The transatlantic slave trade began during the 15th century when Portugal, and subsequently other European kingdoms, were finally able to expand overseas and reach Africa. The Portuguese first began to kidnap people from the west coast of Africa and to take those they enslaved back to Europe.
Manifest destiny was the idea that the United States would stretch from sea to sea as a beacon of liberty. Texas had lots of American immigrants at the time and had a lot of slave plantations that could of extended the south. Texas also had recently broken free from Mexico, and was made by American settlers who made their government based on the US. So, because of all this, America decided to annex Texas and incorporate it into the Union.
<span>The
South, however, did not like a Republican being elected President, even
though Lincoln vowed only to ban slavery in NEW states, not those it
was already legal in. The South was so miffed it seceded.</span>
Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million.
