Between 1846 and 1860 the United States fought a war that swallowed half of Mexico — and then spent a decade watching private armies of American "filibusters" try to conquer Cuba, Baja California, Sonora, and Nicaragua for slavery and empire. Why were these wars fought? Having beaten Mexico, why did America take only the thinly settled north and hand the heartland back? And why did the government that preached Manifest Destiny turn around and prosecute the very filibusters it had trained? This 8-part series argues that one thread runs through all of it — a racial logic that wanted the land but not the people — and then puts that argument on trial, testing it against the slavery crisis, the fear of endless guerrilla war, commerce, and raw ambition. From John C. Calhoun's "government of a white race" to William Walker's firing-squad death at Trujillo, to the 200-year shadow this era cast over the U.S. border and Central America. History, argued fairly and told as a story. This is ReThink History. ▶ Episodes 1. Manifest Destiny and the Road to War 2. The Training Ground: The War and the Men Who Would Break the Union 3. All Mexico, and Why We Stopped 4. The Lone Star of Cuba: Narciso López 5. The Grey-Eyed Man: Walker in Baja and Sonora 6. President Walker: Nicaragua and the Empire of Slavery 7. Why America Disowned Its Filibusters 8. The Long Shadow: Race, Empire, and Two Hundred Years 🔔 Subscribe: youtube.com/@LetsRethinkHistory?sub_confirmation=1 #History #TakeTheLand #ReThinkHistory