Defining Destiny
This 19th-century belief suggested the U.S. was destined by God to expand across the entire North American continent.
Manifest Destiny
This 2,000-mile historic wagon route connected the Missouri River to fertile valleys in the Northwest.
Oregon Trail
The U.S. and Mexico disagreed on the Texas border; the U.S. claimed it was the Rio Grande, while Mexico claimed it was this river.
Nueces River
Known as "Old Tippecanoe," he won the 1840 election but died only 31 days into his term.
William Henry Harrison
This term describes loyalty to your own region (like the North or South) rather than the nation as a whole.
sectionalism
This term refers to the formal act of adding a new territory to an existing country, such as adding Texas to the Union.
Annexation
This nickname was given to the thousands of people who rushed to California in 1849 searching for gold.
Forty-niners
This was the massive amount of land, including modern-day California and Nevada, that Mexico was forced to give up after the war.
Mexican Cession
This "Expansionist President" supported the annexation of Texas and led the U.S. during the Mexican-American War.
James K. Polk
This political party was formed in 1848 with the main goal of stopping the expansion of slavery into western territories.
Free Soil Party
He was the newspaper editor who famously coined the term "Manifest Destiny" in 1845.
John O'Sullivan
James K. Polk used this aggressive campaign slogan to demand that the U.S. take all of the Oregon Territory from Britain.
"54° 40' or Fight!"
This 1848 peace treaty officially ended the Mexican-American War.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
He was the first Vice President to take office because a president died, and he was a firm believer in Manifest Destiny.
John Tyler
This "poisonous question" immediately faced the U.S. after winning land from Mexico: Should this be allowed in the new territories?.
slavery
This vocabulary term describes a reason that attracts people to move to a new place, like "free land" or "gold".
Pull Factor
These individuals were granted land in Mexico in exchange for recruiting and settling new families in Texas.
empresarios
Critics accused President Polk of provoking a war with Mexico specifically to grab more land for this institution.
slavery
This 1840 campaign strategy used log cabins and hard cider to portray a wealthy candidate as a "common man".
Log Cabin Campaign
This concept proposed that the people living in a territory should vote to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery.
popular sovereignty
This term describes a politician, like James K. Polk, who actively supports taking more land to increase the size of their country.
Expansionist
Before becoming a state, Texas spent nine years as an independent nation known by this name.
Lone Star Republic
This Mexican general's laws and leadership triggered the original revolt by American settlers in Texas.
General Santa Anna.
This president was nicknamed "Martin Van Ruin" after being blamed for the economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837
Martin Van Buren
This famous Mexican-American War hero won the presidency in 1848 but shocked Southerners by supporting California's entry as a free state.
Zachary Taylor