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Louisiana Purchase part1
With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic. What was known as Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. -
Louisiana Purchase part2
Part or all of 15 states were eventually created from the land deal, which is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency.President Jefferson organized expeditions to explore the new land. The most famous expedition was that of Lewis and Clark. They traveled up the Missouri River and eventually went all the way to the Pacific Ocean. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Webster-Ashburton treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies. Signed under John Tyler's presidency, it resolved the Aroostook War, a nonviolent dispute over the location of the Maine–New Brunswick border. -
Texas Annexation part1
The Texas annexation was the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America, which was admitted to the Union as the 28th state. -
Texas Annexation ("Remember the Alamo") part3
The victory ensured the success of Texan independence: Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms with Houston to end the war. In May, Mexican troops in San Antonio were ordered to withdraw, and to demolish the Alamo’s fortifications as they went. -
Texas Annexation ("Remember the Alamo") part2
From March to May, Mexican forces once again occupied the Alamo. For the Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of heroic resistance and a rallying cry in their struggle for independence. On April 21, 1836, Sam Houston and some 800 Texans defeated Santa Anna’s Mexican force of 1,500 men at San Jacinto (near the site of present-day Houston), shouting “Remember the Alamo!” as they attacked. -
Oregon Territory part1
Oregon country in the Pacific Northwest cinluded Oregon, Washington, Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming, and half of British Columbia. The issue was that both Britain and The United States claimed sovereignty in the region because both made simultaneous claims of it - The British based on George Vancouver's explorations and the Americans by Robert Gray's explorations of the region. -
Oregon Territory part2
The United States and Britain compromised in an 1818 treaty allowing citizens of each country equal access to the region, thus joint occupation. This continued for 20 years. -
Oregon Territory (Fifty-Four Forty or Fight) part3
James K Polk offered a compromise that would establish the US-Canadian border at the 49th parallel, but the British minister in Washing rejected it. After this, there was a slogan by William Allen "Fifty-four forty or fight!" which was a reference to where Americans hoped to draw the northern boundar - there was talk of a possible war.. Eventually the British government accepted Polk's originally proposed compromised - on June 15, 1846, the Senate approved it. -
Mexican Cession part1
Area of the present-day United States that Mexico agreed to give up as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. This territory included all of the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah and also parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. -
Mexican Cession (War with Mexico) part2
On April 25, 1846, after the U.S. cavalry ignored an order from the Mexican army to retreat to the Nueces River and instead advanced south to the Rio Grande, fighting broke out. Three weeks later, Congress declared war on Mexico.
Fighting continued for more than a year, and ended in September 1847. In February 1848, the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. -
Mexican Cession (Santa Anna) part4
When the Texas rebellion occurred, Santa Anna—who deeply loved Mexico—was brutally committed to his country when he confronted the rebels. To him, the nation's integrity, the territorial integrity of the region, was very important. He went Texas to end the rebellion and stop the group that tried to tear away a part of the nation's territory. But, when he found that the rebels were receiving the support of foreign volunteers from a neighboring country, Santa Anna faced an extraordinary situation. -
Mexican Cession (Zachary Taylor) part6
On April 25, 1846, Mexican cavalry attacked a group of U.S. soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of General Zachary Taylor, killing about a dozen. They then laid siege to an American fort along the Rio Grande. Taylor called in reinforcements, and–with the help of superior rifles and artillery–was able to defeat the Mexicans at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. -
Mexican cession (Winfield Scott) part7
The attack on Mexico proper was left to two other commanders. Zachary Taylor crossed the Rio Grande with his troops upon Polk's order. He fought Santa Anna's troops successfully on his advance toward the heart of Mexico. WINFIELD SCOTT delivered the knockout punch. After invading Mexico at Vera Cruz, Scott's troops marched to the capital, Mexico City. All that remained was negotiating the terms of peace. -
Mexican Cession (Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo) part8
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought an official end to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was signed on February 2, 1848, at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital where the Mexican government had fled with the advance of U.S. forces. To explore the circumstances that led to this war with Mexico, visit the Teaching with Documents lesson, "Lincoln's Spot Resolutions." -
Mexican Cession (Rio Grande) part3
The treaty in draft form was brought to Mexico by Nicholas P. Trist. In its basic form it called for the cession of Alta and Baja California and New Mexico, the right of transit across the Tehuantepec isthmus, and the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas. In exchange the United States would pay up to $20 million to Mexico and assume up to $3 million in U.S. citizens' claims against Mexico. In subsequent negotiations the demand for Baja California and the right of transit were dropped. -
Mexican Cession (President Polk) part5
During James K. Polk's presidency, foreign policy revolved around the U.S. desire for additional territory in North America. Even before the Revolutionary War, Americans had looked westward, and in the early years of the republic the United States had expanded its borders toward and then beyond the Mississippi River. Whether through a congressional joint resolution, negotiations, purchase, or war, President Polk by the end of his term intended for the United States to stretch from coast to coast -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. The phrase was first employed by John L. O’Sullivan in an article on the annexation of Texas published in the July-August 1845 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, which he edited.