Territorial-Expansion

Hawaii Annexation - U.S. Legitimizes Corporate Coup Against Monarchy

1898-07-07 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution (House Joint Resolution 259) annexing the Hawaiian Islands, legitimizing a corporate coup d’état executed five years earlier by American sugar planters who overthrew the constitutional monarchy of Queen Liliuokalani. The annexation occurs …

William McKinley Sanford B. Dole Queen Liliuokalani Sugar plantation owners Committee of Safety +1 more gilded-age imperialism corporate-power regime-change territorial-expansion +1 more

Spanish-American War Begins - Imperial Expansion Under Humanitarian Pretext

1898-04-25 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

The United States declares war on Spain following the April 20 ultimatum demanding Spanish withdrawal from Cuba, launching what Secretary of State John Hay will call “a splendid little war” that transforms America into a global imperial power. Spain had severed diplomatic ties on April …

William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt U.S. Navy Spanish Empire Cuban revolutionaries gilded-age imperialism spanish-american-war military-intervention territorial-expansion

Pierce Inauguration Falsely Claims Slavery Question Settled While Planning Expansion

1853-03-04 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

Franklin Pierce delivered his inaugural address on March 4, 1853, after defeating Winfield Scott in a landslide with 254 electoral votes to 42 as a pro-slavery Northern Democrat. Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 had permanently settled the slavery question, stating “I …

Franklin Pierce Stephen A. Douglas Democratic Party Slave Power institutional-capture slave-power political-deception democratic-erosion territorial-expansion

Wilmot Proviso Triggers Sectional Crisis Over Slavery in Conquered Mexican Territory

1846-08-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

On August 8, 1846, amidst the Mexican-American War, Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduces an amendment to President James Polk’s $2 million appropriation bill for purchasing territory from Mexico, boldly declaring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …

David Wilmot James K. Polk U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate Northern Democrats +1 more wilmot-proviso slavery-expansion sectional-conflict mexican-american-war territorial-expansion +1 more

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

Polk Deceives Congress into War Declaration with False American Blood Claims

1846-05-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President James K. Polk presented Congress with a war message on May 11, 1846, claiming that Mexico “has at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil” after Mexican forces killed or wounded 16 U.S. soldiers in disputed territory between the …

James K. Polk Zachary Taylor U.S. Congress Abraham Lincoln Whig Party institutional-capture political-deception executive-overreach territorial-expansion slave-power

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

Tyler Administration Conducts Secret Texas Annexation Negotiations to Expand Slavery

1844-03-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

President John Tyler’s administration conducted secret negotiations for Texas annexation beginning in September 1843, explicitly designed to expand slavery while deceiving the public about its true motivations. Tyler, expelled from the Whig Party in September 1841 after vetoing their …

John Tyler Abel P. Upshur John C. Calhoun Isaac Van Zandt institutional-capture slave-power systematic-corruption political-deception territorial-expansion

Tyler Begins Secret Texas Annexation Talks to Strengthen Slave Power

1843-10-16 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

Face-to-face negotiations for Texas annexation secretly commenced on October 16, 1843, between Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Texas minister to the United States Isaac Van Zandt, following President John Tyler’s order to open secret talks on September 18. Tyler, politically isolated …

John Tyler Abel P. Upshur Isaac Van Zandt Slave Power institutional-capture slave-power political-deception executive-overreach territorial-expansion

Missouri Compromise Institutionalizes Slavery Expansion Through Sectional Bargaining

1820-03-03 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

Congress passes and President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise, federal legislation that balances the desires of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery with those of southern states to expand it. The compromise admits Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state …

Henry Clay James Monroe U.S. Congress Slave Power advocates slave-power institutional-corruption territorial-expansion legislative-capture missouri-compromise

Adams-Onís Treaty Acquires Florida Through Coerced Spanish Cession After Jackson's Unauthorized Invasion

1819-02-22 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish Minister Luis de Onís sign the Adams-Onís Treaty (also known as the Transcontinental Treaty or Florida Purchase Treaty) in Washington, D.C., under which Spain cedes Florida to the United States and establishes a boundary line extending to the Pacific …

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams Spanish Minister Luis de Onís President James Monroe General Andrew Jackson territorial-expansion imperial-coercion treaty-manipulation slavery-expansion

First Seminole War Begins as Jackson Invades Spanish Florida to Recapture Enslaved People

1817-11-21 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

U.S. troops from Fort Scott attack the small Seminole village of Fowltown in southern Georgia, killing about 20 people and igniting the First Seminole War. The attack represents escalating border tensions stemming from enslaved people regularly fleeing from Georgia into Spanish Florida, where they …

General Andrew Jackson Seminole Nation Black Seminoles Spanish Empire U.S. War Department military-aggression slavery-enforcement territorial-expansion indigenous-dispossession imperial-overreach

Louisiana Purchase Demonstrates Jefferson Constitutional Hypocrisy and Executive Power Expansion

1803-10-20 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

The U.S. Senate approves the Louisiana Purchase treaty by a vote of 24-7, with President Thomas Jefferson abandoning his strict constructionist constitutional principles to complete the acquisition of French territory despite acknowledging the Constitution grants no explicit power to purchase …

President Thomas Jefferson Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin U.S. Senate Napoleon Bonaparte France constitutional-conflict executive-power strict-construction political-hypocrisy territorial-expansion

Northwest Ordinance Prohibits Slavery While Mandating Fugitive Slave Returns

1787-07-13 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance on July 13, 1787, creating the Northwest Territory and establishing governance procedures for the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River (modern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota). Article VI of the …

Continental Congress Nathan Dane Southern state delegates Slaveholders slavery fugitive-slave-clause territorial-expansion institutional-corruption legal-framework +1 more