US History: Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War of 1846

U.S. History: Western Expansion & Manifest Destiny
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course ID
Instructor’s Name
Due Date
U.S. History: Western Expansion and Manifest Destiny
Ancient globalization was speeded by discovering the vast riches of the East by western Europeans (Corbett, 2014). The desire for spices, porcelain, and silk from the East was hindered by the costliness of using the Silk Road and the dangers of using the route (Corbett, 2014). The Europeans thus sought an alternative route over water. Explorers who were tasked with finding alternative routes made the discovery of a "New World," which they mistook to be East Indies, and called the inhabitants Indians (Corbett, 2014). This article focuses on the contributions of Western Expansion and Manifest Destiny to U.S. History.
Western Expansion
The Westward Expansion was set in motion when Thomas Jefferson was elected as the president in 1800. Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, had different ideologies than his predecessor and Federalist, John Adams (Janssen, 2014). He believed in participatory democracy and majority rule. Jefferson also promoted agriculture by selling public lands in the West in small lots.
In my opinion, the Mexican War (1846-1848) highly impacted Western Expansion. The Louisiana Territory that Jefferson had purchased from France in 1803 included Texas: Eastern and Northern Texas. In 1848, Mexican territories like Texas, California, and New Mexico were acquired by the United States when the Mexican War concluded. In addition to the size of the Louisiana Territory, this further ...