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In order to understand manifest destiny one should come to an understanding of the origins of the term and what it meant to Americans. In the middle of the nineteen century Americans were eager to move west. They had wanted to see the span of the United States from the Atlantic Ocean to the pacific. Americans felt that open land meant opportunity and potential wealth. They also believed that America was destined to be a great nation and by moving west, they could share their unique form of government, and the freedom it represented. This concept of discovery was not new; Europeans had believed they had a right to claim their discovery, and thought of the new world as a wilderness waiting to be tamed. The Europeans however found out that …show more content…
O’Sullivan wanted the United States to annex Texas and the Oregon territory. “That claim is by the right of our manifest destiny, to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent, which providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty” (John L. O'Sullivan). Americans had believed it was their divine duty, to spread democracy, from coast to coast. Many people didn’t think America should take the continent by force; they believed that as Americans moved west, the Indians would gradually relinquish their lands, and adapt the way of the Christian American society. Churches and missionaries also shared in this belief. There was little or no consideration, as to the affects settlements would have on the native peoples. As the eastern Indian tribes were moved west, to make way for the settlers, places like the Shawnee Indian mission were established, to help with the transition and pave the way for expansion. Manifest destiny was not just a political concept; millions of ordinary Americans believed that their best opportunities laid westward. At least four million people had followed this dream; in the first half of the 1800’s. Many people stopped at missions like the Shawnee Indian mission, some for comfort and others for supplies, making these places a symbol of the American dream for some, and the loss of a traditional way of life for …show more content…
Some of these points of views come from writers like Anders Stephanson, Frederick Merk and Thomas Hietala. First of all, one should start with Thomas Hietala. Hietala states, that as the idea of manifest destiny gained popular support in the South, it would make sense both intellectually and economically to bring into play a sort of messianic imagery, out of the concept. Hietala believe that the world’s progress relied on American progression and that Europeans were doing an injustice to their people by discouraging American expansion. Hietala also goes into another view stating that the administrations of both Polk and Tyler were hypocritical and imperialistic by pushing around the Mexican government, and by withdrawing on the issue with Britain on Oregon. "To reconcile American imperialism with an extremely favorable national image, the concept of manifest destiny is often glossed over" (Hietala,
Many Americans packed few belongings and headed west during the middle to the late nineteenth century. It was during this time period that the idea of manifest destiny became rooted in American customs and ideals. Manifest Destiny is the idea that supported and justified expansionist policies, it declared that expansion was both necessary and right. America’s expansionist attitudes were prominent during the debate over the territorial rights of the Oregon territory. America wanted to claim the Oregon territory as its own, but Great Britain would not allow that. Eventually the two nations came to an agreement and a compromise was reached, as seen in document B. The first major party of settlers that traveled to the west settled in Oregon.
One must understand the context in which Custer fought at Little Bighorn. The year was 1876, and the country was growing. The United States had, since the settlement of North America by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, been populated in an east-to-west manner. People generally moved west as the population increased, and resources as well as physical space became sparse in a particular area. People at the time viewed The American West as an area under-utilized by the Indians, and there was a land grab by settlers as the population continued to increase in the East and the South. Additionally, the idea of Manifest Destiny was perhaps at its most fevered point during and after the period following the Civil War. Manifest destiny is the concept of a kind of American Imperialism that holds the belief that Americans are simply destined to occupy the continent of North America, and that they should remake the West into an American agrarian region.
Manifest Destiny: Ugly Truth Behind Pretty Lies? The point of view upon Manifest Destiny that I found most convincing and close to my own interpretation was “Manifest Destiny as an expression of white superiority is but one explanation for what became a clear rise of anti-Mexican sentiments in the 1850s”. This perspective to me seemed to be the only one that did not skirt around what seemed to be the logical truth and explanations for why Manifest Destiny took place: for the pursuit of Native American lands; anti-Mexican sentiments; for the prospects they were able to gain from western lands; and for political reasons. While a lot of other perspectives saw Manifest Destiny in the light of goodness and or because of religious reasons, I believe there was a bitter and more realistic truth; The interpretation of Manifest Destiny I see as the most obvious is that Manifest Destiny was a cover for many of people’s greed for the future prospects they were able to gain from those western lands.
America’s Manifest Destiny first surfaced around the 1840’s, when John O’Sullivan first titled the ideals that America had recently gained on claiming the West as their ‘Manifest Destiny.’ Americans wanted to settle in the West for multiple reasons, from the idea that God wanted them to settle all the way to the West co...
