Overview of Manifest Destiny and Expansion

Well hey and welcome back to Heimler's History and furthermore welcome to the first video covering Unit 5 of the AP U.S. History Curriculum, which is squarely nestled in the time period 1844 to 1877. And baby, in this video we about to manifest some destiny, so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked... Let's get to it. So, westward expansion. Now, in the end of the 18th century, the first half of the 19th century, there was hardly a notion that more stirred the guts of Americans than westward expansion. At first, it was expansion west of the Atlantic coast. Then it was expansion into the Ohio River Valley. Then came the Louisiana Purchase, and Americans expanded into that like mad. Like... If you weren't expanding west, were you really an American? Westward expansion was just kind of our thing. But in July of 1845, a newspaper editor by the name of John O'Sullivan gave this most ancient of American impulses a name, Manifest Destiny. He said, And that claim is by the right of our Manifest Destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. So, in defining Manifest Destiny, O'Sullivan gives us two pieces of information. Number one, what Manifest Destiny is, namely to possess the whole continent from sea to shining sea. And the second piece of information he gives us is to tell Americans who gave them that destiny and the answer is Providence, which is another way of saying God. So the idea of Manifest Destiny is the notion that Americans have a God-given right to have a nation that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and later that impulse would include islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean, but we'll have to wait for the next unit to hear about that. This idea of Manifest Destiny articulated what Americans had always felt, but so far hadn't put into words. But there were also practical reasons why westward expansion was needed. First, Americans needed more access to mineral and natural resources. Most notably, here was the discovery of gold in California in 1848, which created the occasion for what became known as the California Gold Rush. People from the east rushed like mad to California to stake their claim and to strike it right. rich, and subsequent gold and silver discoveries in Colorado, the Dakotas, and Nevada introduced even more migrations west. Westward expansion also made sense to people looking for new economic and homesteading opportunities. When Congress passed the preemption acts during the 1830s and 1840s, it made vast tracts of land available for cheap to anyone who wanted to buy it. buy it and set up a homestead and get to farming it. And because it did require some boom boom to actually make a trip out west, this migration was largely made by the middle class and not the poor. The third reason people moved west was for the purpose of religious refuge. Now if you remember back to the last unit we talked about the Mormons who fled the Midwest states because of persecution, largely due to their practice of polygamy and settled in the Utah territory. Groups of Mormons would continue to migrate to Utah for the next 20ish years to the tune of about 70,000 folks. Okay, so those are the main reasons Americans pursued their Manifest Destiny and moved west. But the idea of Manifest Destiny also made its way into the halls of power to, case in point, the election of James K. Polk. That happened in 1844, and Polk was a big believer in Manifest Destiny, and as such he had his eye on a couple of territories that he was frothing at the mouth to add to the Union, namely Texas and Oregon. And let's look at both. Regarding Texas, Americans have been settling that territory since the 1820s, but at that time, Texas still belonged to Mexico. By 1830, there were three times as many Americans than Mexicans living in this territory, and all those Americans were, in general, Southern Protestant and slave-owning, or at least sympathetic to the cause of slavery. Now, this will be important to keep in mind, because in 1829, the Mexican government made two requirements of the immigrants living within their borders. First, it was decreed that they must convert to Roman Catholicism, and second, they had outlawed slavery. And these two requirements were, to put it mildly, intolerable to the Americans who had settled there. And so they basically ignored the new laws and kept being Protestant and bringing enslaved people into the territory. In response, Mexico went ahead and shut down the border to any further immigration, to which the immigrating Americans responded, Psh, please, and just kept coming. Now in 1834, there was a change in the government in Mexico, and the new dictator sought to clamp down on those insubordinate Texan immigrants and enforce the laws that were on the border. And you know, Texans be Texans, and instead of submitting to the Mexican Authority, they went ahead and revolted against it under the leadership of Sam Houston and declared Texas to be an independent rep- Republic in 1836. Now Mexico was like, nuh-uh. And so they sent forces north to put down this rebellion. Now the Mexicans won a stunning victory at the Alamo and ended up killing every American who defended it. In retaliation, Houston and his army engaged the Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto and ended up capturing the Mexican general. Upon doing so, they forced the general to sign a treaty granting Texan independence. And when word of that got back to the Mexican government, they were like, Uh, do they understand that generals can't sign treaties? To which the Texans responded, Do not mess with Texas. To which the Mexican government responded, We're not messing with Texas, we're just, that's not within his authority to Don't mess with Texas! You're just gonna respond like that to every- Everything we say? Well, are you messing with Texas? I mean, technically, I guess yes, but I don't think you-Then don't mess with Texas! Well, at this point, Texas claimed its independence, but Mexico didn't recognize that independence, and so when Texas applied to the United States for statehood, that complicated things a little bit. The first two presidents who could have done it, Jackson and Van Buren, both said no to annexation because of the very real possibility that doing so would cause a- war with Mexico. John Tyler worked to admit Texas, but ultimately annexation was denied by the Senate. So let's leave Texas lingering in independence for a moment, but don't worry, we'll get back to it. We also have to talk about the Oregon Territory. So at this point in history, both the British and the Americans laid competing claims to this territory. The British claimed it was theirs because they had established a profitable fur trade there and it settled there for much longer than the Americans. Americans claimed it was theirs because, you know, We want it. Add to that, American missionaries and farmers have been moving to the territory and settling there in far greater numbers than the British. And so how do you solve this problem? And that brings us back to the election of James K. Polk in 1844. Now as a big believer in Manifest Destiny, he wanted America to annex both Oregon and Texas. Should we throw California in there too? Let's throw California in there too. After all, it is our destiny. Now, since Polk had run on this annexation platform, he interpreted his election to be a mandate from the people to bring those territories into the Union. So his predecessor, John Tyler, went ahead and used the waning months of his presidency to push through the annexation of Texas, and Polk's people went ahead and made an agreement with the British concerning Oregon, and after the Senate had ratified the treaty, the Oregon territory was divided at the 49th parallel. Now the annexation of Texas is going to be no bueno with the Mexican government, and that is going to lead the United States into war. But alas, that will be the topic of the next video. Well, all right, that's what you need to know about Unit 5, Topic 2 of the AP U.S. History Curriculum. And if you need help getting an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May, then click right here and grab my review packet. Also, if you believe it is the manifest destiny of Heimler's history to spread over the whole of YouTube, then subscribe and we shall claim our destiny together. Heimler out.

