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What was President Polk's goal with California?
James Polk as President A workaholic, America's new chief executive set an ambitious agenda with four major goals: cut tariffs, reestablish an independent U.S. Treasury, secure the Oregon Territory and acquire the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico.
Did Polk want to annex California?
Some even called for the annexation of "All Mexico," although all Polk really wanted was California.
Why did Polk think Mexico would sell California?
Polk thought the Mexican government might sell California and New Mexico because they were thinly settled and neglected by the Mexican government. 2. Label the map with sentences to explain why the U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico in 1846. Texas claimed the Rio Grande was the border.
Why did Polk want to expand West?
Polk wanted the border moved higher north, around the 49 parallel, to give them more land. Polk was greedy for more land, but realized that he was in the middle of the Mexican War, and did not want to fight 2 wars at once.
Why did the US government want to obtain California?
President Polk had a short list of "great measures" he intended to accomplish. Among them was the acquisition of Mexican California. Gold had not been discovered there yet, but Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with China and other Asian nations.
Why did the US take California from Mexico?
U.S. expansionists wanted California to thwart any British interests in the area and to gain a port on the Pacific Ocean. Polk authorized Slidell to forgive the $3 million owed to U.S. citizens for damages caused by the Mexican War of Independence and pay another $25 to $30 million for the two territories.
What did President Polk want from Mexico?
Polk wanted to lay claim to California, New Mexico, and land near the disputed southern border of Texas. Mexico, however, was not so eager to let go of these territories. Polk started out by trying to buy the land. He sent an American diplomat, John Slidell, to Mexico City to offer $30 million for it.
Why did President Polk think the Mexican government might want to sell California and New Mexico quizlet?
Why did President Polk think the Mexican government might want to sell California and New Mexico? Because they were thinly setteled and the Mexican government had long neglected them. List 3 details of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Why did Polk want war with Mexico?
On May 12, 1846, the United States Senate voted 40 to 2 to go to war with Mexico. President James K. Polk had accused Mexican troops of having attacked Americans on U.S. soil, north of the Rio Grande. But Mexico claimed this land as its own territory and accused the American military of having invaded.
What started westward expansion?
Westward expansion, the 19th-century movement of settlers into the American West, began with the Louisiana Purchase and was fueled by the Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail and a belief in "manifest destiny."
Answer
Gold had not been discovered there yet, but Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with China and other Asian nations. Polk was worried that other nations, such as England or France, might take California if the United States did not act.
Answer
Answer: Gold had not been discovered there yet, but Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with China and other Asian nations. Polk was worried that other nations, such as England or France, might take California if the United States did not act.
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What did Polk do in the war?
The war's aftermath brought forward issues of the citizenship status and property rights of Mexicans who remained in the new American territories.
What did Slidell report on his failed mission to President Polk early in 1846?
state. Polk declared that the border between the United States and Mexico extended to the Rio Grande. He ordered American troops to cross into the contested land as a "defensive" act.
Why did John Slidell go to Mexico?
In November 1845, President Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico City in an attempt to buy California and New Mexico. Mexico, in political and economic disarray, had failed to make payments on $4.5 million it owed the United States.
What did Texas do to get California?
Using Texas to Get California. While Texas was ratifying its annexation to the United States, an American naval officer apparently tried to provoke a war with Mexico. Commodore Robert Stockton attempted to persuade Texas officials to move their militia into the disputed land between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers.
Why did the Californians lose their land?
By the 1860s, most of the Californios who had finally confirmed their grants still lost their land to the Americans due to overwhelming debts aggravated by plunging cattle prices and drought. In 1870, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Californios became full citizens when California was admitted as a state in 1850.
Why did Congress vote for war?
Some members of Congress believed it was the "manifest destiny" of the United States to occupy all the land from the Atlantic states to the Pacific Ocean. Southerners saw an opportunity to create more slave states.
When was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed?
These succeeded, and a peace treaty was signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2 , 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized the border between the state of Texas and Mexico at the Rio Grande River. The United States also got California and New Mexico.
What was the manifest destiny of the United States?
The term Manifest Destiny appeared in print for the first time a few months following Polk's inauguration in an editorial published in the Jacksonian United States Magazine and Democratic Review calling for an end to political strife regarding the recent vote in Congress over the annexation of Texas, a hotly contested issue that figured prominently in the election Polk won. The author of the piece, the journal's editor, John L. O'Sullivan, pointed out that England and France had interfered with the process of annexation "for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." In a diary entry recorded later in 1845, Polk, a Jacksonian Democrat, identified this view with that of the general public, writing that "the people of the United States would not willingly permit California to pass into the possession of any new colony planted by Great Britain or any foreign monarchy."
What was the war that Polk fought?
While the public's fear of foreign involvements in continental North America may have concurred with Polk's agenda, the war he fought against Mexico that began in May 1846 and concluded in February 1848 sparked widespread criticism throughout political, journalistic, and literary circles in addition to strong support. Following the annexation of Texas, the Mexican government had severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. Polk subsequently sent an envoy, former Louisiana congressman John Slidell, to Mexico to try to resolve disputes over the Texas boundary and over damages that the Mexican government owed to U.S. citizens but could not pay. Polk instructed Slidell to make an offer that the U.S. would pay off Mexico's debt in order to acquire "Upper California and New Mexico" and would spend as much as $40 million to purchase the land.
What was the purpose of the Massachusetts legislation?
The Massachusetts legislation passed resolutions charging that the war "was unconstitutionally commenced by the order of the President . . . with the triple object of extending slavery, of strengthening the slave power, and of obtaining the control of the Free States.".
Who were the antiwar leaders?
In addition to the attacks on Polk by politicians and members of the press, antiwar sentiments were expressed by the American Peace Society, the American Anti-Slavery Society, and by literary and religious figures such as James Russell Lowell, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, Theodore Parker, and Wendell Phillips.
