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James K. Polk | |
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| Born | November 2, 1795 Pineville, North Carolina, United States |
| Died | June 15, 1849 Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| Political orientation | Settler expansionism Slavery |
| Political party | Democratic |
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was a slave owner who ruled the United States as President from 1845 to 1849. He started a war of aggression against Mexico and expanded into the Pacific Northwest in 1846.[1]
Invasion of Mexico[edit | edit source]
In 1846, Polk ordered Stephen Watts Kearny's troops to the Rio Grande on the border of Texas and staged a false flag attack to justify declaring war on Mexico. U.S. troops occupied Mexico City from September 1847 to June 1848, when the USA annexed northern Mexico with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Polk also wanted to annex the Yucatán Peninsula and buy Cuba from Spain, and some members of his party wanted to annex all of Mexico. Both former president John Quincy Adams and future presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant condemned the war.[1]
Oregon Territory[edit | edit source]
In 1846, Polk expanded the USA into the Northwest by taking control of the Oregon Country (now Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Montana and Wyoming) from the British.[1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David Vine (2020). The United States of War: 'The Permanent Indian Frontier' (pp. 150–54). Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520972070 [LG]