USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States of America (1845-1849). As President he oversaw the largest territorial expansion in American history-over a million square miles of land-acquired through a treaty with England and war with Mexico.

Detailed explanation-2: -Annexation of Texas Congress passed the joint resolution a few days before Polk’s inauguration in March 1845. This allowed Texas to bypass the territorial stage and come into the union as the fifteenth slave state in December 1845.

Detailed explanation-3: -Polk supported immediate annexation of Texas because he argued it was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase but was unjustly lost with the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Polk ran on an expansionist platform where his main promises consisted of the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory.

Detailed explanation-4: -After handing over the reins of government to his successor, Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate whom he had correctly suspected of planning to use his Mexican War heroism to seek the presidency, Polk embarked on an extensive tour of the southern states.

Detailed explanation-5: -The citizens of Texas approved the annexation ordinance and new constitution on October 13, 1845. President Polk signed the legislation making the former Lone Star Republic a state of the Union on December 29, 1845 (Joint Resolution for the admission of the state of Texas into the Union, J.