Then it was expansion into the Ohio River Valley. Then came the Louisiana Purchase, and Americans expanded into that like mad. Like...

If you weren't expanding west, were you really an American? Westward expansion was just kind of our thing. But in July of 1845, a newspaper editor by the name of John O'Sullivan gave this most ancient of American impulses a name, Manifest Destiny.

He said, And that claim is by the right of our Manifest Destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. So, in defining Manifest Destiny, O'Sullivan gives us two pieces of information. Number one, what Manifest Destiny is, namely to possess the whole continent from sea to shining sea. And the second piece of information he gives us is to tell Americans who gave them that destiny and the answer is Providence, which is another way of saying God.

So the idea of Manifest Destiny is the notion that Americans have a God-given right to have a nation that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and later that impulse would include islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean, but we'll have to wait for the next unit to hear about that. This idea of Manifest Destiny articulated what Americans had always felt, but so far hadn't put into words. But there were also practical reasons why westward expansion was needed. First, Americans needed more access to mineral and natural resources.

Most notably, here was the discovery of gold in California in 1848, which created the occasion for what became known as the California Gold Rush. People from the east rushed like mad to California to stake their claim and to strike it right. rich, and subsequent gold and silver discoveries in Colorado, the Dakotas, and Nevada introduced even more migrations west. Westward expansion also made sense to people looking for new economic and homesteading opportunities. When Congress passed the preemption acts during the 1830s and 1840s, it made vast tracts of land available for cheap to anyone who wanted to buy it.

buy it and set up a homestead and get to farming it. And because it did require some boom boom to actually make a trip out west, this migration was largely made by the middle class and not the poor. The third reason people moved west was for the purpose of religious refuge.

