Manifest Destiny Essay

The Manifest Destiny was the 1800s belief that Americans should expand westward. The Manifest Destiny benefited the country and the people of the United States. For example, the United States doubled in size through the Louisiana Purchase (A Growing Nation Notes). All of the different purchases at this time made the US the size that it is now. In result of the United States growing, more people came to the country for a new beginning so it was beneficial to the people in the country.

It was a widely held belief that it was the predetermined destiny of the United States to expand beyond its borders and to project its culture on that of other civilizations. The belief that the American way was the better way was the theme of this time. As Manifest destiny turned into International Destiny, American businessmen believed that America should extend its authority over other countries. They believed that the way to expand America’s economy was through imperialism and should be the main effort of America during this time. The Monroe Doctrine and The White Man’s Burden promoted the ideas of Manifest Destiny in ways that justified its reality.

Manifest destiny was the belief in which America was destined to expand through the entire continent. Tragically, hidden behind this God-driven and rightful duty, America tried to justify their violent and cruel actions towards Native Americans. Under religious purposes and political principles, the United States erroneously justified the brutal treatment done to the first inhabitants of America. Immorally Americans felt superior and filled with pride they became blinded to the pain of their neighbors. The government unlawfully took their lands and forced them to leave what belonged to them.

Sam Foust Professor Grisham HIST 157 1/18/23 Manifest Destiny was a term coined in the mid-19th century to describe the belief that it was the divine right and duty of the United States to expand its territory and spread its principles of freedom, religion, democracy, and opportunity across the entire North American continent. However, manifest destiny had lasting impacts and was not liked by all. This construct that was a huge part of Americas history is a very controversial topic with lasting benefits. There are arguments to be made for both the negative and positive side of Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny was an era of expansion of the U.S. to the western side of the North American continent. It took place from 1812 to 1867. Manifest Destiny was the belief that America was destined, by God, to expand its territory westward. Manifest destiny was caused by acute American supremacy; it widely affected natives while being essentially negative in that it promoted racism, encouraged Americans’ culture superiority, and generated the extermination of Native American people. Manifest Destiny was the cause of plummeting numbers in the Native American population.

The year 1845, the American newspaper editor John O’Sullivan first coined the phrase, “Manifest Destiny”. This term is the belief that the United States should expand their territory from coast to coast. The Americans thought God was in their favor and should have the ability to take land. Without a doubt, might does not make right since the Americans did not have the right to be justified in the American acquisition of Texas and Mexico. The Americans were invited by the Mexican government to trade and settle in the northern territory, under these circumstances: learn Spanish, adopt the Roman Catholic religion and bring no slave nor democracy, which was not followed by the Americans.

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.

Around the 1840s, a movement called manifest destiny was introduced to the American people. In simple terms, this concept was Americans wanting to expand the boundaries of their current America outwards and claim new territory. The leaders of the movement hoped to justify expansion throughout North America by calling it “inevitable, just, and divinely foreordained” (Locks, 618). The supporters argued that they needed the land because of the growing population. Although the idea of manifest destiny was accepted and pushed by many Americans, it wasn’t agreed on by everyone.

Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were divinely ordained to settle the continent of North America. It also inflamed sectional tensions over slavery, which led to the Civil War. America wanted to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean but Mexico and Great Britain stood in between. Manifest Destiny was brought into the Mexican-American War because, the southern wanted to find more land for cotton and that could expand slavery. Manifest Destiny gained more than 520,000 square miles of land, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico.

After the American Revolution and declaring its independence, America has been aspired to the ideas of liberty, humanity, equality, and property rights. In the 1840s, the United States added greatly to its territory, gaining lands stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean. President James K. Polk, who was elected in 1844 on the pledge to annex vast territories in the West, delivered on his major campaign compromise. The term Manifest Destiny was a wide belief that the American settlers were destined to expand from coast to coast.

The United States achieved Manifest Destiny in many different and unique ways within a greatly small amount of time. Manifest Destiny is the fate of the US to occupy all land between the 2 oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. The idea of Manifest Destiny was created in 1845 and in 1853 the United States acquired all 48 contiguous states to fulfill Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was first used in the 1840s. The people who supported Manifest Destiny are called Expansionists.

In the nineteenth century, many Americans felt the strong desire to possess the western part of the continent. The American people felt that ist was their destiny to gain control of that land. They had an idea called Manifest dDestiny, which promoted westward expansion and made the American people feel obligated to gain possession of the wWest for the United States. Three texts, American Progress -by John Gast, Manifest Destiny, 1839 -by John O’Sullivan, and “Reporting to the President, September 23-December 31, 1806” -by Stephen Ambrose, describe the struggle of the Americans wanting to control and own the land that cannot truly be possessed.

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.

Manifest Destiny is still happens in our modern times. Though the states that make up the United States are secure, we have had additions. Alaska was purchased from Russia, and Hawaii was annexed to the U.S. for it's valuable sugarcane. The addition of both states did not require war. The display of force and the history of victory in itself might be enough for countries to forgo fighting for their land, and allow the U.S. to purchase.