Curated playlist
History of United States expansionism
- Manifest destinyThe phrase manifest destiny became famous only after opponents mocked it in Congress. Expansionists then embraced it.
- Mexican–American WarOn the 25th of April 1846, a Mexican cavalry force of 2,000 men attacked a patrol of 70 American soldiers led by Captain Seth Thornton. The patrol was routed. Eleven Americans were killed and 52 were captured. The clash took place in…
- Monroe DoctrineThe Monroe Doctrine had no name until 1850. President Monroe's 1823 warning to Europe came first.
- Missouri CompromiseThomas Jefferson called the Missouri Compromise a fire bell in the night. He wrote it in April 1820.
- American imperialismGeorge Washington called the young United States an "infant empire" in 1786. Was it foreign policy or empire?
- War of 1812News of Britain's concession reached the United States too late to stop the War of 1812.
- Louisiana PurchaseAmerican diplomats sent to buy one city in Paris came home with far more. They signed for roughly 828,000 square miles.
- Commonwealth of the PhilippinesThe Commonwealth of the Philippines began in 1935 with a countdown to its own end.
- American frontierThe American frontier, also called the Old West and popularly the Wild West, was declared finished by a government statistician in 1890. William Rush Merriam, the Superintendent of the Census, told the country that its unsettled land had…
- Empire of LibertyJefferson's Empire of Liberty promised freedom, yet he obtained roughly a hundred million acres from Native Americans.