Manifest Destiny

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Manifest Destiny.

• What does the word Destiny mean?
• What does the word Manifest mean?
• Do you think the US has a sense of destiny
  today? Explain

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AMERICAS MANIFEST DESTINY
Expanding our borders from sea to shining sea
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What is Manifest Destiny?

• Americans belief that the United States destiny
  was to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into
  Mexican Territory
• Term first used by newspaper editor John L.
  OSullivan to describe westward migration

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A Period of Expansion

• Expansion Fever hits again in 1840s
• Americans were moving west, energized by a belief
  in the
• rightful expansion of the US from coast to coast

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Manifest Destiny
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So, why go west?

• Americans hit the trails to
• Escape religious persecution (Mormons)
• Find new markets for commerce (entrepreneurs)
• Claim land for farming, ranching, and mining
• Locate harbors on the Pacific for trade (to Asia)
• Seek employment and avoid creditors after the
  panic of 1837
• Spread the virtues of democracy
• Fulfill Americas Manifest Destiny

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Trails

• Santa Fe Independence MO to NM
• Trade route (guns, knives, etc)
• Oregon Independence to Portland, OR
• Settlers walked or took wagons
• Many died of fever
• disease by 1844,
• settlers in Oregon

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Mormon Migration

• Joseph Smith founded Church of Jesus Christ of
  Latter-day Saints in 1830
• Believed in polygamy (more than 1 wife)
• Angry crowds drove them from NY to IL
• Smith arrested, then killed by angry mob
• Left Nauvoo, IL from 1847-1853 more than 16,000
  Mormons migrated to Great Salt Lake in UT along
  Mormon Trail

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Effects of Manifest Destiny

• Polks campaign slogan Fifty-Four Forty or
  Fight!
• Referred to boundary dispute with British Canada
  over Oregon Territory
• Threatened war if border wasnt set there
• Settled on 49th parallel, that is still boundary
  with Canada today.

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Effects on Natives

• The Black Hawk War
• 1832, Sauk and Fox tribes take a stand against
  white settlers
• resulted in devastation for the Native Americans,
  most killed, rest forced west
• settlers feared native attacks
• Ft. Laramie Treaty signed in 1851
• US gave land in great plains to natives in
  exchange for yearly payments safe passage for
  westward travelers
• US. repeatedly violated treaty

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Communication Links

• Needed to stay in contact with people in west
• Butterfield Trail private stage line, carried
  passengers and mail from St. Louis to CA
• Pony Express Missouri to CA using horses to
  transport mail
• Telegraph - 1861

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Who is James K. Polk?

• November 2, 1795 - June 15, 1849

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Who is James K. Polk?

• 11th President (1845-1849) Democrat from NC
• Dark horse candidate
• Responsible for great territorial expansion
• Led the US into war with Mexico in 1846

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James K. Polk

• Born in NC, lived in TN
• Democrat, a friend and firm supporter of Andrew
  Jackson and his policies
• Aided Jacksons war on the National Bank
• The last Jacksonian
• last strong president before the Civil War

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James K. Polk How he led the way to our Manifest
Destiny

• Committed to geographic expansion
• Ignored Whig objections, worked for the largest
  territorial gains in the nation's history
• New lands exceeded the Louisiana Purchase
• He secured the Oregon Territory
• WA, OR, ID, MT, WY
• Purchased 1.2 million square miles in the Treaty
  of Guadalupe Hidalgo (the end of the
  Mexican-American War)
• NM, CA, AZ, NV, CO, UT
• Completed the acquisition of most of the current
  continental 48 states

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Polk Trivia

• Scholars have ranked him 8th to 12th on the list
  of greatest presidents for his ability to set an
  agenda and achieve all of it
• Oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy,
  the Smithsonian, the groundbreaking for the
  Washington Monument, and the first postage stamps
  in the US
• First President to be photographed frequently in
  office
• First president not to seek reelection after one
  term