ABSTRACT
The years between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War (1846–48) marked the high tide of Manifest Destiny. Eager to incorporate new lands for settlers and market-driven development, the United States expanded and solidified its control of the Southeast before focusing its attention on the Southwest and especially California. Ongoing campaigns of Indian removal and a war of annexation targeting newly independent Mexico enabled the United States to achieve what many believed was its providential destiny to take command of much of the North A merican continent. Settler colonial expansion, bolstered by faith in American exceptionalism, continued to drive US foreign relations in this era.
