The Manifest Destiny Of America 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

In fact, they themselves requested that the Republic of Texas be annexed (Document 6). The acceptance of Texas as a state would be the ultimate insult to Mexico, as they still had some claim to the land despite its recent independence (Document 5). To accept Texas was a declaration of war in the eyes of Mexico as shown in the Mexican call to arms following the announcement of annexation (Document 1). The official reason cited by the American government can be traced simply to the request by James K. Polk to Congress for a formal declaration of war. He claimed that since Texas would be part of the United States then it justified Congress to declare war in order to protect those Americans in the region who already followed American economic values, and certainly those values that aligned with the general American beliefs at the time which weren’t mentioned in the document, such as noncompliance with the mandatory catholicism formerly required of Texians as a part of Mexico (Document

The nation didn't wait for Polk's inauguration to see results from his victory. A month later President Tyler wanted to deliver Texas and Polk promised that he wanted to deliver Oregon. Westerners demanded that the new president make good on the Democrat's pledge but Polk was already close to being at War with Mexico and couldn't afford a war with Britain over U.S. claims in Canada. What Polk did was renew an offer to divide Oregon along the forty-ninth parallel. In 1846, a war between the United States and Mexico had already broken out.

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.

Rapid population growth and overuse of the land east of the Mississippi River, coupled with the knowledge that there was an abundance of land for new settlement west of the river, led to the ideology of expansionism; the ideology became simply known as Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, written by Amy S. Greenburg, deeply explains the motivation of the individuals looking to expand their settlements westward. Since the time of publication, we have realized that we could have handled the situation, in which we removed the inhabitants of the west from their homeland, in a better way. Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand westward by destroying anything in their path. “…courageous pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean.” (“29. Manifest Destiny.”)

Manifest Destiny, one of the most influential ideologies in American history, was used as the basis to justify almost-continuous conflict from the early- to the late-19th century (Greenberg 3). This conflict included the relentless displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, a war of aggression against Mexico in 1846, and attacks on countries such as Canada, Cuba, and even Central America, by filibusters and military action to gain overseas colonies (Greenberg 10, 25, and 26). While Manifest Destiny first arose as a dominant ideology during the early nineteenth-century, the concept of American exceptionalism, the heart of this ideology, was older than the nation itself. This concept was taken by white Americans as proof that they, and their nation, were unique and marked by God for a special destiny (Greenberg, 5). It would be several decades before the advantages of American settlement would be presented to the world. One advantage being the Louisiana Purchase, which was the expansion westward.

The manifest destiny was a popular belief during the 19th century, the united states were destined to extend across North America. A social element to manifest destiny and that was the belief that America’s culture its values in its religion especially Christianity should also be spread to the west. What people were looking for in the west was for new land because there was this act the government did the Homestead Act; they guaranteed that if you move west and make the land better you could get some free land. Many of the pioneer who settled the west were family groups, many were also immigrants. During the westward migration were Native Americans, which were killed or moved onto reservations. The political goals and this is the spread of

“Limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” (“John O’Sullivan Declares”). This quote from an article by John O’Sullivan, not only managed to help create the mindset of this time, but also helped coin the name, Manifest Destiny. In the 19th century, or more specifically 1845, the leading idea among a lot of Americans is that they deserved the land from coast to coast. This ideal is know as Manifest Destiny. The idea came about when the journalist, John O’Sullivan, wrote about Texas and California falling away from Mexico, and joining America. He wrote that nothing can stand in the way of Americans obtaining all the land in between the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to the help of the Transcontinental Railroad, John L. O'Sullivan’s writing on Manifest Destiny, and John Gast’s painting American Progress, the culture of the United States of America during the time of Manifest Destiny is vastly focused on expansion and conquering.

Manifesting Destiny was the key to expansion and maintain exploration of religious freedoms amongst the many people migrating westward. Before Christianity and expansion, times were simpler and less complex, when Christianity became about it not only brought a new-found religion. It brought wars, separations, and more controversy between one another and it caused a widespread of different other religions coming and not just having one. No man is supposed to mimic or portray god, idols or artistic renderings of their god can be punishable by law. As the expansion of Christianity began, religion and culture began to change from simple principles, to outright controversy.