John Sullivan founded the manifest destiny movement (Doc A). This idea of God leading the U.S. westward into new territory spread, reaching the president, James K. Polk. He liked this idea, for he wanted to gain more land, especially from Mexico. James Polk was greedy for more territory, as he was a Democrat, who supported annexing Texas and Oregon. Using manifest destiny to obtain this land for the U.S. meant more Americans would support the westward expansion. Therefore, Polk was able to send Americans, particularly farmers, westward, which would soon cause great conflict with Mexico, leading to war. Polk sent multiple representatives to Mexico, wanting to make deals for land in Mexico’s possession (Doc E). One specific person Polk sent was WIlliam Emory. He went to offer a friendship with Mexico and to state reasoning for the U.S. invading Mexican territory. James Polk knew the Mexican Republic was angry at America for invading Texas. So, logically, he sent one of many “ambassadors” to create a peace treaty, and offer a friendship supplying benefits, such as protection for Mexico. Although, Mexico declared the U.S. as “invaders” and rejected the proposed treaties. Though it may seem former president James Polk was pro-manifest destiny, and genuinely wanted a national agreement of peace with Mexico, he was really eyeing their land, where he could obtain the territory, and
The term “Manifest Destiny” was never actually used until 1845, but the idea was always implied from the Doctrine of Discovery. Without understanding the Doctrine, it is impossible to understand the reasons and fundamentals behind why Manifest Destiny began.This Doctrine was a set of ten steps and rules that European nations followed in order to avoid conflict over land holdings, created in the early 1400s. The first few steps give the discovering country full rights to buy the land from the native peoples. This is important, since it gave the discovering country the power of preemption. Conquered Indian peoples lose sovereign powers and the rights to free trade and diplomatic relations, and the land they occupy is said to be vacant. Religion played a massive role in the regulations of the Doctrine, since “non-Christian people were not deemed to have the same rights to land, sovereignty, and self determination as Christians”(Miller 4). These rules were all meant to favor the ethnocentric, with full understanding of the repercussions on those who lived in the places being conquered.
Manifest Destiny was the motivating force behind the rapid expansion of America into the West. This ideal was highly sponsored by posters, newspapers, and various other methods of communication. Propaganda is and is still an incredibly common way to spread an idea to the masses. Though Manifest Destiny was not an official government policy, it led to the passing of the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act gave applicants freehold titles of undeveloped land outside of the original thirteen colonies.
Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism explores the evidence and reasons for racial prejudices in America and discusses one of the most controversial topics in American history. The book also navigates the subjects of white superiority, and the creation of Anglo-Saxonism. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious and certain. Originally a political catch phrase of the 19th century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent.
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.
John L. O’Sullivan, an editor, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” and gave the expansionist movement its name in 1845. The “Manifest Destiny” was the belief that Americans had the divine right to occupy North America. The Americans believed they were culturally and racially superior over other nations and other races such as the Native American Indians and Mexicans. The notion of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ was that the Americans were morally superior and therefore morally obligated to try to spread enlighten and civilization to the less civilized societies. According to World History Group, “The closest America came to making ‘Manifest Destiny’ an official policy was The Monroe Doctrine, adopted in 1823, it put European nations on notice that the U.S. would defend other nations of the Western Hemisphere from further colonization” (World History, 2015). This divine American mission caused Anglo-Saxon Americans to believe they had the natural right to move west and bring blessings of self-government and religion, more specifically-
Americans throughout history have always felt that they were superior. The concept of “Manifest Destiny” has been the fuel to the fire of superiority. Manifest Destiny is the belief that it is American’s are the chosen ones and have the obvious right to conquer and own land between the eastern and western seaboards and that such expansion was inevitable. Manifest Destiny along with Christianity were two reasons that drove and encouraged both expansion within North Amer...
The Manifest Destiny was a progressive movement starting in the 1840's. John O'Sullivan, a democratic leader, named the movement in 1845. Manifest Destiny meant that westward expansion was America's destiny. The land that was added to the U.S. after 1840 (the start of Manifest Destiny) includes The Texas Annexation (1845), The Oregon Country (1846), The Mexican Cession (1848), The Gadsden Purchase (1853), Alaska (1867), and Hawaii (1898). Although this movement would take several years to complete, things started changing before we knew it.
O’ Sullivan. He was founder and editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review and editor of the New York Morning News. Most Americans believed that the superiority of their institutions and white culture bestowed on them a God-given right to spread across the continent. O’ Sullivan is credited with inventing the term “manifest destiny.” This term was created to justify white settlers taking the land they coveted. The independence of Texas was complete, therefore he believed that no obligation of duty toward Mexico tended in the least degree to restrain their right to effect the desired recovery of the fair provenance once their own. “She was released, rightfully and absolutely released, from all Mexican allegiance, or duty of cohesion to the Mexican political body, by the acts and fault of Mexico herself, and Mexico
The Manifest Destiny that was painted on the fabric of this nation in red, white and blue was finished before the dawn of the twentieth century. With the nature of polictics and the temperament of political leadership, the ink from that painting spread its pigment across the Western Hemisphere and well into the blue waters and pulsing tides of the Pacific Rim. The stars and stripes would expand from the earth to the moon in the latter half of the twentieth century, they will continue to expand until that day when providence my sign his name to the master piece titled, “Destiny, Manifested.”
One of the largest and most wealthy countries in the world, the United States of America, has gone through many changes in its long history. From winning its independence from Great Britain to present day, America has changed dramatically and continues to change. A term first coined in the 1840s, "Manifest Destiny" helped push America into the next century and make the country part of what it is today. The ideas behind Manifest Destiny played an important role in the development of the United States by allowing the territorial expansion of the 1800s. Without the expansion of the era, America would not have most of the western part of the country it does now.