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President Polk's Manifest Destiny

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Throughout the 19th century, the United States’ population significantly increased. Mexico looked towards the United State’s booming population and offered Stephen Austin the prospect of colonizing the “old three-hundred” American families in present-day Texas in order to populate the otherwise desolate region. Mexican officials, however, weren’t aware of the implications such colonization would have on the union’s longevity. In spite of Mexican provisions requiring colonists to become “Mexicanized” and be non-slave owning catholics, many Texans did not follow such terms facilitating the development of an independent Texan-American identity ultimately culminating in the Texan Revolution. After the Texan Revolution, Texas applied for statehood in the United States raising questions as to how such expansionism might upset the balance of free to slave states. …show more content…

Exemplified in John O’Sullivan’s concept of Manifest Destiny, President Polk believed that it was America’s duty to spread American Exceptionalism throughout the entire North American continent. Resultantly, Polk sought to acquire California through peaceful methods at first, and later through more deceptive means. Ultimately, Polk moved troops to a disputed region between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers in order to provoke a war with Mexico, consequently expediting America’s Manifest Destiny. A justifiable war is one which is undertaken for defensive purposes only, and although misguided by the nationalistic, expansionist precepts of Manifest Destiny, and although he first attempted to acquire southwestern territory peacefully, President Polk failed to satisfy this burden, instead choosing to sacrifice “American blood” for the offensive expansion of his

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History students and fanatics alike might know James K. Polk by his famously quoted goals during his one term presidency. These four goals, first mentioned by historian George Bancroft, have been thought of as James K Polk’s legacy and rewritten by many other historians. The mystery of the origin of this myth has been debunked, but the great measures remain the popular story of Polk’s presidency. Although thought of as a given fact, Tom Chaffin pulls into question the legitimacy of the anecdote in his book Met His Every Goal?: James K. Polk and The Legends of Manifest Destiny, by discrediting the source of the message.

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Manifest Destiny is a unique, yet mysterious fundamental series of events in American history. No other country’s history contains such an eventful history as the United States. Amy Greenberg’s book, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, provides documented evidence that settlers believed they were destined for expansion throughout the continent. In other words, many religious settlers believed that it was a call from God for the United States to expand west. On the other hand, people believed that Manifest Destiny vindicated the war against Mexico.

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The Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 was a turning point in the Americas, where the territory of the United States expanded and the landscape of North America changed. However, the question behind the motive for the war is whether it was an act of American imperialism motivated by territory or whether the reasons were mixed. The discussion examines the perspectives of distinguished historians Ramon Eduardo Ruiz and Norman A. Graebner. In Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War, Ramon Eduardo Ruiz argues that the war was American imperialism. He explains that "the war was an exercise in American expansionism, fueled by a belief in America's divine mission to expand its territorial boundaries.

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Manifest Destiny By: Logan Magarro Imagine that you were fighting in the Mexican-American War and people were dying around you because they were trying to fight for your land. There were over 25,000 Mexican soldiers that died during the Mexican-American War, and about half of those people who died had a family like you. So tell me, do you think it was fair for James K. Polk to provoke the Mexicans to go to war? The Americans were not justified in going to war with Mexico because Texas illegally revolted from Mexican authority, Polk provoked the Mexican military, and Manifest Destiny was made up as a way to promote the expansion to promote slavery.

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It was the time when Manifest Destiny concept, an idea in special role and destiny of the United States, was highly popular. The concept that consequently justified the expansionism and nationalism. Therefore, Polk’s expansionist impulse, though strong and quite successful, was a product of dominant thoughts that were circulating among Americans.

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O’Sullivan was an American columnist whom was known for his use of the term, “manifest destiny,” which promoted the annexation of Texas to the United States. He argues that the adverse attitude toward Texas’ independence from Mexico needs to end. In this article, O’Sullivan also expands on the importance of the growth of the country throughout the continent. It further acknowledges the freedom of Texas as not a rebellion, but by abandonment from Mexico. John O’Sullivan sees the future of America expanding into California and Mexico becoming a country without a real government.

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“Once we became an independent people it was as much a law of nature that this [control of all of North America] should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea” –John Quincy Adams (Henretta, p. 384). In the 1840s, Americans had a belief that God destined for them to expand their territory all the way westward to the Pacific Ocean. This idea was called Manifest Destiny. In the nineteenth century, Americans were recognized for coming together and building up one another for one cause: westward expansion.

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