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History of the United States I / Unit 11   USH1 1511 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds

The Texas Objection

Captions available

The idea

Many expansionists believed the Louisiana Purchase had already included Texas, and criticised Adams for not claiming all of it. He had instead traded the American claim west of the Sabine for a Spanish cession of Florida, and fixed a border where none had been agreed before.

In practice

A secretary of state accused of giving away territory in the act of acquiring some.

Where people slip

Follow the chain from here, because the whole rest of this unit hangs on it. Adams trades away the American claim to Texas in eighteen nineteen. Americans then settle Texas under Mexican authority in the eighteen twenties. Texas revolts in eighteen thirty-six. Annexation brings war in eighteen forty-six. The Sabine line is where the Mexican-American War begins. Learn it as a chain rather than as five separate events.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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