Manifest Destiny Research Paper

In the 1800s, Manifest Destiny, or also known as “obvious fate,” stretched all over the country, and intrigued many people. It took on many forms. The United States expanded through treaties, settlement, and war. But before that, the US only owned from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. The rest was owned by Great Britain, Russia, France, and Spain. Many people wanted to explore pass the river, and through the land covered by trees, plains, mountains, and many rivers. And when settlers would travel, they often risked getting snowed in. Many people wished they could expand the land.

The nation's first opportunity for expansion during the early 1800s involved the vast territory to the west of the Mississippi River, then known as Louisiana.

Austin arrived in Texas just as Mexico declared its independence from Spain. Him and the other settlers had to promise to become Mexican citizens and to join the Catholic church. By 1830, there were about 25,000 Americans in Texas, compared to 4,000 Tejanos or Texans of Mexican descent. Soon tensions between the two groups began to rise.The Mexican government responded by closing Texas to further U.S. immigration. Americans in Texas resented these actions. In 1833, Austin traveled to Mexico and presented the Texans' demands to the new head of the Mexican government, General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Soon after Austin was released in 1835, Texans rose up in revolt. Determined to crush the rebels, Santa Anna marched north with some 6,000 troops. In late February 1836, a large part of Santa Anna's army reached San Antonio, Texas.The Texans had taken over an old mission known as the Alamo. For 12 days, the Mexicans pounded the Alamo with cannonballs. For 90 minutes, the battle raged. Then it was all over. By day's end, every one of the Alamo's defenders had died. By Santa Anna's order, those who had survived the battle were executed on the spot. Sam Houston, the commander of the Texas revolutionary army, understood Texans' rage. Late that afternoon, Houston's troops staged a surprise attack. Yelling, “Remember the Alamo!” the Texans overran the Mexican camp. People in the United States were divided over whether to annex Texas. After Polk was

Early in 1848, Mexico and the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . Mexico agreed to give up Texas and a vast region known as the Mexican Cession. This area included the present day states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Under this agreement, Mexico gave up half of all its territory. In return, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million. The Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of 38 to 14. A few years later, the United States acquired still more land from Mexico. In 1853, James Gadsden arranged the purchase of a strip of land just south of the Mexican Cession for $10 million. Railroad builders wanted this land because it was relatively flat and could serve as a good railroad route. The acquisition of this land, known as the Gadsden Purchase, created the present-day border of the southwestern United States with Mexico. Most Americans were pleased with the new outlines of their country. Still, not everyone rejoiced in this expansion. Until the Mexican- American War, many people had believed that the United States was too good a nation to bully or invade its weaker neighbors. Now they knew that such behavior was the dark side of manifest