Oregon Border Dispute Dbq

“The United States had emerged as a modern capitalist nation, and the spirit of nationalism in the country was strong and growing” (Henderson 71). As tensions grew between the Unites States and Mexico, there was a thirst for war. The Unites States declared war with Mexico, because they owned land that Americans desired, resulting in America’s fulfillment of achieving their philosophy of “Manifest Destiny”. The blood boil of both countries caused a lot of bloodshed. The dispute lasted for a long two year battle which was for huge amounts of land. The Americans were victorious and claimed new territories from the conflict.

Consequently, Polk conceded on demands for expansion deep into Canada and set about instead to negotiated a more reasonable American-Canadian border. The Oregon Treaty, signed with Great Britain in 1846, allowed the U.S. to acquire peacefully what is now Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Reasonably certain that war in the Northwest could be avoided, Polk concentrated on efforts to claim the Southwest from Mexico… He tried to buy the territory, and when that failed, he

Signed on February 2, 1848, in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by the U.S. and Mexico. The United States appointed Nicholas P. Trist, a citizen of the United States and the Mexican Republic has appointed Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas, Don Bernardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atristain. This Treaty, brought to an end the Mexican American War. Bringing peace between the two countries. The U.S. called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory, extending the boundaries of the United States by over 525,000 sq/m. This newly acquired land is what is known as present day Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado,and Wyoming. In exchange for this land, Mexico received a $15 million compensation.

Incidentally, a few years later the discussion of the annexation of Texas to the United States had begun, but required years of debate before the final decision came in December of 1845 where Texas joined the Union as a slave state. This issue of slavery caused much of the debate in whether or not to accept Texas into the Union as doing so may have further disrupted the status quo by upsetting the political balance in Congress and in the country. All the while, Mexico remained another source of concern as people thought the annexation of Texas would cause some sort of trouble with them. Despite all of this, Texas was eventually annexed with its own new state government and constitution to go along with it. Although it had already been defeated by Texas in their revolt, Mexico remained angry at the annexation of Texas and began the Mexican-American War spanning all of 2 years, from 1846 to 1848 bested by the American army. This resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, establishing the Rio Grande as the United States-Mexican border. Along with the establishing of set borders, Mexico accepted the United States annexation of Texas and it agreed to sell California and the rest of the territory north of the Rio Grande to the U.S.

In Senator James Buchanan’s Letter to Edward D. Gazzam, 1844, (Document D) he said that Texas should remain independent but pointed out that, “But suppose that this cannot be, and that it should be satisfactorily established that we must either admit it or see it pass under the dominion of Great Britain; -what ought then to be done?” Some Americans feared that Britain would try to take over Texas if America did not. Briton William Kennedy pointed out in his diplomatic communications to Lord Aberdeen, 1844, (Document F) that war with Mexico would, “Produce an embarrassment of affairs, and would leave warm work and divided laurels for [Tyler’s] successor.” John O’Sullivan’s article in Democratic Review, 1845, (Document G) said that other nations have taken actions to stop the expansion of the United States, “This we have seen done by England, our old rival and enemy; and by France, strangely coupled with her against us.” Foreign relations worries were another cause of the war with Mexico, along with the desire to expand slavery and internal political

Although it bought the North 10 more years to industrialize before the Civil War, the Compromise of 1850 overall did not work very well causing widespread unrest over its effects. California being admitted as a free state and D.C. stopping its slave trade worried the South for the fate of slavery. Popular sovereignty really only put gas into the fire that was the dispute

U.S. War with Mexico had many effects on both countries. Even though American’s gained a considerable amount of land, it leads to a great deal of sectional tension. The two governments agreed to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which confirmed the annexation of Texas and ceded California and present day México, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to the United States (Foner,474). With this huge land acquisition, the issue of slavery in the new territories was raised. The new land caused a great deal of conflict, and created great political sectionalism in America. Gaining this much land at a time seemed like a good idea until Americans had to deal with the political issues that went along with it. Residents from both the North and the South wanted

