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    The president behind each major US territorial gain
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    The president behind each major US territorial gain

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    33 Comments

    1. vladgrinch on

      The Louisiana Purchase was one of history’s great bargains, about 828,000 square miles bought from France for 15 million dollars, roughly four cents an acre, doubling the size of the young nation overnight, though Jefferson privately worried he had no constitutional authority to make the deal at all.

    3. RedHeadedSicilian52 on

      Funnily enough, technically speaking, Andrew Jackson was the president behind the American annexation of Florida, though it happened before his presidency. In his capacity as a military commander, he seized the peninsula of his own accord, and then the relevant American and Spanish political leaders had to smooth things over afterwards.

    4. nolnogax on

      I am still convinced that Trump’s Greenland shenanigans are most of all based on personal vanity.

    5. Young_Lochinvar on

      McKinley also got Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa (also the Philippines)

      Woodrow Wilson got the US Virgin Islands.

      And Truman gained US control over the North Mariana Islands, although they were nominally separate until 1986 under Reagan.

    6. vt2022cam on

      Vermont was Washington. It was de facto and independent country with international recognition.

    7. Apom52 on

      I feel like at least part of Texas should have a double line indicating Polk and Tyler considering all the disputed territory with Mexico.

    8. NeighborhoodDude84 on

      Trump wants his name on the future version of this map more than anything else.

    11. FreeBricks4Nazis on

      Feels like this is glossing over all the (broken) treaties with indigenous peoples

    13. HelicopterUpper9516 on

      How James K. Polk was moving with his acquisitions.
      ![gif](giphy|xT4uQfHn1CUGyYsiiY)

    14. OrdinaryAd4286 on

      Former US ambassador Cassius Marcellus Clay helped broker Alaska and strong armed Abraham Lincoln into signing the emancipation proclamation earlier than he wanted. As well as making sure outside countries didn’t participate in the revolutionary war.

      I’m just here to give credit.

    17. Theoboli on

      And that’s the kind of map that made Trump dream to be part of with the addition of Greenland

    20. PizzaTacoSub on

      I had no idea McKinley added Hawaii, that’s must be why we named everything after him where I’m from.

    21. GladiatorGreyman01 on

      What is this Polk disrespect. Sure Tyler began the process of annexation and fought tooth&nail with congress to get it passed; but the man, the myth, the legendary James K. Polk signed it into statehood

    22. ThunkAsDrinklePeep on

      Christ. We don’t need another map that gives credit to non-trump presidents for imperialism. What will we invade next if they see this? /s

    24. dongeckoj on

      Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are all major gains.

    25. Look__a_distraction on

      Polk was the one who really annexed Texas not Tyler. Tyler signed a piece of paper right before he left office, Polk was the one who actually took care of the legwork and fought the war over it. Crediting Tyler is like crediting a canvas maker for a finished painting. I have a degree in HY and specifically remember a professor railing over that particular snippet of history.

    26. Karlsvognen on

      Surely Andrew Jackson’s invasion of Florida before he became president was worth something. Plus the agreement giving the US Spain was called the Adams-Onís Treaty because John Quincy Adams was doing all of the diplomatic work as Secretary of State, including being the actual writer of the Monroe Doctrine.

    30. Ynwe on

      Gotta love how Americans love using such friendly terminology, like Purchase, cession, treaty etc. for what amounts to an invasion, conquest and almost complete extermination and genocide of various existing cultures..