Manifest Destiny Vs Louisiana Purchase

Lauren Williams Period 11 Group 5 The United States was united by the addition of states through Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion, which inflicted feelings of Nationalism, until the existence of slavery was threatened. Disagreements over whether the newly acquired territory should be slave or free led to the Kansas – Nebraska Act, which did not prevent slave rebellions or the Wilmot Proviso that proposed the outlawing of slavery.

Many countries went through changes like the U.S. The U.S grew physically by gaining more land, it grew politically through making the government stronger, and it grew socially by people gaining opportunities and rights. The U.S was originally 13 states. Thomas Jefferson bought land from France to expand the country. This event in history was called the ‘Louisiana Purchase’.

Although there have been many factors that have contributed to making the United States what it exists as in the modern day, the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny are two crucial documents and movements that played a role in the development of the United States. During the mid-nineteenth century, the Monroe Doctrine unified the United States, creating an environment of hostility towards other non-Western Hemispheres, specifically European forces. This document asserted the United States power as well as established its control over the Americas and the general Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine served to provide a legal and social rationalization for the ideology behind Manifest Destiny, ultimately leading to Westward expansion.

When Amerigo Vespucci first “discovered” America, he was surprised to find inhabitants there who already had a developed culture. When the Spaniards, French, and English came and began to inhabit the area, the long history of injustices against Native Americans began. Starting from the encomienda system, to the Indian Removal, the settlers began to subjugate the Native Americans. Soon, when America began to obtain lands in California and Texas, settlers began to believe in the idea of Manifest Destiny. This idea convinced the settlers into believing that they had a right to the land in the West and began to industrialize there.

In 1814, Andrew Jackson, now a Major General, led an expedition against the Creek Indians in what is now Alabama near the Georgia border. The Creeks were easily defeated and were forced to sign a treaty that surrendered over twenty-million acres of their land to the United States (about half of what is now Alabama). General Jackson then led a campaign of Indian removal and over the next ten years negotiating nine of the eleven major removal treaties. With the intense military might and many easy victories, white people started to believe that the land belonged to them and not the Indians. The white people wanted the Indians’ land because it was fertile land for farming and had gold deposits for money. .

Although the US was rapidly expanding, he had no right to take land from helpless Natives. The Indians had done nothing wrong, yet still Jackson ruthlessly extracted them from their own land. Consequently, thousands of them died whilst moving west, because of the destitute conditions that Jackson had put upon

The Indian Removal Act, signed in 1830,

Although this treaty explicitly stated the Indians’ rights to land, history- and even the Act itself- proved that Americans followed it very loosely, if at all. The Trade and Intercourse Act seemed to dampen the consequences of violating Indian land rights since it included the phrase, “not exceeding,” when referring to the jail- time and fees that any invasive Americans had to pay. 3. Andrew Jackson proposed moving the Indians because he wanted to end the tensions between the Federal and State Governments concerning Natives, to condense the Indian population in a single expanse of land, to open the area between Tennessee and Louisiana to the whites, and to prevent Indian and American conflicts. In the second paragraph of his Message to Congress in1829, Jackson said that the United States should move the Indians because it would put “an end to all possible danger of collisions between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians.”

Manifest Destiny was a phrase used by politicians and leaders in the United States in the 1840s to justify and promote territorial expansion across the North American continent by providing a sense of mission to citizens. It promoted this sense of mission by fomenting a desire to establish a large empire-like nation in which the ideals of democracy, freedom, and progress are ostensibly protected and promoted. It strongly characterized U.S. internal and external policies and has continued to do so to this day. In theory, one aspect of this desire was its principle to bring the ideals of democratic self-government to any peoples capable of it; in practice, however, this often meant excluding Native Americans and those with non-European ancestry.

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.

Discuss the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase. How important were Lewis and Clark? In 1718 New Orleans was founded by the French. At the end of the French and Indian War, France lost its lands east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. In another treaty, France agreed and gave New Orleans Louisiana and the French lands west of the Mississippi to Spain.

During the 1800s, America was a prospering and powerful country so the People felt that it was their Manifest Destiny, or obvious fate, to settle from coast to coast. Therefore, they set out to get all lands in the West, and were determined to do so, no matter how much they had to give up. However, when the Americans started moving westward, they kicked Native Americans out along the way. They had no respect for other people’s ownership of the land and did anything they needed to obtain it. The idea of Manifest Destiny divided the nation in several controversial topics like Indian territories and slavery.

Manifest destiny was the belief that colonist were destined to expand across North America and that it was their god given right. Although Native Americans were indigenous the the land, colonist felt that it was their destiny to redeem and colonize the rest of the land. They felt that Native Americans were not making right use of the land and letting it go to waste. In result, Native Americans were not seen as anything more as an obstacle in the pursuit of Manifest Destiny. During the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Indian groups who were still inhabiting the south east would be moved across the Mississippi to designated Indian territory, which is now known as Oklahoma.

The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million dollars and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million dollars which averages to less than three cents per acre. The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The territory contained land that forms Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, portions of Minnesota, large portions of North Dakota; large portions of South Dakota, parts of New Mexico, the northern portion of Texas, the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The Louisiana Purchase was smart move by the United States.

The people who settled the west were greatly dependent on the US government and the policies they adopted. The settling of the west in the late 19th century was similar to the settlement of the south in the 1830’s. Andrew Jackson drove out the indians so that the valuable land of the south could be secured by white settlers. Once again, the federal government made it possible to settle the west by forcing indians off of their lands. A recurring theme in American history is manifest destiny and the attempt to develop unsettled lands by the federal government.