Now if you remember back to the last unit we talked about the Mormons who fled the Midwest states because of persecution, largely due to their practice of polygamy and settled in the Utah territory. Groups of Mormons would continue to migrate to Utah for the next 20ish years to the tune of about 70,000 folks. Okay, so those are the main reasons Americans pursued their Manifest Destiny and moved west. But the idea of Manifest Destiny also made its way into the halls of power to, case in point, the election of James K. Polk. That happened in 1844, and Polk was a big believer in Manifest Destiny, and as such he had his eye on a couple of territories that he was frothing at the mouth to add to the Union, namely Texas and Oregon.

And let's look at both. Regarding Texas, Americans have been settling that territory since the 1820s, but at that time, Texas still belonged to Mexico. By 1830, there were three times as many Americans than Mexicans living in this territory, and all those Americans were, in general, Southern Protestant and slave-owning, or at least sympathetic to the cause of slavery. Now, this will be important to keep in mind, because in 1829, the Mexican government made two requirements of the immigrants living within their borders. First, it was decreed that they must convert to Roman Catholicism, and second, they had outlawed slavery.

And these two requirements were, to put it mildly, intolerable to the Americans who had settled there. And so they basically ignored the new laws and kept being Protestant and bringing enslaved people into the territory. In response, Mexico went ahead and shut down the border to any further immigration, to which the immigrating Americans responded, Psh, please, and just kept coming.

Now in 1834, there was a change in the government in Mexico, and the new dictator sought to clamp down on those insubordinate Texan immigrants and enforce the laws that were on the border. And you know, Texans be Texans, and instead of submitting to the Mexican Authority, they went ahead and revolted against it under the leadership of Sam Houston and declared Texas to be an independent rep- Republic in 1836. Now Mexico was like, nuh-uh. And so they sent forces north to put down this rebellion.

Now the Mexicans won a stunning victory at the Alamo and ended up killing every American who defended it. In retaliation, Houston and his army engaged the Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto and ended up capturing the Mexican general. Upon doing so, they forced the general to sign a treaty granting Texan independence. And when word of that got back to the Mexican government, they were like, Uh, do they understand that generals can't sign treaties? To which the Texans responded, Do not mess with Texas.

To which the Mexican government responded, We're not messing with Texas, we're just, that's not within his authority to Don't mess with Texas! You're just gonna respond like that to every- Everything we say? Well, are you messing with Texas? I mean, technically, I guess yes, but I don't think you-Then don't mess with Texas! Well, at this point, Texas claimed its independence, but Mexico didn't recognize that independence, and so when Texas applied to the United States for statehood, that complicated things a little bit.

The first two presidents who could have done it, Jackson and Van Buren, both said no to annexation because of the very real possibility that doing so would cause a- war with Mexico. John Tyler worked to admit Texas, but ultimately annexation was denied by the Senate. So let's leave Texas lingering in independence for a moment, but don't worry, we'll get back to it. We also have to talk about the Oregon Territory.

So at this point in history, both the British and the Americans laid competing claims to this territory. The British claimed it was theirs because they had established a profitable fur trade there and it settled there for much longer than the Americans. Americans claimed it was theirs because, you know, We want it. Add to that, American missionaries and farmers have been moving to the territory and settling there in far greater numbers than the British.

And so how do you solve this problem? And that brings us back to the election of James K. Polk in 1844. Now as a big believer in Manifest Destiny, he wanted America to annex both Oregon and Texas. Should we throw California in there too?

Let's throw California in there too. After all, it is our destiny. Now, since Polk had run on this annexation platform, he interpreted his election to be a mandate from the people to bring those territories into the Union.

So his predecessor, John Tyler, went ahead and used the waning months of his presidency to push through the annexation of Texas, and Polk's people went ahead and made an agreement with the British concerning Oregon, and after the Senate had ratified the treaty, the Oregon territory was divided at the 49th parallel. Now the annexation of Texas is going to be no bueno with the Mexican government, and that is going to lead the United States into war. But alas, that will be the topic of the next video.

Well, all right, that's what you need to know about Unit 5, Topic 2 of the AP U.S. History Curriculum. And if you need help getting an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May, then click right here and grab my review packet. Also, if you believe it is the manifest destiny of Heimler's history to spread over the whole of YouTube, then subscribe and we shall claim our destiny together.

Heimler out.

Transcript for:Overview of Manifest Destiny and Expansion

Transcript for:
Overview of Manifest Destiny and Expansion