JOHN L.O'SULLIVAN : Annexation(1845)

Study Questions

1. What exactly does the writer mean by 'manifest destiny'? To what degree is it a religious concept? Why must the United States inevitably expand? According to O'Sullivan, how far will U.S. territorial expansion ultimately extend?

2. O'Sullivan refers to 'other nations' that had inserted themselves into the Texas controversy in an effort to block U.S. acquisition of that territory. What nations might he have been referring to? Why might certain world powers have seen it in their strategic interest to block further American westward expansion?

3. How were advances in transportation and communication revolutionizing American life in this period? How does O'Sullivan see the railroad and telegraph as agents of continental expansion?

4. What was O'Sullivan's view of Mexico and by extension. Mexicans? When he writes that "a population will soon be in actual occupation of California. over which it will be idle for Mexico to dream of dominion,' what ironies might we find in light of contemporary demographic trends?