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Week 11 · Module overview

Week 11 — Manifest Destiny & Expansion

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

Why this matters

A law or public-policy student reading what a treaty promised and a future teacher in a community whose families lived on the land before the border crossed them both meet this week's question: when a country grows, who gains and who pays?

In plain language

This week covers the twelve years from 1836 to 1848, when the United States grew from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Texas broke away from Mexico and joined the United States, Britain and the United States split the Oregon country, and a war with Mexico ended in a treaty that moved the border hundreds of miles south. People who cheered this growth used the phrase manifest destiny (the belief that the country was meant to spread across the continent). The land was not empty: it was home to Mexican communities and to many Native nations. You will read two dated documents, a declaration and a treaty, and ask each time who wrote it, what it promised, and what it leaves out.

  • Already covered: Week 5's Declaration of Independence, Week 6's Constitution, and Week 9's Louisiana Purchase and Missouri Compromise.
  • This week: manifest destiny, the Texas Revolution, annexation and Oregon, the U.S.-Mexican War, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
  • How they connect: you follow the country's border to the Pacific and ask who lived on the land.
  • Where we're going next: Week 12, Slavery & the Sectional Crisis.

Focus

How did the United States grow from 1836 to 1848, and what did that growth mean for Mexicans, Native nations, and slavery?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • [ ] explain manifest destiny as a phrase, not a law
  • [ ] date the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo from its own text
  • [ ] explain why Article VIII did not make residents immigrants

To-do

Plan your week

  1. Read Chapter 11 (~60–70 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
  2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
  3. Work the practice set (15–25 minutes).
  4. Do the Primary Source Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
  5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: say what a treaty promised, and what it leaves out.

You've got this

Take it one section at a time, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

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