ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Manifest Destiny,

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a sea captain's guide to understanding what the future holds.

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Yeah.

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All right. By the time of the above map's

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creation in 1856,

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the political issue that dominated national

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conversation was... what?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right.

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Well, by 1856, the U.S. had finally

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expanded from sea to shining sea, achieving its goal of

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Manifest Destiny.

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Yeah. Coast to coast.

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Let's see which answer best describes

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the political cost of that territorial shopping spree.

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Well, in 1856, was the

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political issue dominating the national conversation

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A - the acquisition of more land in Mexican territory?

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Well, by that point, we'd already acquired most of the American West

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and Southwest from Mexico.

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Talk about landing in a pretty good spot.

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Yeah. Cross out A.

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Was the national political conversation dominated by B -

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the aid and protection of Latin American countries?

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Well, in 1856, the U.S. was pretty tied up with issues here at home,

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so any kind of foreign involvement was pretty out there.

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So that puts the kibosh on B and D.

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Which means that in 1856,

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the political issue dominating the national conversation was

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C - the spread of slavery into newly acquired territories.

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Achieving its "destiny" left the United States

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in a bit of a pickle when it came to slavery,

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since almost everyone had an opinion about whether new states

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should be admitted as slave or free.

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So C is the right answer.

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Of course, this disagreement led to the Civil War

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only four years later. Because if you don't like

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what they're saying,

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well, you just violently change the conversation, right?

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[ smack ]

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