Though the actual term “Manifest Destiny” was coined in 1845 by John O’Sullivan a democrat leader and the editor of “The Morning Post”. It was a concept going back to when the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. From the very first settlements in America the pilgrims, the settlers at Jamestown and all along the eastern seaboard, they began expanding little by little into the interior. Certainly, from the 18th century Americans had come to believe that is was their right, and in fact their duty to bring Christianity and republicanism into the uninhabited western areas of the United States. Of course, what these expansionists did not take into consideration, was that the regions they were expanding into were inhabited by Indians, …show more content…
Even before Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory, thousands of land hungry Americans had already migrated to the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. This mass migration displaced many Indian tribes.
Jefferson knew that whoever controlled the port of New Orleans, owned the Mississippi River and had the power to open or close the port to commerce at will, as he phrased it “a hand on the throat of the American economy”.3 He knew the Mississippi would draw the country together. The Louisiana Territory brought 828,000 sq. miles for 15 million dollars (about 3 cents an acre) to the United States. Jefferson’s dream of an “Empire for Liberty” had come to pass. The nation had been more than doubled in size. President Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore this vast new territory. From 1804-1805, Lewis and Clark journeyed with the Corps of Discovery to map out the newly purchased territory. Lewis and Clark with 33 individuals began their journey from St. Louis up the Missouri River through the “Stoney Mountains” now the Rockies to the Pacific
Ocean. With this exploration came the realization that there was no easy all water route to the Pacific. That dream which had persisted for centuries had died. However, it would do little to stop the westward expansion. The American west was opened. This large migration
The Louisiana Purchase was a seminal event for a new nation that caused heated debates to just how constitutional this deal of land was. Due to Jefferson’s familiarity with the French during his time in France as an American envoy. Another factor that led Jefferson to purchase of this vast land, was his understanding of the potential dangers of the French military. Posted on the Mississippi River, controlling the ports, and what can enter and leave, this would make trade for the United States much more difficult. The deal was instantly popular but soon found
The famous phrase “Manifest Destiny” was made up by a journalist in 1844. The idea of Manifest Destiny was that the people of the east had a divine and God-given right to settle in the west. God put the land there for the taking, and so the immigrants answered His call with westward expansion. My belief is that Manifest destiny was a necessary evil. The idea of manifest destiny expanded the west and provided homes and jobs. but on the other side of the coin manifest destiny ran the Native Americans out of their land and kept pushing them further and further west.
Manifest Destiny took place in the US in the mid-1800. Manifest Destiny was used among the Americans in the 1840’s as a defense for U.S. territorial expansion. It is the presumption that God had destined the American people to at divine mission of American movement and conquest in the name of Christianity and democracy.
Conquering this new foreign land was the plan for English settlers that sailed here and landed on to the eastern coast of America. After many years had passed, John O 'Sullivan, a democratic leader, named this progressive movement Manifest destiny in 1845. The term Manifest Destiny originated in the 1840s. It expressed the belief that it was US Americans mission to expand their civilization and institutions across the breadth of North America. Manifest Destiny wasn’t just an idea to have all the land from one ocean to another. It was a cause every man, woman, and child believed in, if you were from the America. Most Americans truly believed that Manifest Destiny was god’s plan that we as Americans will conquer this land and make it our home. It was one of Americas great causes that everyone could support and help achieve. This movement inspired thousands of the U.S. eastern settlers to travel westward. While the idea of moving to western America was in everyone’s mind, there were many events that occurred such as: The Mexican-American war, the gold rush, and how the civil war. These events helped morph and shape our country into what it is today.
At the commencement of the 17th century, successions of westward expansion had already begun to take place. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson, who was president at the time, purchased the Louisiana territory from France. Several citizens did support Jefferson’s purchase in virtue of the many
Imagine you are the President of a rapidly expanding country. If you got offered 530 million acres of land for $15 million, would you buy it? President Thomas Jefferson and his advisers were faced with this exact decision. Thomas Jefferson, envious of France’s New Orleans, sent Monroe and Livingston to Paris with the hope of at least getting the port rights to New Orleans, if incapable of buying it with a budget of $9.3 million. When Livingston and Monroe reached Paris, they were surprised to find Napoleon and his French government not only willing to sell, but almost forcing a sale on the American ambassadors. Not only that, they wanted to sell all 830,000 square miles of the Louisiana Territory, including New Orleans. Constantly expanding and exploring, Livingston and Monroe knew America needed more room to grow. 530 Million acres worth of land would be more than sufficient for 1803 America. At 3 cents per acre, the Louisiana Purchase was a great deal as far as cost is concerned. Before they had even signed the contract sealing the deal, President Thomas Jefferson had already recruited a close friend and fellow botanist, Meriwether Lewis to explore the new Territory. Before the public even knew about the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition had set out. The Louisiana Purchase was a good idea because it provided room for rapidly-expanding America to grow and explore at an incredibly low price but also increased America’s global prowess.
