Westward ExpansionWestward Expansion 11

CONTENTS

■Photographer David McNew evokes the brilliant desert sunsets of

nineteenth-century landscape painters. Here the pristine beauty of the desert

is pierced by the steely spine of the U.S.-built border fence with Mexico.

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Mexico secured its independence from Spain, the American

Southwest became Mexican territory. But the heavy influx

of American settlers into the Mexican state of Texas

prompted Mexico to restrict further American immigration.

Yet the “illegal” immigrants kept coming into Texas; some

talked of independence and in 1836 secured it by war. In

1845 Texas became part of the United States; California

(1850), New Mexico (1912) and Arizona (1912) would fol-

low. Mexicans who entered the region were trespassing; in

time, they would become illegal immigrants.

The acquisition of the Southwest by the United

States had several important (if unintended) conse-

quences. The most important concerned slavery. The

annexation of Texas as a slave state raised the question

of slavery throughout the Southwest. Would the “pecu-

liar institution” eventually span the entire continent,

stretching all the way to California? And, if the federal

government disallowed slavery in some of the western

regions, why not all of them? A crisis of inconceivable

dimensions loomed. ■

■Tyler’s Troubles

■The Webster-Ashburton Treaty

■The Texas Question

■Manifest Destiny

■Life on the Trail

■California and Oregon

■The Election of 1844

■Polk as President

■War with Mexico

■To the Halls of Montezuma

■The Treaty of Guadalupe

Hidalgo

■The Fruits of Victory:

Further Enlargement of the

United States

■Slavery: Storm Clouds Gather

■The Election of 1848

■The Gold Rush

■The Compromise of 1850

■Debating the Past:

Did the Frontier Change

Women’s Roles?

■Re-Viewing the Past:

The Alamo

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