History 103 *** AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1877 *** Nov. 18, 1996

MANIFEST DESTINY AND WAR WITH MEXICO

I. Interpretations of the Causes of the Civil War

• Fundamentalist approach
• Revisionist approach

II. Texas, from Mexican Colony to Lone Star Republic

• Mexican independence (1821)
• Stephen Austin's colony
• Growth of American population
• Mexican efforts to maintain authority
• Texan Revolution (1835-36)
• Annexation question

III. Second Party System after Jackson

• Review: Whigs vs. Democrats
• Martin Van Buren's troubled presidency (1837-41)
• William Henry Harrison's brief presidency (1841)
• John Tyler's peculiar Whiggery

IV. Politics of Manifest Destiny

• Tyler's Texan strategy
• Clay-Van Buren agreement re: annexation issue (1844)
• James K. Polk's nomination, platform, election (1844)
• Annexation of Texas (1845)
• Oregon settlement (1846)

V. Mexican War

• Tensions and provocations
• Declaration of War (1846)
• "All Mexico"
• Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo (1848)

VI. Another Firebell: Wilmot Proviso

• Mexican War as partisan issue
• Wilmot's proviso and his purpose