MANIFEST DESTINY 1806 1855
THE MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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General George Washington
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General Ulysses S. Grant
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General Zachary Taylor
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None of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -U.S. President James K. Polk sent diplomat John Slidell on a secret mission to Mexico to negotiate the disputed Texas border and to purchase the New Mexico and California territories. Mexican President José Joaquín de Herrera refused to receive Slidell.
Detailed explanation-2: -President James K. Polk had accused Mexican troops of having attacked Americans on U.S. soil, north of the Rio Grande. But Mexico claimed this land as its own territory and accused the American military of having invaded.
Detailed explanation-3: -Polk happily settled with the 49° parallel, instead of the 54°40’ line for Oregon’s border and he wanted the Rio Grande to be Texas’s southern boundary, not the Nueces. While Polk desired California and New Mexico, he did not want the United States to annex all of Mexico, which the more radical expansionists supported.
Detailed explanation-4: -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. At the end of his single term, Polk had literally reshaped the nation, fulfilling the American spirit of manifest destiny.