stiny. Furthermore, we must not forget that America’s territorial growth was partly achieved thanks to the intense conviction of politicians such as John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Polk and William H Steward, that the USA had to expand until it comprehended the whole North American continent. So in the 1850’s, the United Sates, having established itself as a “transcontinental empire”, ceased to regard British activities in the western hemisphere with alarm, but began to be preoccupied with another issue: the increasingly bitter sectional conflict over slavery, not aware at that time that it would throw the American Nation in its most cruel, lasting and deadly conflict. ...
