Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny represented a God given right to expand West, justifying any action to accomplish the sacred duty. However, such a grand quest could not have been left unscathed and the Mexican-American War was the inevitable action that left a mark on the Manifest Destiny of being motivated by nothing more than greed and extreme nationalism. The inevitability of the war and the claimed “injustices” that were done toward Mexico were justified because of the annexation of Texas, there was a legitimate national threat and the war being a last resort.

Manifest Destiny is a term coined by John L. Sullivan in 1845 when talking about the annexation of Texas. He believed, along with other expansionists, that it’s inevitable that the US population would spread across North America because the land is given by Providence to the United States and that it’s natural that the land should be part of the country [Doc 1]. The idea of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny had positive and negative effects on the politics, society and the economics of the United States and

While some were driven on what they believe was God’s will others saw Manifest Destiny as the historical inevitability domination of North America from sea to sea. Before, manifest destiny, many Americans had small families not by choice, but for the mere fact that many of the people would die before they would reach forty. By the mid 1800’s technology began to rise, and the life span for many Americans increased. The U.S. population grew from more than 5 million in 1800 to more than 23 million by the mid century. By the increasing of families in town many of the towns became overcrowded. At this point many Americans looked to the west for possible permanent homes.

Since the early rise of the United States, Americans have unrolled their epitomes of liberty and even democracy to those who don't have these for lack of a better word “ideals” this is reflected by an important term called “manifest Destiny”. Through expansion The United States has brought both improvement and unfortunately some negative effects. To be more specific the louisiana territory and california have changed the country forever.

There are people today who think that the United States of America’s boundary was created by fate; however, much complexity was involved in the gaining of our country’s boundaries. Manifest Destiny comes from the desire that Americans had to expand their borders. Americans wanted a distinct expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The term “Manifest Destiny” originated when John L. Sullivan published an article on the annexation of Texas. O’Sullivan believed that the expansion of the United States would be beneficial and better our nation. The American settlers became very determined to expand their civilization across North America. The Second Great Awakening, the belief that God would bless the growth of the country, created another reason for Americans to want to expand. “The Democratic Review asserted that God had preordained expansion across the continent” (Greenberg, 15). Manifest Destiny has played a very important role in our country’s past, its present, and it will have a significant role on its future. “Without Manifest Destiny, the territorial expansion of the United States from a strip of Atlantic coast colonies to a continental empire in less than a -century would have been, literally, unthinkable” (Greenberg 2). If our country continues to expand its perimeter, the concept of Manifest Destiny will always play a role in history.

In its infancy, the territorial expansion of the United States was inevitable. Many factors played into the expansion. However, none other played a bigger factor than the belief in Manifest destiny. Manifest destiny is the belief that a county has God’s blessing to expand to as far as it can. This belief is what led to the huge territorial expansion of the United States, but did this country have the right to expand solely because of its beliefs. However manifest destiny led to huge territory gains for the young county.

Industrialization of the United States was in full swing by the 1840s. Which evidenced that the continued expansion of the states was an issue and the idea of a Manifest Destiny was of major importance. John L. O’Sullivan once stated, “Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” (America: A Narrative History). The idea of a Manifest Destiny originated in the 1840s by the Anglo-Saxon Colonists to expand their ideal civilization and institutions across North America to become a super nation. There were conflicts during this expansion, but they only led to major successes that molded the states into the superior country it is today. The Manifest

The Manifest Destiny was the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. Manifest Destiny was mainly accomplished by the Monroe Doctrine, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican-American War, but we were not a true continental power yet. After 1850, the Civil War, westward expansion, and the rise of big business made the United States a true continental power.

Manifest Destiny is a belief that United States was destined by God to stretch across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican Territory. Manifest Destiny came into act as a result of political pressure on slavery issue and fear of foreign threats. This idea provided opportunity for Americans to spread their beliefs of freedom, liberty and democracy across the continent. Manifest Destiny began with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, expansion plans of Polk (annexation of Texas in 1845), and dispute with Great Britain over Oregon Territory.

