Key Points and Links

Key Points

• In the early 1800s, many Americans came to believe that the US would come to control land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. This belief came to be known as manifest destiny.
• In 1835–1836, Texas fought a brief war of independence from Mexico and became an independent nation.
• In 1846, the United States and Britain signed a treaty officially splitting up the Oregon territory and setting the US border for the Pacific Northwest.
• In 1846, war broke out between the United States and Mexico. The United States won and claimed vast amounts of territory in what is now the Southwest of the continental United States.
• The discovery of gold in 1848 brought about a large influx of American settlers to California, greatly spurring the growth of the western United States.