery sentiment, though still unpopular, was on the increase;
the abolitionist movement was growing larger.
a.
Moderate abolitionists, alienated by Garrison’s tactics and
by his association with radical black abolitionists, formed
their own organization.
b.
Many staunch abolitionists were women and men like
Garrison understood the need to support equal treatment of
women.
2.
Some became prominent in the abolitionist movement, notably in
the Garrison wing.
a.
Rebuffs in the movement led to advocacy of women’s
own equality.
3.
At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, women formulated a
program for equality and political rights.
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D.
Issues in the Election of 1848
1.
The two major parties tried to avoid the issue of slavery in the
territories.
2.
The Free-Soil party insisted that slavery must be excluded from
the territories.
3.
A surge in the number of people moving to California added to the
growing split over slavery in the territories.
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