AFP SECTION WRITING 2/7

Writing on Graebner's Manifest Destiny: A Realist Critique
Graebner's article highlighted some extremely interesting points made previously in lecture, but which bear repeating here. One of the main arguments made was that the very idea of "manifest destiny" was made possible by what essentially amounts to an accident of history and geography. America was able to expand 'from sea to shining sea' simply because nobody had gotten there first (at least nobody with a substantive presence), and as such took it into its national psyche to do so. All of the ideas of manifest destiny follow from this basis- from continentalism to '54 40 or fight.'
The 'path of least resistance' was another interesting concept not quite mentioned in the article but alluded to strongly, such as on page 202 where the 'fact' that none but natively American people are able to prosper under American law is quoted as an argument against the annexation of all of Mexico, since there are more ethnic Mexicans there than would be palatable to annex. As mentioned in lecture, the Mexicans are 'too white to enslave, but too dark to give full rights to' and as such pose a problem that is best simply ignored at that point in American history.
The American system of annexation (again, as alluded to in previous lectures) shows through especially strongly in this article. The system of Americans moving in first, becoming a decent portion of the population, revolting against the previous government, and petitioning to the United States for annexation seems to me to be a tremendously efficient method of territorial expansion for the United States, requiring little to no input from the federal government. Actually, if I were to imagine a perfectly efficient system of territorial expansion, it would be something like this, with the desire for expansion coming from within the countries themselves. Unfortunately, I can't see this working too well with any even marginally more populated areas (such as basically any present-day country or territory), due to the fact that the American population would have to effectively outnumber the indigenous population, but it worked well enough for a time.

AFP NOTES 2/6

LECTURE 6 CONTINENTAL EXPANSION

A Entrepreneurial Expansion
Filibusters (part 1)
-filibusters were used much much more in the early days of the republic
-not as annoying as they are now
-well, maybe as annoying, but not as unheard of

B Inheriting Spanish America Case Studies
lots of different people tried to 'inherit' spanish america
-lots of different plots to take back spanish territories like florida
3 step process, laid out in the Mobile act of 1804
1) emigration until a majority are american
2) Agitation for independence
3) Amalgamation leads to statehood

Baton Rouge
September 1810
-wants to become part of america
-pressures state to appeal for annexation
-ends up succeeding
Texas (first republic)
-mexicans revolted against spanish rule
-spanish presence in texas was extremely weak, texans managed to kick them out
-april 1813, they declared themselves a new republic
-lasted only until august 1813 when they were defeated by loyalist army
-the texan army was only around 1500 men strong, half of which were americans

St Mary's Island
-'republic of florida'
-
Amelia Island
-mcGregor seized amelia island in venezualan revolutionary cause
-immediately became haven for pirates
-'mos eisley of the united states'
-independent from june-> december 1817
C Andrew Jackson
-first rises to prominence during the creek war, fought concurrently with the war of 1812 (1812-1814)
-james monroe (secretary of war) sent a message to jackson warning him to take no measures attacking spain
-by the time he got the order, he had already launched the first florida campaign
First Florida Campaign, 1814
-launched without american governmental approval or support
-felt the need to justify the attack
-baia is a cocklicker
-just saying
notes notes notes
-gave jackson huge political gains
-attacked in the 'first seminole war' in nov 1817
-secretary of war decided to give jackson authority to prosecute and end the war

Second Florida Campaign, 1818
-Jackson essentially shanked the floridians
-jackson stationed troops and ports all over florida

-there's a problem here--- america had essentially gone to war with spain without a formal declaration
-adams justifies his action that the executive can authorize military action if it is taken as even proactive defense
-the real reason for justification of jackson's actions was that they really couldn't do anything about him
-he was way too far away

