Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionists. Two political factions vie for power in Union&colon; the Centrists and the Expansionists. McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawaii. Expansionists mainly came from two disparate groups. Starting with the annexation of Texas, the expansionists got the upper hand. US expansionists became heavily interested in the economic potential Red River land possessed. Trade expansionists advanced their cause further by forming the International Trade Mart (ITM). But the mart, thought trade expansionists, would maximize the port's chances of handling this trade. Until Georgia was settled, expansionists were determined to re-establish some settlement on the Altamaha.