this lecture focuses on america's embrace of expansionism as a way to avoid dealing with sectionalism during the period 1830 to 1850. the idea of expansion is very popular with the american public that popularity emboldens american leaders to develop policies of control over native indian tribes and to even go to war to secure expansionist goals for a while the ability to focus on westward expansion served to divert america away from the problem of slavery the term manifest destiny begins appearing in the 1840s in literary and other journalistic writings manifest destiny is an argument justifying america's westward expansion it talks about america in very glowing terms that americans should have the right to move west pushing out of the way whoever occupied those territories already particularly native americans the idea was that progress came with young white america the idea of indian removal as a formal policy to encourage american settlement and further expansion west became an issue during andrew jackson's presidency the state of georgia had already passed an indian removal bill designed to remove the cherokee from georgia territory and relocate them somewhere further to the west president jackson supported that policy and asked the national government to create a national version of it the problem with indian removal laws was that they disregarded legally binding treaties between the united states and various indian nations in the case of georgia it would be the cherokee nation to make matters worse the cherokee had actually made herculean efforts to assimilate to westernize themselves they spoke english only they adopted a republican form of local government organized themselves into towns created english-only schools and took up farming on individual plots owned by individual cherokees just like any white western settler would do the cherokees assimilated as they were chose to fight georgia and by extension the united states in the supreme court in 1832 the supreme court issued its decision on whether or not georgia's law was valid the court said it was not it said that the treaties giving cherokee access to their land were binding but the court went even further they defined the status of indians going forward not as citizens of the u.s or as potential citizens of the u.s as the cherokee in georgia would have liked rather they labeled them a domestic dependent nation within the united states called them essentially wards of the state to be managed by the government now government management of native americans had already begun a bureau of indian affairs had been created in 1824 it was located in the department of war until 1849 when the bureau was moved to the department of the interior so the idea of federal oversight of a group kind of in perpetuity had already been out there it was just clarified in worcester versus cherokee as to the specifics of the particular georgia law both jackson and georgia ignored it the cherokee held out against georgia for several years but under great duress the principal chief of the cherokee john ross as you see his image there he looks thoroughly westernized ultimately signed a treaty the treaty of nuevoda in which the cherokee gave up their land claims in georgia a good portion of the cherokee refused to accept even that treaty and between 1835 and 1838 there were skirmishes indian wars in the southeast ultimately the cherokee are defeated and are forced to move westward to indian territory the area today that we know as oklahoma it was a long and brutal march of about 18 000 of the cherokee of that eighteen thousand who started out a roughly a quarter of them between four and five thousand died along the way the map here shows you that the cherokee march was perhaps the most egregious but there were other forced removals to indian territory throughout the southeast and even from the midwest as the demand for western settlement increased in the 1820s the new republic of mexico encouraged american colonization inside her borders particularly in the area today known as texas land grants were offered to influential americans who could promise to bring new settlers stephen austin pictured here was one such individual he brought numerous groups of settlers most of them from the south seeking to expand cotton production in this new area which meant that many of them brought their slaves with them texas itself was a pretty diverse place and citizenship in texas did not depend on racial characteristics so white americans like native mexicans were considered citizens in mexico once they moved into texas but there was a problem with doing that and americans were a bit loathe to give up their american citizenship the problems are listed for you here that mexico was a catholic nation and that you would have to give the catholic religion primacy technically the republic of mexico did not approve of slavery as i said many of the colonists came with their slaves finally there was a financial impediment to being part of mexico if you were an american living in texas and you wanted to trade with the united states you had to pay customs duties as though coming from a foreign country americans who migrated to texas were displeased with all of this and to be fair the mexicans in texas got along well with the american settlers and agreed with them over a number of issues particularly with the expense of trading with the united states the big change came in 1834 with the rise of a military dictator over mexico general santa anna seized power that year his rule coupled with the other difficulties that americans saw living in mexico led the texans both white migrants and mexicans to agree that declaring independence was the next step they declared their independence in march but almost immediately santa anna sent a military contingent to put the rebellion down early on in april about 1500 mexican troops held up 150 whites and mexican texans at bay in the mission building in the