The story of the United States has always been one of westward expansion, beginning along the East Coast and continuing, often by leaps and bounds until it included the Pacific. Theodore Roosevelt described this as “the great leap westward.” As early as 1751, Benjamin Franklin described a destiny for Americans to fill up new lands to the west, and Jefferson, Monroe and Adams all expressed expansionist dreams. The main causes for expansion was Manifest Destiny, economic opportunity, transportation, and the Homestead Act. Manifest Destiny was a phrase that made Americans make a move to expand their lands. Some pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to strengthen the boundaries from the Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean. In July …show more content…
1845 this phrase was written in American popular journal, The Democratic Review, by John Louis O’Sullivan.
Manifest Destiny was an idea of the United States government that North America was theirs’ to conquest and settle such to an extent that it was a “divine right.”. This belief pushed the Native Americans more westward and even southward. The majority of westward expansion happened as a result of Manifest Destiny or the belief that the colonies were superior and needed to spread their superiority as far as possible. Critics of Manifest Destiny rejected the idea that it was God’s will. Rather they thought it was an excuse for the expansion that resulted in cruel treatment and racism. Some saw it as an excuse to facilitate the spread of slavery. Others saw it as unjustified imperialism, and an excuse for war . It had a negative effect on the Mexicans and Native Americans. Americans wanted to expand westward and viewed the Native Americans as being in …show more content…
the way or holding back the progress of our country. Manifest Destiny was the promise that in the West, Americans could realize their democratic independence by land ownership. The West had cheap, plentiful lands abundant in rich resources. In 1845, President James K. Polk stated, “as the population expanded, the Union has been cemented and strengthened. The boundaries have been enlarged and our agricultural population has grown over a large surface, and our federative system has acquired additional strength and security.” The west was a magnet for young men who set out for the uncorrupted, unoccupied, and untamed territories to seek their fortune. But in reality, most western settlers went out as members of a family or part of immigrant group. In 1848, gold found in California’s American River sparked frenzy, prompting thousands to rush to California to seek their fortune. On January 24, 1848, James Marshall found a tiny piece of yellow metal in the tailrace of John Sutter’s sawmill in Coloma, California. When he hammered the nugget to test its malleability, it produced to be pure gold . News of the discovery triggered one of the largest gold rushes in history and drew fortune seekers from across the country. The expansion provided economic opportunities for people in the East. It was the last chance to “go west.” The opening of the West and advertising about it in Europe helped to attract a flood of immigrants who came specifically to farm; food prices were also reduced for people in the East. The western lands, when connected by railroads to the East, could produce foods much more efficiently and cheaply than Eastern farmers generally could. Guillaume Vanderbroucke examined the fact that using economic modeling to understand a historical event resources examined which specific market force were the most important drivers of migration . It was found without a decrease in transportation, only 30% of the US population would have been in the West in 1900. The price of land was significantly less important than population growth and technological innovation that led to a decrease in transportation cost. Thomas Jefferson encouraged westward expansion in order to open more trade for the United States. Without a way to move people and goods, the country could not expand west. Without transportation, there is no ways that the Unites States could stretch from the east coast to the west coast. Before the country could expand, Thomas Jefferson had to find out what was west of the Missouri River, and Americans needed to develop faster ways to get there. By opening up the Erie Canal, a waterway was found, which would open up even more ports and international trade. This port made New York the country’s busiest port, but it also encouraged westward expansion by opening a passageway . An organized system for land transportation was needed, due to the discovery of gold in California. This increased the need for a system to ship goods, supplies, people, and mail to the west. In 1857, Congress authorized the Postmaster General to develop a stagecoach line to carry mail, passengers and supplies. John Butterfield founded the American Express that created the country’s first post road, the Butterfield Overland Express. Railroads, such as the Union Pacific and Transcontinental made life in the mid-west more profitable and livable because they brought goods that people needed to expand. Without railroads it would have been difficult to bring crops and other goods to the market. The railroads economic profit helped to develop more towns along the way and some railroads were extended to help develop economic growth in towns. While the Erie Canal and the stagecoach were important in the Westward Expansion, the Transcontinental Railroad had the greatest impact. Once the United States acquired lands either through treaties or forced removal, the president and congress began policies directed at granting land for settlers.
In 1862, president Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which granted public lands in the West for settlement, particularly for agricultural or ranching purposes. The Homestead Act of 1862 was intended to make lands opening up in the west available to a wide variety of settlers, not just those who could afford to buy land outright. The Homestead laws were proposed several times before the Civil War, but the southern states always voted against that because the homestead principle was related to the northern policy of “free soil “that enabled people to claim and farm their own land. The rich southern slave owners saw this as a threat because they feared that the political influence of the free states will be increased in the west. By this Act, any adult citizen who never went to war against the United States government could claim 160 acres of federal land. Their task was to improve the land they got. They had to spend 5 years on that land in order to become owners and they only needed to pay a small fee. The Homestead Act created an economic incentive for individuals to move westward or to inhabit empty federal lands that had not been bought or were uncontrolled. The goal was to create “homesteads” in uninhabited lands so that the lands would be populated by farmers and individuals. Relatively free land got a
lot of people moving and farming and helped to fill the West. At one-time, Western families faced difficult times. Suffering a depression in the 1870’s and facing the constant threat of natural disaster, many returned East. Those who remained struggled to build homes and communities with mosquito infiltrations and other harsh conditions. Farm settlements, eventually thriving communities with churches, schools, markets, and farmers grew close with their neighbors. The towns built opera houses and hotels and labored to bring modernization to the West. For 18th and 19th century Americans, the Western frontier represented the opportunity to start over, and possibly strike it rich. During the 1800’s, the United States expanded westward across the Mississippi River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean. These western lands, already inhabited for centuries, were purchased, won, and seized from Indian tribes and other nations. “Go west, young man, go west,” a statement probably first uttered by a journalist, Horace Greeley, summarized the passion for westward expansion shared by many in the east. In general, Westward Expansion is about colonialism, when the western powers of Europe were in a frenzy trying to take a piece of the rest of the world. The West had its fingers in almost every sector of the world. This expansion has enriched the west in great ways and at times even brought wealth to other countries. Rapid expansion brought businesses, farms, railroads and gold mines. Some of the causes of westward expansion was missionary purposes, purpose for need of adventure and the desire to be away from crowded cities. Western Expansion was responsible for the increasing variety of geography, population, and industries which shaped the changing Unites States during the 19th century. These changes led to the opportunity for Americans to own land. This property included many different types of land. The new settlements led to growing networks of communication, transportation and trade. It is important to stop and think about what the country would be like if there was no reliable way to move people, goods, or ideas. Thomas Jefferson understood the importance of opening more trade routes for the country. The development of waterways, roads and railroads, which opened new frontiers of the west, allowed the Unites States to truly become a united nation. Westward Expansion nearly destroyed the country during 1840’s and 1850’s but somehow it all came together to form what is now the Unites States of America.
