Manifest Destiny:
The Push for Expansion
Student goal:
• You should be able to explain to me what
“manifest destiny” was.
• You should be able to give examples of the
types of issues that were brought up as a
result of American expansion.
Early Exploration: Lewis and Clark
• 1804-1806
• The Corps of Discovery
What was Manifest Destiny?
• Political and social movement (throughout the
1800s)
• Term first used by John L. O’Sullivan
• Manifest = “becomes clear”
• Destiny = “it’s meant to happen”
• “God-given right to expand”
• War of 1812 opens up the WEST for expansion
• Expansion creates conflicts: Slavery, war with
Mexico, war with Native tribes
The Overland Trails
Westward Expansion
Slavery in the New Territories?
• As territories were settled out West, they
petitioned for statehood
• In the North, many states had banned slavery
• Abolitionist movement takes hold in the North
• South is determined to have as many slave
states as there are free states
• Controversy over Missouri
US in 1820
Missouri Compromise
• Maine would be
admitted as a free state
• Missouri would be a
slave state
• All future states would
be admitted in pairs =
one free, one slave
• Lower boundary for
Missouri would be the
divide
• Temporarily resolves
the issue
Indian Removal Act
• Pres. Andrew Jackson pushes for its passage in
1830
• Congress passes it…gives POTUS the right to
negotiate the relocation of Indian tribes
• Trail of Tears…Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee,
and Seminole tribes forced to leave the
Southeast region
• Forced to move to what is now Oklahoma
• 1st of many removals that would happen
Texas Independence and
the War with Mexico
• 1830s – White settlers settle in what is today
Texas…which at that time belonged to Mexico
• With the help of the US gov’t, Texas breaks
away in 1836
• 1836-1845 – Texas is an independent country
• 1845 – US adds Texas as a state
• Mexico sees this as a threat
• By 1848, the US and Mexico are at War
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Ends the war
• Mexico gave up all claims to Texas
• Rio Grande used as the boundary between US
and Mexico
• US gains California and New Mexico
• In return, US pays Mexico $15 million