called the alamo and in present-day san antonio the 150 could not hold out against the 1500 and the texans in this instance were defeated but it was a pyrrhic victory for the mexicans and really their only victory the mexicans mounted an ineffective defense after that so much so that the texans were able to capture santa ana himself forcing him to recognize the independence of texas by the summer of 1836. sectionalism does affect the next steps for texas the american government is fearful of bringing texas into the union as a slave state and disrupting the fragile sectional agreement that currently exists in the u.s instead the u.s government recognizes texas as an independent nation over the next decade texas will welcome further american emigration americans will move into texas bringing with them slaves so that cotton production can take root in the state ultimately texas's goal of annexation into the united states is made real in 1845 when texas's admission is tied to the americans gaining control of the oregon territory earlier oregon the upper northwest actually or today's oregon in washington was a disputed area england and the u.s laying claim to it ultimately the number of u.s citizens moving into that area made it impossible for the english to keep hold of that claim james polk had run for the presidency on the democrat ticket in 1844 part of his platform was a pledge to bring texas into the union if he won paul beats his whig opponent henry clay that year and immediately makes good on his pledge to make texas a state within the union it was also clear that there were other expansion tensions besides the issue of texas mormons a religious denomination born during the second great awakening in upstate new york had certain practices that made local communities hostile to their presence mormons were hounded out of new york illinois and missouri ultimately deciding to move into the west into open territory in an attempt to set up their own independent state and they reached what is present-day utah in 1845 at that time controlled by mexico and founded the state of desiree attempting or wanting to be left alone that's not going to happen going forward american settlement was also moving into areas in the west that challenged in particular mexicans control of the southwest and california american expansion positively impacted oregon making sure that america's claim to the northwest superseded that of england but american migration into the southwest and in particular towards california set up new potential clashes with mexican control of both of those areas president polk had grand expansion plans those plans ultimately led the united states into a war against mexico the proximate cause the immediate reason for hostilities between the u.s and mexico was the unresolved southern border of the new state of texas america claimed it was the rio grande which is today the southern border the mexicans claimed that it was a river further to the north the nueces that was the southern border between the two countries this might have been settled by negotiation but instead president pope authorized the buildup of military troops and the movement of those troops into the disputed area forcing the mexicans to respond once the mexicans had done that president polk went to congress asking for a declaration of war the real purpose of and objectives for the mexican-american war were to secure california and new mexico for the united states we know that because there were americans in california who were ready as soon as they heard that war had broken out officially to rise up and seize control of california from mexican authorities declaring california an independent republic the bear flag republic and immediately seek entry or connection to the united states in addition there were soldiers ready to deploy quickly to secure the trade route of the santa fe trail into the southwest the war dragged on until the capture of the capital of mexico mexico city in september of 1847. mexico city is well into the interior of mexico and so the campaigning went on for much longer than securing the immediate objectives for the us mexico surrenders and that leads to the peace treaty of guadalupe hidalgo in 1848 we can see that the u.s comes out on top securing the territories that she had initially wanted with respect to utah when the war broke out american soldiers were sent to utah to insist that that area become under the control of the us utah itself had hoped to remain independent but were given no other choice the rio grande was declared that permanent southern border of texas and mexicans inside the new territories of the us the new areas of the us would all have to become american citizens finally america compensated mexico for the loss of this territory you might ask yourself the question why why 15 million dollars for the spoils of war one could argue there may be some guilt involved there in realizing that mexican property the property of mexican individuals would be taken over by the us and so part of that would be compensation for lost goods and land to private citizens an american war impacted america in several different ways the territory acquired in the war ultimately became five different states the relationship between the us and mexico remained strained all the way through the end of the century and into the 20th century flaring up again during world war one the mexican-american war was also the training ground for those who would lead soldiers in the upcoming civil war much like george washington got his experience in the french and indian war the leading military figures of the civil war got their experience in the mexican-american war robert e lee ulysses s grant both served the us during the mexican-american war an american america's penchant for military heroes continues zachary taylor was the soldier who captured mexico city taylor parlays that into running for the presidency and winning the office in 1848