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.
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.
For many year, the American boundaries expanded as people moved, at the governments urging, westward for new economic opportunities and later imperialist expansion was no different. While many factors contributed, economic possibility was a driving factor in the expansionist aspirations. The U.S., along with countries like Britain
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.
Westward movement is the populating of lands, by the Europeans, in what is now known as the United States. The chief resolution of the westward expansion is economic betterment. The United States story begins with westward expansion and even before the Revolutionary war, early settlers were migrating westward into what is now known as the states of Kentucky,Tennessee, parts of the Ohio Valley and the South. Westward Expansion was slowed down by the French and the Native Americans, however the Louisiana Purchase significantly improved the expansion efforts. Westward expansion was enabled because of wars, the displacement of Native American Indians, buying land, and treaties. This paper will discuss the effects of westward expansion on domestic politics and on American relations with other nations.
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.
In 1845, a fellow named John C. Calhoun coined the term "Manifest Destiny." The term Manifest Destiny was a slogan for westward expansion during the 1840's. In the west there was plenty of land, national security, the spread of democracy, urbanization, but there was also poverty out west. People moved out west in search for a new life such as a new beginning. Moving out west, settlers from the east were taking a risk of a lot of things. The climate was different and there were more cultures that lived out west because of how much land was available.
Many believed in Manifest Destiny. That is was a God given right to spread Christianity and American ideals such as democracy all over the continent from coast to coast. This idea triggered over a million Americans to get up and sell their homes in the east and set out on Oregon, Mormon, Santa Fe, and California trails. Not everyone agreed with this expansion in the West. The slavery debate, once again, fueled many problems with Westward expansion.
The United States, as a young nation, had the desire to expand westward and become a true continental United States that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Various factors, strategic and economic, contributed to the desire to expand westward. According to John O’Sullivan, as cited by Hestedt in Manifest Destiny 2004; "the U.S. had manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence to the free development of our yearly multiplying millions" (¶2). As Americans ventured westward to settle the frontier, their inherent superior beliefs, culture and the principles of democracy accompanied them. America’s ruthless ambition to fulfill its manifest destiny had a profound impact on the nation’s economy, social systems and foreign and domestic policies; westward expansion was a tumultuous period in American History that included periods of conflict with the Native Americans and Hispanics and increased in sectionalism that created the backdrop for the Civil War.
Manifest Destiny is a phrase used to express the belief that the United States had a mission to expand its borders, thereby spreading its form of democracy and freedom. Originally a political catchphrase of the nineteenth-century, Manifest Destiny eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the territorial expansion of the United States across North America towards the Pacific Ocean. The United States government believed that the Native Americans were a problem that was hindering Manifest Destiny from being fulfilled (or at the very least, used the idea of Manifest Destiny to gain land and resources the Indians possessed), and would do everything in their power to exterminate the “Indian Problem.” The U.S. government, along with the majority of the U.S. population, eradicated this problem through lies, forced removal, and murder. This eradication nearly wiped out a race of people, whose only crime was mere existence in a land they had lived on, respected, and cherished for hundreds of years. The U.S. government had three main ways of solving the “Indian Problem”. They would remove them, kill them, or segregate them from the “civilized” white man by placing the Indian on reservations. The Indians soon learned that the U.S. government could not be trusted, and fought fiercely against the harsh injustices that were being administered. Tragically, the Indians would eventually have their spirits broken, living out their meager existence in the terrible homes called reservations.
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.
Manifest Destiny! This simple phrase enraptured the United States during the late 1800’s, and came to symbolize an era of westward expansion through numerous powerful entities. The expansion can be inspected though many different contextual lenses, but if examined among the larger histories of the United States, this movement can be classified as one of the most influential developments of the post-Civil War period. While very influential to the larger part of American history, the seemingly barbaric methods that were used conquer the western lands and their peoples took physical and economical forms that proved to be a plague upon the West.
The expansion of the United States is such a vital part of American history, yet some often forget how it all happened. Many thriving settlers were given an extraordinary opportunity starting on January 1, 1863 that would end up laying the floor work for many Midwestern and Western citizens today. The rights and responsibilities to live on and maintain 160 acres of land may seem like a lot to take in for a student learning about an Act about land from the 1860s. However, think about all the people the Homestead Act of 1862 affected. There was a lot of pressure on the original homesteaders to make good use of their newfound land, the government was giving out land that wasn’t exactly theirs, and the Native American would have some their rights stolen.