Manifest destiny is a phrase you hear a lot these days. Manifest means
clear or obvious, and destiny is something that is definitely going to
happen. We Americans now know that we were clearly right about our
future. You see, we believed that it was our manifest destiny to have
the United
States
spread
from the
Atlantic
Ocean,
where our
country
first
started, all
the way to
the Pacific
Ocean, and
we
How does this picture represent Manifest Destiny?
believed
that it was our destiny to move west and fill all of that land. We also
believed that God was going to give us all that land, and we were right;
God provided.
First, our great President, James K. Polk, settled the argument we had
with England. We were fighting over who owned the Oregon territory
in the Northwest. President Polk got the British to agree to split the
territory in half (and by the way, we got the bigger half. Awesome!).
Then, we agreed to allow Texas to join the United States. Texas was its
own country for awhile, but they wanted to
be a part of the United States, so we let them
in, and Texas became a state.
But unfortunately our troubles with Texas
didn’t stop there. We could not agree with
Mexico where to draw the border between
Texas and Mexico. We said the border was at
the Rio Grande, but Mexico claimed that the
border was much farther north. They were
unfairly trying to rip us off on our territory,
The green part of the map shows the disputed Oregon
territory. The United States and Britain decided to divide it
in half.
James K. Polk. Get a
haircut you hippie!
because they were still
mad about losing it.
Well, we weren’t going
to give up that easily.
We sent our army to
the Rio Grande to
protect our land, and
sadly, the Mexican
Army decided to cross
the river and attack us.
A brutal war broke out
between our two
nations.
First, the American army took Monterey, the capitol of northern
Mexico. Then they went south to Mexico City. In the mean time, a
famous explorer named John C. Fremont, convinced the people living in
California to rebel against Mexico. Some people in California grabbed
their guns, and
started a small
revolt against the
Mexican
government in
California. The
small Mexican
army in California
had to give up,
and California
The original California Republic flag. The pictures were drawn
declared itself an
using juice from berries.
independent
country, and called their new country the Republic of California. They
even made a flag
with a picture of a
bear and star on it,
and so later, the
rebellion was called
the Bear Flag Revolt.
California didn’t stay
a country for long,
though. Like Texas,
they too wanted to
Our current California state flag. Notice any resemblance to
the flag above?
be a part of the United States.
A few months later, the American army arrived at Mexico City. They
attacked the capitol for weeks, until finally, Santa Anna surrendered.
Mexico agreed to sell us a large chuck of land that now includes
California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada. We paid a fair price
for it: $15 million. We didn’t want a war, but through that war God
provided the land that was rightfully ours. Now we have finally fulfilled
our manifest destiny: our glorious nation stretches from sea to shining
sea!