Manifest Destiny Dbq Essay

Manifest Destiny was a phrase that was made up by journalist John L. O’sullivan back in 1844. The United States wanted to push westward to the frontier such as Texas, California, and Oregon. The reason behind Manifest Destiny was to expand to provide new places to live and jobs. Manifest Destiny is the belief that the Americans could extend themselves from coast to coast. The way Americans conquered the new land were removing the Native Americans from their land.

The United States became a continental nation by the Westward expansion regarding annexations, purchases, lands ceded, treaties, and the manifest destiny. United States were able to fulfill the manifest destiny, the belief that says US is clearly meant to expand to the Pacific. This belief was pleased by various annexations, purchases, lands ceded, and treaties. Texas was annexed to the US when Sam Houston tricked US that Texas might become allies with Britain. Several purchases helped manifest destiny come true.

The Manifest Destiny is a movement that justified American expansion with a sense of mission and purpose. The American expansion led to the adding of Texas and Oregon to the union, but also created wars with Mexico. As Americans moved west, many of the Indians did not appreciate the expansion and were either forced to leave or fight for their area leading to many massacres and wars. More specifically, Americans wanted to grow from "shining sea to shining sea" and take control of the entirety of North America. They would also fight any force that would attempt to stop them.

Manifest Destiny is the belief of the nineteenth century that America was destined by God to expand westward. The author of Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis believed that God established Anglo-Saxons as the superior people whose purpose was to spread Christianity. (Doc B) This idea of spreading a superior culture or religion has been a motive for expansion for decades before this. Despite this support for expansionism, there were those who were against it.

James K. Polk and the Expansionist Impulse by Sam W. Haynes Haynes’ biography of James K. Polk is a little bit different from the traditional biographical book with enumeration of important dates from life of historical figure. Instead the author takes different approach: while recounting development of Polk’s career, he looks at the Polk’s presidency through the lens of expansionism. Though he frames the 11th President as a strong adherent of aggressive territorial expansionism, Haynes also emphasises that Polk’s decisions cannot be separated from the political and social climate of his time. The author renders Polk from one side as the initiator of expansionists political moves, and from the other, as a product of contemporary social beliefs,

The Role of Manifest Destiny There are many events and roles that were played by different groups of people, that had to do with the tension rising in the slave and non-slave states. Manifest Destiny played a big role because, it started to spread democracy over the World, brought up issues on the topic of Religion, race, patriotism money etc. Which then escalated into bigger problems and eventually caused the Civil War. Manifest Destiny had various actions that caused the tension to rise for the slave and non-slave states, and one action that was a cause to this tension rising was, the start of democracy that Manifest Destiny spread over the world. The people believed that, “God had ordained Americans to spread the

Manifest Destiny is a unique, yet mysterious fundamental series of events in American history. No other country’s history contains such an eventful history as the United States. Amy Greenberg’s book, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, provides documented evidence that settlers believed they were destined for expansion throughout the continent. In other words, many religious settlers believed that it was a call from God for the United States to expand west. On the other hand, people believed that Manifest Destiny vindicated the war against Mexico.

Manifest Destiny (first developed in 1845) was the idea that during the nineteenth century, America not only could but would expand from coast to coast. The accomplishment of this idea came with the removal of indians in areas like the great plains, as well as many smaller conflicts in between the indians and the Americans. The Americans attempted to make a compromise with the indians so that they would leave peacefully, examples of this would be the offer to pay the indians in the form of supplies and annuities. The idea was a good one until Americans denied a payment in 1862 because John pope regarded the Indians as “maniacs or wild beasts ” and states that they do not deserve treaties or anything of the sort. Another big factor in the expansion of America from coast to coast was the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, not only with the people that it had brought to the west for the work, but the ease that it had provided for those who wanted to travel from the east to the west and did not have the money nor the time.

Manifest Destiny changed the United States socially, economically and politically. It was affected socially because it became more culturally diffused; it also affected relationship with the Native Americans due to the Americans belief that they were the better race and others were inferior to them. It was affected economically because there was more land to profit off of and politically it damaged the United States and Mexico’s foreign relations. Those who believed in the manifest destiny forcefully removed Native Americans from their lands in order for the United States to gain more land. America was shifted politically, due to new tense relations with Mexico, as an effect of the Mexican

“Once we became an independent people it was as much a law of nature that this [control of all of North America] should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea” –John Quincy Adams (Henretta, p. 384). In the 1840s, Americans had a belief that God destined for them to expand their territory all the way westward to the Pacific Ocean. This idea was called Manifest Destiny. In the nineteenth century, Americans were recognized for coming together and building up one another for one cause: westward expansion.

In the 19th Century the idea to move westward would present Americans with new opportunities and a chance for possible wealth. Americans were determined to explore the lands from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The term Manifest Destiny in short, is a movement. A movement in which gave Americans the “right” to colonize and civilize west because it’s their calling. Americans believed that expanding throughout the continent would give them new opportunity to share the government, which they believed was so great.

The annexation of Texas occurred in the early 1800’s. American colonists were expanding into the Northern sector of the Rio Grande, which developed the need for Texas to become a part of the United States. In the South, the people supported the drive toward the annexation of Texas, but the Northerners opposed this idea. Texas was another slave state and the nature of their society did not appear appealing to the North.

Based on the ideology that individuals should be free to pursuit a life of liberty and happiness, the founding fathers set out to create a perfect union, under god, where democratic principles were allowed to flourish. By the mid 1800’s, this ideology was deeply embedded into American society, and Americans sought to expand the boarders of the United States westward. In fact, in 1845 John O’Sulivian coined the term “manifest destiny” to describe America’s expansion into territories in the west.

The Market Revolution generated a drastic change in the United States economy and altered gender barriers while at the same time accomplishing this in a provocative manner. This economic boom occurred around the first half of the 19th Century. The economic boom was achieved by inventions such as a transcontinental railroad system which resulted in a better transportation system which improved trade and the cotton gin which sped up the rate of removing seeds from cotton fiber. However like what the great Hugo said, “The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced”.

Manifest Destiny was the term used by John O’Sullivan to describe America’s desire to expand West due to reasons including both the vast amount of unclaimed land and the opportunities Americans wanted to explore. During this time, Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand West, and therefore they were entitled to push away any groups that were in their way. Due to the mindset that the Americans could do as they pleased with the groups of people who got in their way, Manifest Destiny affected many groups of people, including the American Indians and Slaves, and continued to build up the preexisting tension between the North and South. One of the groups of people affected greatly by Manifest Destiny were the Native Americans. Manifest Destiny affected the American Indians by spreading foreign diseases to them as they moved Westward, through the Native American territory.