Page 321 - American Stories, A History of the United States

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13.1

Learn about some key topics related to this chapter with the
13.2 MyHistoryLab Video Series: Key Topics in U.S. History.

1 manifest destiny marches West: 1832–1858 this video
showcases the ideals as well as the stark realities of
the great American migration to the West in the mid-
nineteenth century. the doctrine of manifest destiny, the
idea that America was divinely ordained to stretch from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, convinced Americans that the
West was theirs to build, homestead, farm, mine, fence,
and exploit, disregarding its native inhabitants. the video looks at the ways both foreign immigrants
and eastern emigrants faced the challenges of unfamiliar environments and confronted the indians who
lived there, with sometimes violent and tragic results.
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United States acquired the mexican lands that now comprise texas, california, and the present-day 2
War with mexico large-scale westward expansion was not possible until the United States had
provoked its rival mexico into going to war, and ceding its vast territories. this video reveals how the

American Southwest.
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3 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo this video discusses the peace treaty between the United States and
mexico that ended the mexican–American War (1846–1848). in addition to providing the land for many
new U.S. states, the treaty accelerated the development and exploitation of formerly mexican territory
by increasing numbers of Anglo settlers, and forever transformed its culture to a unique blend of
mexican and Anglo American.
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the industrial north and europe. the north, by contrast, increasingly focused on industrial production, 4
industrial expansionism the economies of the north and South set the two regions on dramatically
different courses. the South was heavily invested in slave labor, by which it produced raw materials for

enhanced by a growing system of canals and railroads. the influx of millions of immigrants provided
cheap labor for the growing industries. Rising immigration to northern cities eventually translated into
increased political representation for the northern states.
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Young America in the 1840s and they also celebrated the technological advances that would knit this new empire together, espe­
early 1850s, many public figures— cially the telegraph and the railroad.
especially younger members of Young America was both a cultural and intellectual movement and an economic and politi­
the Democratic Party—used this
term to describe their program of cal one. in 1845, a Washington journal hailed 49­year­old james K. Polk, the youngest man to
territorial expansion and industrial have been elected president, as a sign that youth will “dare to take antiquity by the beard, and
growth. tear the cloak from hoary­headed hypocrisy. too young to be corrupt . . . it is Young America,
awakened to a sense of her own intellectual greatness by her soaring spirit. it stands in strength,
the voice of the majority.” During the Polk administration, Young American writers and critics—
mostly based in New York city—called for a distinctive national literature, free of subservience to
european themes or models and expressive of the democratic spirit. their organ was the Literary
World, a magazine founded in 1847. its ideals influenced two of the greatest writers America has
produced: Walt Whitman and Herman Melville.
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