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U.S. Presidents Who Added the Most Territory

Name the five U.S. Presidents during whose administration the United States gained the greatest amount of territory.
Includes territory no longer held by the U.S.
Quiz by HistoryPunk
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Last updated: March 19, 2021
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First submittedMarch 19, 2021
Times taken12,249
Average score60.0%
Rating4.62
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Square miles
Acquisitions
President
1,204,896
Texas annexation, Mexican Cession, Oregon Territory
James K. Polk
827,987
Louisiana Purchase
Thomas Jefferson
591,002
Alaska Purchase, Midway Islands
Andrew Johnson
126,043
Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa
William McKinley
72,101
Florida
James Monroe
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24 Comments
Baxtergrad
+9
Level 51
Mar 19, 2021
Nobody remembers that Johnson bought Alaska.
joez
+18
Level 75
Mar 19, 2021
They associate it with his Secretary of State Seward.
BigFloppa
+11
Level 62
Mar 23, 2021
interesting that some relatively unknown presidents have added massive amounts of territory to the USA
kalbahamut
+10
Level 81
Mar 23, 2021
Polk is probably the most underrated president in US history.
CaptainUnderpant
+5
Level 80
Dec 10, 2023
Uh why? Seems like you could easily argue that the war with Mexico and opposition to the Wilmot Proviso provided some essential fodder for the Civil War, which I would say hurts his rating.
tschutzer
+2
Level 93
Dec 11, 2023
I wrote a paper on Polk in my AP American History class in high school. And I remembered exactly zero facts about him other than the fact that he annexed more territory than any other president.
FinlandForever19
+2
Level 84
Jan 15, 2024
Can you imagine the US without all that territory though? It was extremely consequential to the history of the country.
kalbahamut
+3
Level 81
Mar 23, 2021
What about Lincoln?
Quizmaster
+14
Level ∞
Mar 23, 2021
If we were to consider the Confederacy, which we don't, Lincoln would come away with a loss of territory.

The states that seceded during his administration hadn't been entirely recaptured by the time of his death.

FreeStater
+11
Level 78
Mar 25, 2023
Interestingly, he still comes away with a loss if you ignore that. He lost the Palmyra Atoll to Hawaii, but managed to annex the Swan Islands, though they weren't big enough to compensate.
blizzrd33
+2
Level 80
Mar 24, 2021
Nominated, good quiz
Quizbyquiz
+4
Level 43
Apr 9, 2023
You forgot the US Virgin Islands, and are you counting the land they stole from the Native Americans? Strange how nobody ever really talks about Polk or McKinley even though they got that much land..
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
Dec 8, 2023
The Virgin Islands (acquired under Wilson) are far too small to make this list.
Jato
+3
Level 71
Jan 13, 2024
This quiz literally only has 5 answers! C’mon, this quiz could be a little bit longer.
CaptainUnderpant
+4
Level 80
Dec 10, 2023
Basically all American land was stolen from indigenous peoples. Also nobody talks about McKinley because 95% of the land he gained was the Philippines, a move which seemed pretty imperialistic and heaven forbid the US seem like an empire!
Hapsburg
+1
Level 76
May 30, 2024
Considering they were mostly hunter gatherers or infrequent and itinerant low-level agriculturalists, they never truly occupied most of the land to begin with, which is how Europeans even got such a large foothold in the first place. And they frequently broke and ignored treaties they made selling land to Europeans, claiming them to be invalid because they didn't have an impossible 100% consent from every tribe and tribe member (which is not how diplomacy works anywhere on Earth). To say land is stolen would make more sense in the case of a more settled, organized society like the ones in Mesoamerica and the Andes, though in that case it's simply a military conquest as a result of war between two states. Very anachronistic and biased to consider it immoral, which is what the term "stolen" implies. Hawaii is the only good example I know in the US that might actually be considered stolen territory via an underhanded coup
CaptainUnderpant
+1
Level 80
Jun 17, 2024
I'm sorry, the indigenous peoples were the ones who broke the treaties? At least in a US context I'm almost positive that's a completely baseless claim and in fact, the opposite is true. To my knowledge, American government on the state and federal level used treaties as a way to steal, yes steal, land from native people and routinely broke those treaties. You say it's anachronistic and biased to consider that immoral yet you presuppose that European notions of both diplomacy and land ownership are the default and implicitly superior. Regardless of the semantics, the overall message I got is that the European conquest of the Americas wasn't any sort of human tragedy and the fact that European peoples and cultures replaced those who "never truly occupied most of the land to begin with" is actually a good thing!
CapitalsIsMyGoal
+1
Level 52
Sep 9, 2024
I love these 2 replies.
jkabq
+8
Level 65
Jan 13, 2024
nothing stolen. its called conquering. standard form of nation building at the time.
CaptainUnderpant
+1
Level 80
Jun 17, 2024
cool story bro
wkrpnyc
+2
Level 82
Jan 13, 2024
The years they were acquired would be a good addition. And more time.
Junji3000
+1
Level 54
Jan 14, 2024
+1
CapitalsIsMyGoal
+1
Level 52
Sep 9, 2024
James was ok with playing a game of polk while thomas was in jefferson city but andy drew ray william johnson but his last name was mckinley while james liked monroe
Neodymium
+1
Level 62
Sep 22, 2024
How about lost the most territory quiz?
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