preview

Manifest Destiny Dbq

Good Essays

Late nineteenth century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism was a continuation from past United States expansionism because of the reasoning and purposes behind the expansion. In both time periods the purpose of acquiring more land was to do according to God’s will, gain more power, and improve the U.S. economy. Religion can be found at the core reasons of why many people choose to act upon a variety of things in their lives. A prime example of this prior to late nineteenth-century would be Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States has a mission to spread its ideals, such as freedom and liberty through territorial expansion, all justified under the idea that this was God’s will that must be …show more content…

In past U.S. history the major goal throughout the 1800’s is to gain more land, major instances would be the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and Mexican-American war in order to gain territories, such as Arizona and New Mexico. By controlling more and more land it created more power for the United States. This was still true ending the 19th-century and the beginning of the 20th century and many countries knew it. Thomas Nast’s “The World’s Plunderers” (Doc. A) portrays Germany, Britain, and Russia grabbing territories on a globe claiming them as their own. Although Nast’s point in the comic was that countries had overstepped their boundaries, it provides reasoning behind why the United States did expand. Other already powerful countries were gaining land and thus power and the U.S. was not about to be left out in the race for power in the world. Another example of the wish to gain power is in Senator Albert J. Beveridge’s Speech to the 56th Congress (Doc. E) after the Philippines had become a U.S. territory. He said, “The power that rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the world. And, with the Philippines, that power is and will forever be the American Republic.” The whole point is that because the U.S. gained more land, the Philippines, the U.S. now has more power. The U.S. is basically completing with other countries. Alfred Thayer Mahan asked, “Is the United States… prepared to …show more content…

Just as this is true now, it was also true throughout all of American history. One of the main reasons for moving out West to the frontier was some promising thoughts of silver and gold, the California Gold Rush of the 1840 and ‘50s along with Oregon Gold Rush of the 1850s are prime examples of how people quickly became prosperous from expansionism. Movement out west not only benefited the economy out West for the miners but along the economy of the those who stayed in the cities on the Eastern coast. Because so many people were moving out west, the cities got a little less populated and a higher percentage of people living in the cities were able to get jobs. Expansion westward also created jobs, the railroad industry being a main instance. The U.S. needed to improve its economy in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century as well because the markets had been saturated with goods. For a while the economy was fine and everyone was buying goods but marketers didn’t plan for obsoleteness and so they made goods to last and therefore didn’t have anyone to sell to. This was when the country began to look towards other countries markets. Alfred T. Mahan even said at the time, “Americans must now look outward. The growing production of the country demands it.” (Doc. C) So this then lead to the acquisition of the Philippines, Hawaii, and

Get Access