America doubled in size in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for 15 million dollars. Jefferson wanted to discover this land and hoped to find a water route that would link the pacific ocean with the mississippi river. Jefferson decided to enlist the help of his personal secretary and soldier, Meriwether Lewis. Lewis knew he couldn’t go on this journey alone and he knew just the man to join him on the journey. William Clark was a draftsman who possessed knowledge of the outdoors. Among Lewis and Clark, young american soldiers and french canadian river men were hand picked to tag along with them on their journey. York, Clark’s personal slave and companion since childhood, tagged along. Another person
In the eyes of several, the Louisiana Purchase may well be recognized as one of the all-time greatest real estate deal. As Paul Leicester stated in his work of The Works of Thomas Jefferson “Jefferson at the stroke of a pen essentially doubled the territorial extent of the United States.” On April 30, 1803, U.S. representatives located in Paris approved to purchase 828,000 square miles at the very cost-efficient amount of fifteen million dollars that spread from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico all the way north to Canada. To better realize how inexpensive the United States purchased that land for was about eighteen dollars and some change per square mile. Soon enough, the newly purchased land of western territory became six states and portions of nine present-day states. As one could imagine this great purchase did not happen without a buildup of time, and without many factors leading up to the Louisiana Purchase. Below are a couple of factors such as the Spanish control of New Orleans and Napoleon’s burning desire for the Caribbean Island of Haiti.
It is hard to read anything about the history of the United States without coming across the term “Manifest Destiny”. Manifest Destiny is a term, which was first coined by John L. Sullivan in the summer 1845 issue of the Democratic Review. “Hence it was carried into the debate on the Oregon question in the House of Representatives and proved to be such a convenient summing up of the self-confident nationalist and expansionist sentiment of the time that it passed into the permanent national vocabulary.” (Pratt, 798). The term voiced the idea that God had destined America to spread westward to the pacific. “It meant expansion, prearranged by Heaven, over an area not clearly defined.” (Merk, 24) Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century as they saw it was their destiny to expand their thriving country. This attitude that it was Americas destiny to expand helped fuel the drive to push west and begin the removal of Native Americans. Manifest Destiny is an extremely important aspect of American History and has ultimately helped to shape The United States into the successful country that is today.
Manifest Destiny can be described as a belief, in the 19th century, that North-America was destined to stretch from coast to coast and that the expansion of the U.S. throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. It is responsible for changing the face of America and creating a new nation (Lubragge, 1809-1900). North-America’s westward expansion was due the American belief “that the strength of American values and institutions justified moral claims…”, land west of the Mississippi River “were destined for American-led political and agricultural improvement.”, and that “God and the Constitution ordained an irrepressible destiny to accomplish redemption and democratization throughout the world.” (Beatty et al.,
Manifest Destiny is a term coined in the 1840s. It meant that the United States could, and was destined to, have all the land from coast to coast. The term “Manifest Destiny” was first used in an article by John O’Sullivan in 1845. O’Sullivan stated in his article “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” This sentiment helped to fuel additional western settlement in the Oregon territory, increased desire to annex Texas, and war with Mexico. United States President Polk was a supporter of Manifest Destiny. Consequently, his presidency aw the greatest territorial expansion to dare.
In a short history, American manifest destiny was a big mistake for Indian people in the past. The Indian people lived on the land before the Americans came. However, manifest destiny is the affliction Americans have that makes them believe God and took control all their land. For example, American settlers took their land and forced them into another uncomfortable place, less nature resource, and difficult to survive. Moreover, America settlers brought diseases into Indian tribes that made a lot of Indian people sick and dead. In addition, American settlers had a negative impact to the environment and natures resource such as more hunting and fishing that cost extinction, more cutting trees to build houses due to deforestation. In conclusion,
“In 1845, John L. O 'Sullivan, a newspaper reporter in New York City, coined the phrase "manifest destiny." O 'Sullivan claimed that it was the God-given destiny of the United States of America to spread over North America. O ' Sullivan summarized his view this way: And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”(OHC) The Idea of Manifest destiny may have created a nation that could be considered the greatest of all nations. These few words have caused a lot of trouble and a lot of good. Manifest Destiny has had a huge effect on North America some of the events caused have been positive, but manifest destiny has been used to promote racial superiority over all nonwhite races living in areas desired by Americans, and was used to defended the reasons for going west.
Westward expansion seemed natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century (29. Manifest Destiny). Pioneers believed America had an obligation to stretch the boundaries to the East Coast. After claiming land to the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Purchase was explored, Americans started going west. The Second Great Awakening also spawned the drive to move west and many people believed God blessed the growth of the nation. Native Americans were considered
During the mid-nineteenth century, the rise of new territories increased the desire of Americans to expand into new territories in the western region. The term “Manifest Destiny” was first introduced by a magazine editor, John O’Sullivan, written in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in 1845 to express the idea that the United States had a unique role in expanding the nation (OpenStax College 316,483). Manifest Destiny is widely defined as a justification of continental expansion as a calling to the American citizens to unify the land into the Union. I view Manifest Destiny as white males expressing their ideals of white supremacy unavoidably expanding new territories not yet defined by others (). With the new western land came the revival of the issue of slavery, should new territories become free or slave states? In several cases, the white settlers inflicted their morals about their policies and views of slavery in new territories acquired and bypassed all other principles of different races. They saw that their morals were above all and that they received a message from God to colonize the new land for themselves. Although Manifest Destiny posed conflict against Native Americans and slaves, new land and trade routes steered the United States to enter a realm of economic prosperity.