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Manifest Destiny

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James Polk was elected in 1845 and considered an expansionist, meaning a person who wants to expand territories beyond their set bounds. In America’s case they wanted to expand western. In addition, Polk began a period of Manifest Destiny. This was a phrase used to explain settlers who were moving westward to expand as Polk remarked from “sea to shining sea”. Also, the Mexican-American War in 1846 allowed Americans the ability to acquire new land in the southwest from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The gaining of this new land and the contributing factor of Manifest Destiny resulted in America asking whether slavery should be allowed to expand westward. The debate over the expansion of slavery into acquired territories during the period of Manifest Destiny to Abraham Lincoln's election contributed to the Civil War because of the growing conflict between the pro-slavery South and abolitionist North. Some of the contributing factors that led to the Civil War were the foreign relations, supreme court cases, and presidential elections. One cause of the Civil War is the Mexican-American War. The new territories gained from this war pushed America to answer the question about the expansion of slavery. America asked this question because they had gained land from the Mexican-American War and people wanted to expand thus resulting in having to figuring out how to solve the slavery issue. Pro-slavery Southerners would inhabit the land if it allowed slavery because slavery is what

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