Manifest-Destiny

Mexican-American War Begins as Deliberate Land Grab for Slavery Expansion

1846-05-13 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President James K. Polk obtains a declaration of war against Mexico after deliberately provoking hostilities by sending American troops into disputed territory between the Nueces River (Mexico’s claimed boundary) and the Rio Grande (Texas’s claimed boundary) in January 1846. When Mexican …

James K. Polk U.S. Congress Mexico Whig Party opposition Abraham Lincoln mexican-american-war slavery-expansion land-grab manifest-destiny institutional-corruption +1 more

Texas Annexed as Slave State Despite Nine Years of Antislavery Opposition

1845-03-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Congress admits Texas to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845, following a nine-year political struggle that delayed annexation due to opposition from antislavery forces. The annexation represents a clear victory for Slave Power expansion: Texas arrives as a vast slave-holding region …

James K. Polk John Tyler John C. Calhoun U.S. Congress Mexico +1 more slavery-expansion texas-annexation manifest-destiny sectional-conflict institutional-corruption +1 more

Manifest Destiny Ideology Provides Racist Justification for Territorial Conquest and Indigenous Genocide

1845-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

John L. O’Sullivan coins the term “Manifest Destiny” in 1845 to describe the expansionist belief that American settlers are destined to expand westward across North America, and that this expansion is both obvious (manifest) and certain (destiny). The ideology is rooted in American …

John L. O'Sullivan James K. Polk U.S. government Indigenous peoples Anglo-American settlers manifest-destiny indigenous-genocide territorial-expansion white-nationalism ideology +1 more

Monroe Doctrine Proclaimed, Establishing Imperial Paradox of Anti-Colonial Rhetoric Masking U.S. Expansion

1823-12-02 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

President James Monroe articulates the Monroe Doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress, declaring that any European intervention in the political affairs of the Americas constitutes a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine establishes three …

President James Monroe Secretary of State John Quincy Adams European colonial powers imperial-expansion foreign-policy latin-america anti-colonialism manifest-destiny