Eddie Bjarko
Apush Chapter 13
November 23rd, 2014
Expansion War and Sectional Crisis

What ideas did the term Manifest Digest reflect? Did it cause historical events such as the new political supports for territorial expansion, or was it merely a description of events? * In 1845, John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase Manifest Destiny; he felt that Americans had a right to develop the entire continent as they saw fit, which implied a sense of cultural and racial superiority. It was an idea that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. This led to “Oregon fever” The Oregon country stretched along the Pacific coast from the border with Mexican California to the border with Russian Alaska and was claimed by both Great Britain and the United States. “Oregon fever” raged in 1843 as thousands, lured by reports of fine harbors, mild climate, and fertile soil, journeyed for months across the continent to the Willamette Valley. 250,000 Americans had braved the Oregon Trail by 1860; many died en route from disease and exposure, although relatively few died from Indian attacks. Some of those pioneers veered off and went down to California, namely Sacramento River. To promote California’s development, the Mexican government took over the California missions and liberated the 20,000 Indians who worked on them, many of whom intermarried with mestizos and worked as laborers and cowboys on large cattle ranches. The rise of cattle ranching created a new society and economy as agents from New England firms assimilated to Mexican life and married into the families of the Californios. Many American migrants in California had no desire to assimilate into Mexican society and hoped for eventual annexation to the United States; however, at that time American settlers in California were too few. The Manifest Digest was simply a name for all the beliefs of