In the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny which was a term that defined the attitudes and actions of Americans seeking westward expansion emerged and determined American settlement westward would inevitably spread coast to coast. The motivations of Manifest Destiny came from religious purposes (spread of God’s will), a romanticized reality of life West personified in pioneers, and the overcrowding populations that made up Eastern United States. These ideas stemmed from Puritan John Winthrop’s 1640 ideals of upholding god’s will in the “City on the Hill” in which it was their social responsibility to express and become an exemplary society for others to follow or live up to. The ideas of Manifest Destiny made territories West not just a place of geographic opportunity, but something of a requirement of American society to spread its greatness and harness the countries true potential and overall American ideals. Other powerful nations had much less involvement in North America than previously, providing the nation’s ability and overall motivations to extend their hold and power in North

During the 19th century of the American expansion the United States but was heading to stretch from coast to coast. But this attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. The belief of the Manifest Destiny had numerous parts for many things, each was serving people in different ways. The Manifest Destiny was supported by many Americans. The components created separate reasons to overcome a new land. Manifest Destiny was used among the Americans in the 1840’s as a defense for U.S. territorial expansion. It was an idea that was taken to be true that God had destined that “the white man” to a godly mission of American movement and defeat in the name of Christianity and democracy. John O’Sullivan first initiated manifest destiny in America in 1845. He edited the annexation of Texas was published on 1845 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review. in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. And to give the name and description to the creed of victorious Americans. Though the next two decades of the nation needed more territory, so then began the enormous territory growth. The nation stretched. The

           In 1803, the United States began westward Expansion by making the Louisiana Purchase under Thomas Jefferson. During Westward Expansion, the term “Manifest Destiny” was first used by a popular editor named John O’Sullivan. Manifest Destiny means clear or obvious fate or the belief the expansion of the United States was justified and destined to happen. The westward expansion in America impacted the whole nation as it showed that it was a very powerful country to be able to expand westward. It also shows how the United States can interpret and add to the Constitution. The United States itself needed more land for a bigger and larger

Throughout the American history, we have seen “Manifest Destiny” at work, and how it has helped grow our nation. The idea of Manifest Destiny helped in creating revolutions that would help them find freedom in the U.S., but it also had some negative effects. Most believe that “Manifest Destiny” began in the 1840’s, when John L.O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny” in 1845, but if we look closer we can see that even all the way back to the first settlers we can see that“Manifest Destiny” was already at work as in, the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The term is defined and recognized as, the Americans belief that it was their destiny given to them by God, to expand into the Western territories “ The whole continent was to be theirs.”1 We

Manifest Destiny is a term that was first coined in 1845 by a journalist named John L. O’Sullivan, and was described as America’s destiny to expand, and that it was God’s will that America was to expand. According to Genovese, “The notion of westward expansion and domination of the white races struck a responsive chord in many Americans” (Genovese, 2017). The idea of expanding America’s territory was so popular that is was even later used in Congress to justify the claiming of Oregon’s territory. While the idea of expanding America seemed great to the Americans, it was not so great for those who were living on the land that the Americans would later claim. According to Hastedt, “The failure to assimilate and prosper was the fault of those receiving America’s goodness” (Hastedt, 2016). The Americans felt that they were superior to those whose lands they were trying to take, such as the Native Americans and Mexicans, and that they should be the ones to adopt American culture, even if they were there before the Americans claimed the land. The Americans even thought that those whose lands they were taking would be happy to convert to their way of living, as is stated by Hastedt, “The inherent superiority of American Values was sure to be recognized by those with whom they came in contact and would gladly be adopted” (Hastedt, 2016). This mindset would ultimately lead to the expansion of America, turning it into what we know today, but it would also ultimately result in conflict with those that the American’s were attempting to take the land from for the sake of expansion.

Today America is one of the major superpowers in the world and it is all a product of centuries of wars and expansion. It all started in 1492, with Christopher Columbus discovering America to the Great American Revolution with Civil War and finally the election of the first black president. Expansion has always been a major part of American development and manifest destiny is what makes America what it is today despite the negative aspects of it. Manifest Destiny is one of the peculiar features of America in the 19th century since “all nations are defined by their shared myths, but only United States had Manifest Destiny” (Amy S. Greenberg 4). I am of two minds in describing it and partially concur with this elucidation of manifest destiny that “In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans had come to believe that it was their destiny to explore, settle and exploit the entire continent and to unify it into one nation,” but I also harmonize with the expression by George Caitlin that manifest destiny became “an unrequited account of sin and injustice” and U.S. citizens became “cruel dispossessors.”