TEXT:Largest the world has yet seen. Gold fever is about to change the West, and the American character yet again. March 1836. Texas, the Alamo. The American nation is expanding, growing stronger, bigger. But there's something else out there even bigger, even stronger: Mexico-- a superp ower. A colossal empire stretching from Oregon to Guatemala. But Texas is disputed territory. The Mexican government has invited American settlers in, but are soon overwhelmed by the flood of pioneers.

Americans, by the thousands, were coming into Texas and they were not abiding to the agreements to come in as settlers. And once they out number--by 1835 Mexicans ten to one in that area, of course the Americans are thinking about independence. The Alamo is where Mexico tries to stem the flood. The shots that killed Davy Crockett and his fellow settlers echoed across America. The women and children are spared, sent back to send the Mexican message, "Don't come." But America hears something else. "Remember the Alamo." A turning point. America will now wage war to go West. Texas is won, California fought and bought. The same month California becomes American, it becomes the nation's greatest prize.

譯文:儲量之大堪稱彼時世界之最。淘金熱將改變整個西部，甚至重塑美國精神。1836年3月，德克薩斯阿拉莫之戰，美國正在極速擴張日益崛起壯大。然而，在那里有更加強大的鄰國，超級大國，墨西哥。這個龐大的帝國北抵俄勒岡，南達危地馬拉，而德克薩斯正是雙方的爭議之地。墨西哥政府曾邀請美國人來此地定居，然而拓荒者的大潮很快席卷了整片土地。

埃爾·卡瑪里羅[斯坦福大學教授]：“成千上萬的美國人涌進德克薩斯，而他們作為移民卻不肯遵守協議，到1835年此地的美國人數量已遠超墨西哥人十倍，美國人自是不甘寄人籬下轉而謀求獨立?！蹦鞲鐩Q定在阿拉莫開戰力挽狂瀾，殺死大衛·克羅克特及其同伴移民們的槍聲在美利堅上空久久回蕩。婦女和兒童被赦免遣返并帶回墨西哥的警告"勿越雷池半步"。然而美國人聽到的卻是"牢記阿拉莫之恥"。西進運動的轉折點，美國在西部發動戰事，德克薩斯全線勝利，加利福尼亞則戰后買入。加利福尼亞并入美國當月就成為美國的最大寶藏。