Hello friends, welcome!

So glad you're here!

Over our last few episodes, we've talked a lot about the key elements that define the

mid-1800s and the Bellomera, like the growing friction between the North and the South,

the rise of the abolitionist movement.

And if you were paying attention in our last episode about First Lady Margaret Taylor,

you would have caught that the Taylor spent almost an entire lifetime establishing

Arby posts in new territories, aiding in the nation's land expansion to all corners of

our borders.

But with Manifest Destiny on the rise, those borders began to crumble.

Manifest Destiny didn't just mean that we moved westward, it meant that we went to war.

I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.

On May 13, 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico.

Now we don't want to take an entire historical event in which thousands of lives were lost

and the landscape of two different countries were irrevocably changed and make light of

it.

But what we can do is talk about it in an easy-down percent context because it was a little

like a bedroom divided.

Tape was placed down the middle to indicate which side belonged to which country, except

that the tape in this case was a river.

But Mexico and the United States couldn't agree on which river was the fair border.

Leaders in Mexico claimed it was the Nueces River.

...