Texas (second republic)
-one problem here
-neither spanish nor french treaties allowed for the annexation of texas, and america really wanted it
-1821- stephen austin
-1823- imperial colonization law
-american colonists continued pouring into mexico
-1835, santa anna proclaimed unified constitution for all mexican territories
-texan settlers threatened to secede if they had to accept the constitution
-why?
-constitution restricted religion, press, slavery, colonists wanted to keep free all three
-march 1836- declaration of texan independence
-april 1836- battle of san jacinto
-after the alamo
-americans kicked the crap out of the mexicans
-mexican surrendered forces signed the treaties of velasco
-treaty gave all the ground between the nueces to the rio grande to the republic of texas
-september 1836, texas votes overwhelmingly to be annexed by america
-this poses a problem to america, which has a real delicate balance between slave and non-slave states
-president van buren refuses the petition
-william henry harrison dies after entering office
-john tyler became president, is given the title 'his accidency'
-tyler wants texas to be incorporated in the union, to protect from british incursion into texas

AFP NOTES 2/5
SECTION 1 HAS MOVED TO BLOOMBERG- SWITCH OUT!!!
SWITCH TO SECTION 2, 7

Lecture 5
Manifest Destiny: Concepts
this lecture to some extent predates an impartial media

A: Macro Forces
1) Natural Growth
-seen as 'organic and vital
-necessary part of the 'youth' of a country
-america was seen as a country in adolescence
-two forces spur this
-internal growth- large childbirth rate
-external growth- lots of immigration
-american population is booming during this time
-there was an 'irresistable tide' of american expansion, threefold process
-overflow of population
-americanization
-incorporation
-the entirety of north america is very fluid, borders are very ill-defined, people expand first, the country comes in later
-americans believe that past the western border of their country is 'uninhabited'
-important because it shows that the americans dont feel like indians or spanish have legit claims to the land
-indians were forcibly removed from their territory, sent farther west
-essentially a state-sponsored form of ethnic cleansing
-most of the reason that americans didnt go farther south is that they'd have to take mexicans with the land
-mexicans were too white to be slaves, but not quite white enough for citizenship rights
-just easier not to take it at all

-emerson puts it this way
-'young america'
-at every age of the world there is a leading nation, it's america's term
-america follows the path of least resistance in expansion
-they failed at invading canada over and over again
-much easier to go against spain, whose empire was already faltering and failing
-another idea was that america's growth was limited by continuity
-continentals made this point
-america can only expand insofar as its territory is continuous
-america should not suffer 'petty rival republics'
-most obvious example of this is texas
-but america should still limit itself to contiguous land

2) Self Defense
-example to be used here is the carribean
-case study here- Danish West Indes
-in 1916, US sec of state contacted the danes and informed him
-in the event that germany forced the danes to hand over the west indes, america would conquer and annex them
-even if the danes voluntarily gave up the islands, the US would invade
-on jan 1917, the islands were sold to the US- are now the US virgin islands
-LAST TERRITORIAL ACQUISITION OF THE UNITED STATES
-self defense vs possible injury as a possible consequence of a possible action against a possible enemy
-wow
-america is in a quest for ideal security
-'america invulnerable'
-this is the idea of the 'no transfer' doctrine of 1811- prohibiting the transfer of spanish florida to any european power because it would be a threat to the US

to sum it up, american expansion was due in large part to the lack of substantive competition
-most expansionary action taken was due in large part to imagined or manufactured threats
manufactured threats used as justification for expansion:
-possible attack by enemy
-possible quarrels with powerful enemy
-possible weak neighbor (who could be conquered by a strong enemy)
-possible imperial rivalry
-possible political interference by strong enemies

B: Micro Forces
3) Technology
-industrial revolution introduces whole bunches of things
-steamboats
-railroads
-telegraphs!
-now, america doesnt have to worry about breakaway republics due to lack of communication or transportation
4) Mission
-america has a sense of obligation and mission
-leads to sense of superiority over the cultures of other societies
-also, trend towards infantilization of other cultures, especially indians

5) Geography
-america decided that it wasnt just going to have isolated settlements, like the french trading posts
-it was going to be actually settled
-especially applied to california
-californians though they had huge potential which wasn't being realized under mexican rule

6) Partisan Politics
-expansion was a 'safety valve'
-slavery got expanded, as did free states
-allowed parties to expand without real opposition from inside the states.