Social Sciences and History / Unit 1 SSH 0031 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Texas, Polk, and the Mexican Cession
Captions available
The idea
Texas won independence in eighteen thirty-six; the United States refused it as a slave state. Polk annexed it, settled Oregon with Britain, and fought Mexico from eighteen forty-six to forty-eight, taking nearly half its territory.
In practice
The border fixed at the Rio Grande; gold found in California.
Where people slip
The cession reopened the question Missouri had settled. Every acre raised the argument over slavery.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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