Firstly, westward expansion caused a lot of tension territorially because there was a question whether the new states being created should be free or slave states. Before the US started expanding, the Missouri Compromise in 1820 solved the first problem between the balance of power in the north and south because of the Louisiana Purchase. It stated that anything north of the line would be free states and anything below the line would be slave states. It wasn't until the California gold rush in 1848 when it became a problem. The problem was that California was right in the middle of the line made in the Missouri Compromise. When people from the north and the south started flooding in, it created a lot of tension between the balance of power. Due to this problem, the Wilmot Proviso was created. The Wilmot Proviso was not like by either side because the north did not like the Fugitive Slave Act and the South did not like the restrictions on future slave states. Both sides seen the Proviso as unfair and the tensions rose between the two because of this. One way to prove that people were not happy about the tensions in westward expansion is Bleeding Kansas. In 1856,

In 1845 Texas was annexed as a state, however disputes between America and Mexico remained concerning where the border would be located. President Polk at the time had no choice but to send troops due south to defend Texas and the Thornton affair, won by the Mexicans, would force congress to declare war on Mexico.

In Mexican territories of California, New Mexico, and Texas, American settlers won independence from Mexico in 1837 and petitioned to join the union as a slave state. The U.S. hesitated to admit because the annexation of Mexican territories promised to break the balance hardly built by the Missouri Compromise. After enthusiastic expansionist James Knox Polk was elected to the presidency, Texas joined the union as a slave state in 1846. In the same year, Oregon joined as a free state after negotiations with Great Britain. Every time new states joined the union, Americans carefully tried to keep the balance between the slave and free states not to arouse conflicts between the North and

A long history of dispute characterized the ownership of the Oregon territory, which included present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho and portions of Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia. Spain and Russia had surrendered their claims to the region, but the United States and Britain were active claimants in the early 19th century's early years. The matter's resolution was delayed by the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, in which both parties agreed to a temporary policy of "joint occupation" of the region. This accommodation was extended in 1827. During the 1830s, the American position came to favor establishment of the northern border arguing that the nation required no less. The British, however, wanted to see the southern boundary of British Columbia established at the Columbia River and based their claims on the Hudson's Bay Company's long history in the area. The British position weakened in the early 1840s as large numbers of American settles poured into the disputed area over the Oregon Trail. Possession of Oregon became an issue in the election of 1844. Democratic candidate James K. Polk took an extreme view by advocating the placement of

The added territories gained from the war with Mexico caused the controversy over the question of slavery between the North and the South. Following the Mexican War there were bitter debates in Congress, in state legislatures

After the Midwest had been substantially developed, the national focus turned toward the far west. The territory of Texas, controlled by the Spanish, was settled by Americans, who eventually undertook the Texas Rebellion in efforts to win independence. When the United States admitted Texas to the Union in 1845, the Mexican government was outraged, and from 1846 to 1848, the two nation's squared off in the Mexican War. With a resounding victory, the United States gained control of Texas, New Mexico, and California. The Oregon territory was annexed in 1846 as well, and the US controlled the land all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

because the need for access to the Pacific Ocean for trading. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed. For 15 million, Mexico ceded more than one-third of its territory and the U.S. acquired all of Arizona north of the Gila River (McClory, 2001). Unfortunately, southern Arizona still was in control by Mexico, which included Tucson. Arizona and New Mexico became one territory called the Territory of New Mexico. Soon after, the United States paid another 10 million for 30,000 square miles of the Mexican territory that included Tucson. Congress thought the purchase was meaningless because it was just desert land. The Gadsden Purchase gave the final boundary that Arizona has today. In 1860, along with the constitution, a governor and other elected officials were established. That was unfortunately short lived because of the Civil War. In 1862, Union troops entered the state and placed it under martial rule, this action further delayed Arizona’s official admission as a state (McClory, 2011).

The Treaty of Ghent, which was signed in 1814, is another example of a treaty involving the United States, that also established a long-lasting peace between the countries involved. The Treaty of Ghent was the peace treaty that marked the end of the War of 1812, which was fought between the United States and the United Kingdom ("Primary Documents in American History.") According to the Concise Historical Atlas of Canada by William G. Dean, ‎Gefofrey J. Matthews, and ‎Byron Moldofsky, the terms of the Treaty of Ghent “released all prisoners and restored all captured land and ships. Returned to the United States were approximately 10,000,000 acres (40,000 km2) of territory, near Lakes Superior and Michigan, and in Maine”. America returned Canada