Unit 5 Westward Expansion/Manifest Destiny/Mexican War

American belief that it was the right and duty of the U.S to extend its borders and influence from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

*Created under the Articles of Confederation

*Set up a 3-phase plan for admitting new states to the Union

*New states would be equal to the Original 13

• Gold Rush

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787

• Texas Annexation

• Louisiana Purchase

*1803 – Under president Thomas Jefferson, U.S. bought LA territory from Napoleon Bonaparte of France who was desperate for cash.

*Jefferson had to use the “elastic clause” in the Constitution because there was nothing in the Constitution about buying new territory.

*Effect: Doubled the size of the United States

*1804-1806 -  President Jefferson authorized Meriwether Lewis and James Clark and the Corps of Discovery to explore LA Territory and find a route to the Pacific Ocean

• Gadsden Purchase

• Lewis & Clark Expedition

• Gold Rush

• Louisiana Pruchase

*1845 - U.S. Annexed (added) Texas as the 28^th state

*This increased tension between U.S. and Mexico over boundary disputes

*Texas/U.S. and Mexico disputed whether their border was Nueces River or Rio Grande

*1846-48 -War erupted between U.S. and Mexico over boundary dispute

*War ended with Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

• Trail of Tears

• Mexican American War

• Texas Annexation

• Louisiana Purchase

*Under treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Mexico ceded (gave) much of what is today the Southwestern U.S. (California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah) for $15 million.

*1848 – Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California

*People caught “Gold Fever” as they rushed to California to strike it rich

*Called ‘49ers because it started in 1849

*1853 – U.S. paid Mexico $10 million for a small slice of land in southern Arizona & New Mexico in order to put a railroad through across the Rocky Mountains.

*Signed by President Andrew Jackson

*Allowed him to negotiate the removal of Native Americans from their homeland and move them to federal lands west of the Mississippi R.

• Indian Removal Act of 1830

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago

• Trail of Tears

• Mexican Cession