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Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was an amazing purchase bought for a really cheap price to today's money. In 1803, France wanted to make a really great colony but there was an upcoming war and they needed the money. Thomas Jefferson had originally wanted to buy the New Orleans area, instead he was offered 828,000 square miles for $15 million dollars! That is 4 cents per acre. It was an extremely good deal for Jefferson. Having this purchase for America gave very important opportunites. -
Corps of Discovery
Soon after the Louisiana Purchase was made, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go demolish his fears about the newly bought land. One of the things that Jefferson wanted was to find a water route, so Lewis and Clark took the Mississippi River, however didn't find a true water route. Along the way, they ran into indian tribes and made friends with them. Lewis recorded everything to show Jefferson. All of this allowed America to expand westward. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812, known as the "Revoluntionary War Part 2," only had occured because of poor communication. Britain and France were having a dispute and wanted us to pick sides, which we didn't. Britian got mad and starting raiding ships, capturing American soliders, then we declared war. The war went on for a couple of years, then US and UK ended the war with the Treaty of Ghent. In the end, we gained nationalism which is what made us into what we are today. -
Flordia Territory
Poor Spanish had owned Florida and Andrew Jackson had some upsetting plans to take over because they were helping the slaves to escape. James Monroe told Andrew Jackson to go defend the border but Jackson took a tiny army and invaded the Spanish territory. Spain finally had enough and gave in only to sell it for $5 million dollars. America brutally took the Florida territory from the Spanish but it still let us expand for Manifest Destiny. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was very useful to our country and established many things. It was issued by James Monroe on December 2, 1823. When this was stated it mentioned that no European countries to not to interfere with anything that was politcal with America. One major thing that could've saved us from a lot of wars was that no one else could colonize on North America or South America. This amazing document showed how powerful we were and even to this day we stand by and use this document. -
Indian Removal Act and Trial of Tears
On May 28, 1830, Andrew Jackson forced the Indians to move west onto the Oklahoma territory creating the Trial of Tears. To not cause any trouble between states, he used law to move the indians. His mother told him really bad stories about the indians and he hated them since. The Trial of Tears was the path the 5 tribes, Chicasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Cherrokee, and Seminole, took to go to Oklahoma. Many cried, were livid, and 80,000 died on this path because of Andrew Jackson. -
Oregon Territory
In 1818, the U.S and Britian made a joint claim and it had worked for 15 years or so. Eventually, the idea of Manifest Destiny broke the agreement and James K. Polk said, "54-40 or fight!" Which meant that we wanted the latitude of 54-40. Without war, Britian had agreed to the 49 parrell, which is now Canada. After this, we didn't have to deal with Britian for a while and we got more territory to expand westward. -
Texas
Texas was a very ignorant state that had just gotten out of war with Mexico and we wanted to have it be a part of the U.S. They had gotten their independance when Moses Austin wanted to make a colony but couldn't cause he died so his son did it for him. When Houston was the president, a lot of people wanted to annex Texas but they were afraid of war of slavery. Eventually, James K. Polk convinced them to join the U.S. After we got Texas, it gave more to the belief of Manifest Destiny. -
Mexican-American War
Mexico and America disagreed on the borders and the fact of slavery. Mexico had thought they should get a good chunk of territory and U.S didn't think they should take any more. During this time of war, they fought and were accusing each other of things like capturing soliders. James K. Polk offered to pay Mexico $15 million dollars for the land and for them to back off. They finally agreed after some time, which got the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to end the war and finish Manifest Destiny.
