Week 11 — Readings & Resources · Manifest Destiny & Expansion

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objectives covered: Objective 6 — westward expansion, Manifest Destiny, the U.S.–Mexican War, and the slavery-in-the-territories question.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is manageable: 2 short videos + 3 short readings + the two primary sources you'll use in the workshop and the assignment. Watch or read one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 45–55 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Order that matches the lecture: ① the idea of Manifest Destiny → ② the Texas & Oregon crises → ③ the U.S.–Mexican War & the treaty → ④ the Wilmot Proviso & the sectional crisis → ⑤ the week's primary sources (for the workshop and assignment).

Historian's habit for this week: before you trust any claim about what Manifest Destiny "was," ask: who is making this claim, and what are they trying to accomplish? O'Sullivan was an advocate; Lincoln was a critic; a modern textbook is a synthesis. Source them all.

① The Idea: Manifest Destiny

Maps to Lecture Segment 2. What the phrase claimed, who coined it, and why it was more than a geographic idea.

Reading — "Manifest Destiny" (Khan Academy, US History → The 1800s → Westward Expansion)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history
(Open the "The 1800s" unit and find the Westward Expansion lessons.)
Why it's assigned: clear, brief explanation of Manifest Destiny as ideology — who believed it, what it justified, and who it excluded.
⏱ ~10 min

Reading — "Declaring America's Manifest Destiny, 1845" (The American Yawp Reader)
🔗 https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny/john-osullivan-declares-americas-manifest-destiny-1845/
Why it's assigned: the O'Sullivan essay excerpt with brief scholarly framing — a good way to read the source in context before the workshop.
⏱ ~8 min

② Texas, Oregon & the Road to War

Maps to Lecture Segment 3. The political crises of 1845–46 that led to war with Mexico.

Reading — "The Annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War, and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo" (U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian)
🔗 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/texas-annexation
Why it's assigned: a clear, reliable chronology of Texas annexation through the treaty — covers the Oregon Treaty and the war in sequence.
⏱ ~12 min

③ The U.S.–Mexican War & the Treaty

Maps to Lecture Segment 5. The two-front war, the march to Mexico City, and what the treaty required.

Video — "Westward Expansion: Crash Course US History #24"
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16OZkgSXfM
Why it earns the click: brisk coverage of Manifest Destiny, Texas, the Mexican War, and the treaty in one fast video — good orientation before class.
⏱ ~12 min

Reading — "Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)" (National Archives, Milestone Documents)
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo
Why it's assigned: the National Archives summary of what the treaty actually required — the cession, the payment, and the citizenship guarantee. Good sourcing practice: read the description, then consider what the treaty left unsaid.
⏱ ~8 min

④ The Wilmot Proviso & the Sectional Crisis

Maps to Lecture Segments 5–6. The one amendment that turned a territorial war into a slavery crisis.

Video — "The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act: Crash Course US History #10"
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNSnX5dcEI
(The first 3–4 minutes cover the Wilmot Proviso and the crisis that set up the 1850 Compromise — the rest previews next week.)
Why it earns the click: gives the "so what" of the Wilmot Proviso in plain language — why the fight over new territories made earlier compromises collapse.
⏱ ~4 min (first portion)

⑤ The Week's Primary Sources (for the Workshop and Assignment)

You'll analyze these in Primary Source Workshop 11 and use them in Assignment 11. Read both before the workshop so you arrive ready to source, contextualize, and close-read them.

Primary source — John L. O'Sullivan, "Annexation" (1845)
🔗 https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/john-osullivan-annexation-1845 (Bill of Rights Institute)
🔗 https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny/john-osullivan-declares-americas-manifest-destiny-1845/ (The American Yawp Reader — excerpt)
🔗 https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/annexation/ (Teaching American History — full text)
Why it's assigned: the essay that coined and popularized the phrase "Manifest Destiny." Published in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in 1845. Practice sourcing (O'Sullivan was a partisan Democratic editor backing Texas annexation) and close reading the phrase "allotted by Providence."
⏱ ~12 min

Primary source — Abraham Lincoln, Spot Resolutions (December 22, 1847)
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lincoln-resolutions (National Archives)
🔗 https://docsteach.org/document/lincolns-spot-resolutions/ (DocsTeach — National Archives)
🔗 https://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.0007000/?st=text (Library of Congress, Lincoln papers)
Why it's assigned: a first-term Whig congressman demands Polk prove where American blood was actually shed. Use it as corroboration — a contemporaneous critic who challenged the war's legal justification. Written Dec 22, 1847, after Mexico City had fallen but before the treaty was signed.
⏱ ~8 min

Optional one-stop references (free online)

• OpenStax U.S. History, Ch. 11 — "A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 1800–1860."
  🔗 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-introduction
  The free OpenStax chapter covers Manifest Destiny, Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War; a reliable survey if you want a textbook-style overview.

• DocsTeach — Lincoln's Spot Resolutions activity.
  🔗 https://docsteach.org/activity/lincolns-spot-resolutions/
  A guided National Archives activity built around the Spot Resolutions document — useful if you want more context for the workshop.

• Gilder Lehrman Institute — "The Mexican-American War."
  🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/mexican-american-war
  Brief, reliable essay on the war and its political fallout.

Pick-one quick path (≈30 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz and the workshop:
1. Skim the Khan Academy Manifest Destiny reading (group ①).
2. Read the State Department Texas & Oregon chronology (group ②).
3. Watch the first 4 minutes of Crash Course #10 for the Wilmot Proviso (group ④).
4. Read the O'Sullivan "Annexation" excerpt and the Lincoln Spot Resolutions (group ⑤) — both are essential for the workshop.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Hartwell; the National Archives (archives.gov), DocsTeach (docsteach.org), Khan Academy, the American Yawp, and the Bill of Rights Institute are all reliable fallbacks.