Three Background Issues

1. Three Background Issues United States and Mexico, 1830s-1840s

2. I. American Expansionism • Manifest Destiny: a body of ideas promoting American expansionism • God had ordained that Americans would inhabit vast territories in North America • Pervasive idea promoted by newspapers and coined by John L. O’Sullivan • Also promoted by U. S. presidents such as John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk

3. Manifest Destiny • American sense of mission- to civilize the wilderness, spread democratic principles to those capable of benefiting from them • Excluded non-Europeans (Indians, Blacks, etc.)

4. Opposition to Manifest Destiny • Northerners: due to their conviction that southern slavery would be expanded in new territories • Southerners: some opposed due to the possible acquisition of non-whites • Others believe that inclusion of non-whites would be destructive to democratic ideals and divisive. • American Anti-slavery Society, Frederick Douglas, and Henry David Thoreau

5. II. Politics in Mexico • Mexico plagued by chronic political instability • 1821-1871- 50 Mexican presidents in office • 1821-1848-almost all presidents overthrown • Political factions: Centralists, Federalists, • Mexican politics prevents consistent approach to problems with Texas Revolt and Polk administration

6. III. Texas Boundary Dispute • Article 4, The Treaty of Velasco • Asserted the Rio Grande as Texas’ southern boundary • Mexico believes the boundary is at the Nueces • Maps in Mexico indicated the Nueces as the boundary in 1767, 1829, 1833, 1836 • Treaty of Limits: asserted the boundary at Nueces, Texas as Mexican territory (1831) • President James K. Polk supports Texas claims to the R.G.