American history

Westward expansion (1820–1861)

With the independence of the United States established, military efforts then focused on ensuring a dominant role on the continent, an idea which came to be known as "Manifest Destiny."

The area that became the Western United States was mostly unexplored. It was a place for more hardy trappers, but not actual towns and cities. The Mormons were among the first to inhabit the West. They were led by Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley, Utah where they settled down. These people had fled to the West to find sanctuary from the persecution that they had been suffering. They would continue to play large parts in history.

In 1857, Mormon militia attacked non-Mormon settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre; though leaders of the massacre were excommunicated, the incident led to the deployment of U.S. troops in the Utah War to reassert federal primacy over what many Mormons had been treating as a quasi-independent state they called Deseret.

1. Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution was a war fought from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836 between Mexico and the Tejas portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Tejanos and Texians (anglo settlers in Texas) revolted soon after President of Mexico Antonio López de Santa Anna appointed himself dictator, claiming that Mexico was not ready for a democracy.

There are many reasons given by the Tejanos and Texians for the revolt stated in the Texas Declaration of Independence, but the one that tops the list is Santa Anna’s abolition of the Constitution of 1824 (which had established Mexico as a federal republic after brief rule under an emperor).

However, many saw the rebels as nothing more than pirates, an accusation not completely without merit as the region had a history of filibustering.

2. Mexican-American War

The Mexican-American War was a war fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848. The war grew out of unresolved conflicts between Mexico and Texas. After having won its independence from Mexico in 1836, the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845; however, the southern and western borders of Texas remained disputed during the Republic's lifetime.

During this time, the California Republic (also called the "Bear Flag Republic"), like the Republic of Texas, was created as the byproduct of increasing tensions between the United States and Mexico. California Republic began on June 10, 1846 when John C. Frémont and his men in Sonoma declared independence from Mexico.

The rebellion itself started on June 14. Then gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, two days after California had been officially handed over to the United States. The California Gold Rush soon began. Countless Americans and immigrants alike flocked to the Western Coast with a bad case of "gold fever." This jumpstarted the development of the West.

3. Cortina Troubles

The Cortina Troubles are the generic name for the First Cortina War (1859) and Second Cortina War (1861), in which the paramilitary Mexican forces led by the local leader Juan Nepomuceno Cortina confronted the U.S. Military, the Texas Rangers and the local militia of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, in the Rio Grande Valley area.