Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny Essay

Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was America’s destiny to spread across the entire continent of North America. It was started by a group of expansionist called the Young American Movement and they were affiliated with the Democratic Party. By their idea, America was able to double its size and obtain new land from Mexico and Britain. However, this also caused pain to the Native Americans. In the end, America obtained new land, and its people achieved what they believed to be their God given right to expand and move west.

Manifest destiny is the U.S.’s idea that god wants them to expand all the way to the ocean. They did, but they set their eyes on Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines. At the time, Cuba was under Spanish control. Cuba wished to be independent from the Spanish. America had interest in Cuba due to economic interests. Not every American wanted to have Cuba join, neither did Cuba want to join. The Spanish were doing cruel things to the natives. The U.S. went to war against the Spanish. Americans did not appreciate that troops had to go to war to free another country. Hawaii before annexation was a harbor for ships. The U.S. wanted Pearl Harbor for the Navy. When American settlers came, they devastated the economy there. In addition, they brought diseases

Manifest Destiny was a popular way of thinking when it came to moving westward of the United States. The settlers and travelers who ended up staying in western lands claimed that Americans had a God-given right to increase the size of their country. While Manifest Destiny may have worked when it came to moving to new lands west of the modern-day East United States region, it created a new set of problems that divided Americans.

Manifest Destiny is a term for the American expansion that the united States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast.

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

Manifest Destiny is a term used to depict the purpose for the US venture into the West. Manifest Destiny is a term begat by John L. Sullivan in 1845 when discussing the extension of Texas. He accepted, alongside different expansionists, that it's inescapable that the US populace would spread crosswise over North America on the grounds that the land is given by Providence to the United States and that it's common that the land ought to be a piece of the nation.

This push against other cultures and beliefs and even degradation of them, would continue later in the late 19th century as well, with the ideas of spreading Christianity, civilization, and education becoming a central motive for American imperialism. They believed, as Josiah Strong did, that the Anglo-Saxon race of America was the “race of unequalled energy” and “the representative of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, and the highest civilization… [that] will spread itself over the earth” (Doc B- Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis by Josiah Strong). What should also be noted is the Social Darwinist thinking of the time, where the Anglo-Saxon race will rise to the top in the supposed “competition [for] ‘the survival of the fittest’” (Doc B- Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis by Josiah Strong). Social Darwinism

How race determined who was in and who was out. As Dickerson states “if race is real and not just a method for the haves to decide who will be have-nots, then all Europeans immigrants, from Ireland a to Greece, would have been “white” the moment they arrived here. Instead, as documented in David Roediger’s excellent Working Towards Whiteness, they were long considered inferior, nearly subhuman, and certainly not white” (69). This shows how race wasn’t about common culture or history but a concept to decide what race is good enough to be consider “white” or better than others. Even though the Europeans where the same race or color of the other people who considered themselves Americans or “white” they were still discriminated for being different and immigrants like everybody else. But soon they realized that identifying them self as being white gave them some sort of hierarchy. It gave them more class compared to the other races. As Debra Dickerson said, “If you were neither black nor Asian nor Hispanic, eventually you could become white, invested with enforceable civil rights and the right to exploit-and hate-nonwhites” (69). Being identify as white gave the power to have privileges that non-whites will never have since they are not the same color. Non- whites are treated unfairly compared to the white people in many ways. Discrimination not only took place between people of different races but

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.

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.

Introduction- Explain what Manifest Destiny is and why Americans wanted to move West: Manifest Destiny was the doctrine or as many know the belife that the expsansion of the US through out the american continents was both Justifide and Inevitable. It was also to enhance it’s political, social and Economic influences. Americans wanted to move west for a new start. Document 6 states, “It is in our future far more than in our past or in the past history of Spanish exploration…that our true title is found.”

Many Americans believed that God blessed the growth of the American nation and demanded them to work on it. “Since they were sure of their cultural and racial superiority, they felt that their destiny was to spread their rule around and enlighten the nations that were not so lucky. Many Americans also believed that it was up to them to further develop the lifestyles of Native Americans. They also believed that the other races were incapable of technologically and spiritually advancing into the near future.”

Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was the United States’ destiny to take over all of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Most of the public was in favor of territorial expansion, though some politicians felt it contradicted the constitution.

During the nineteenth century, Whites illustrated themselves as a superior race. To prove that they are the superior race, they observed different races to show the differences between other races compare to themselves. Whites used Religion as a factor to convert non-White Americans into Christians. White tried to make the Anglo-Saxon race equal with Christianity by turning them to Christ, “White Americans hoped to make veritable Anglo-Saxons of all of the people in America” (Lee 86). Whites also used their economic and political power to show their effectiveness as a race. Lee used many different references to show the powers of the whites in the society at that

While Columbus’s introduction of the Native Americans as “religious less people,” opened the doors to the ‘savage Indian,’ it was a complete misrepresentation of the importance of Native Americans. As it led to the incapacitation of Native Americans and African Americans, generations were conveyed a negative perception of these human beings that was everlasting. Although the concept of race is a modern development, the world has been classified along racial lines for the past few centuries. Drawing from colonialism to debates and theories of racism, white supremacy is an important and under theorized concept. Throughout U.S. history, the term “white” has been associated with preferential treatment. Although artificial, the term served highly political purposes as it separated those who were oppressed on the basis of skin