USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Answer and Explanation: James Polk was a believer in Manifest Destiny, the idea that the U.S. was destined to conquer the Americas. Polk’s expansionist policy resonated with voters in 1844 and he defeated Henry Clay in the general election despite being a relative unknown.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -Polk was backed by many in the United States who believed they had the God-given right to rule the territories to the west. This Manifest Destiny was presented as giving the U.S. permission to do what was necessary to conquer those lands. As a result, the U.S. waged war to take the northern half of Mexico.

Detailed explanation-4: -The idea of manifest destiny-that the United States was destined to occupy the entire North American Hemisphere-came of age in the 1840s. It began with the annexation of Texas, which led to the Mexican-American War and the resulting great land cession.

Detailed explanation-5: -More than any other President, Polk pursued “Manifest Destiny, ” a phrase coined by his fellow Jacksonian Democrat, John L. O’Sullivan, to express the conviction that Providence had foreordained the United States to spread its republican institutions across North America.