...How did the manifest destiny influence the growth of the United States during the 19 century? The Manifest Destiny was a belief that the American settlers thought that justified their actions of expanding and moving across the continent to spread their traditions and institutions no matter the harm they brought to others to achieve it, while enlightening more ancient nations. The United States sought to expand the country from the frontier of the Louisiana Purchase all the way to California. The westward expansion used the issues of power, wealth, and morality to expand our country or in other words reach our “Manifest Destiny’’. Many Americans believed that God blessed the growth of American nation and even demanded of them to actively work on it. Since they were sure of their cultural and racial superiority, they felt that their destiny was to spread their rule around and enlighten the nations that were not so lucky. Their race gave them the idea that they had power over others so they started with the Indians. This is how Andrew Jackson beat the Creek Indians at horseshoe bend and forced them to give up...
Words: 627 - Pages: 3
...O’Sullivan a New York journalist, coined the term "Manifest Destiny", which defines the recognition that Americans had a destiny given to them by God, to expand into the western territories “ The whole continent was to be theirs”(American Nations 300). John L. O'Sullivan was the first to popularly describe the pattern of western expansion throughout history, going as far back to the first settlers and their expansion to the west. O'Sullivan's term "Manifest Destiny" was used as a justification to acquire new territories. The War of Mexico was fought between the United States and Mexico in 1846 - 1848, over the Mexican territory. President Polk believed in the “Manifest Destiny” and felt he had to spread it across the country . The Mexican territory was a great way to expand “Manifest Destiny", he tried to acquire the lands by secretly negotiating, and renegotiating, but failed. In the end, Polk started a war on false pretenses, to gain the new territories. He declared war on Mexico, claiming the Mexico was invading U.S. territory. Polk used “Manifest Destiny” to justify starting a war with Mexico, when the Mexicans would not sell “The area that Polk wanted, lying in the path of the American expansion..” (The American Nation...
Words: 944 - Pages: 4
...In 1803, the United States started its movement through the Louisiana Purchase. There were also many other movements to support Manifest Destiny. The California Gold Rush and the Oregon Treaty are both examples of movements that support Manifest Destiny. Many people question whether this movement should be called Eastward Encroachment or Westward Expansion. The movement should be called Eastward Encroachment because of it causing assimilation, massacres, and negative impacts on native people. This movement should be called Eastward Encroachment because of all the negative impacts it has had on natives. In module 6.4 (War on the Plains) it shows how thousands of Natives died because of the movement, including soldiers, women, and children. 6.4 War on the...
Words: 535 - Pages: 3
...During the mid to late 1800s, the United States felt two waves of expansion, Manifest Destiny and Imperialism. Manifest Destiny, as a definition, stands for the westward expansion to reach the Pacific coast during the mid-1800s; Imperialism stood for the external expansion into locations beyond the North American continent. During the years of Manifest Destiny, with government support, the United States expanded and went on to add eighteen states through advances such as the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican War, and multiple treaties and deals with foreign governments. Such expansions towards the Pacific Coast brought the United States great resources and a large portion of land, propelling the country into an industrial age of progress and prosperity. Later in the century, Imperialism began and sought to expand the United States beyond...
Words: 2017 - Pages: 9
...Is Manifest Destiny necessary for America’s growth? This question has posed a large debate for many people. However you may think, there are many reasons as to why Manifest Destiny was justified. Reason one being that moving westward caused America to prosper and grow because of economic opportunities. Secondly, our country spread its democracy and cultural ideas to different people groups. Lastly, there was a population increase in the country, not only Americans, but immigrants started to flee to America in hopes of finding a new job and a new life, and to gain wealth. Ultimately, there are many reasons as to why Manifest Destiny was justified. The gold rush was possibly one of the largest events in America’s history that led to many economic...
Words: 827 - Pages: 4
...“Manifest Destiny” was used as a motto to describe the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century, credited to John O’Sullivan who used the phrase in a newspaper article in 1845(Brumidi et al., n.d.). This expansion brought success and progression to the future of the United States, however there were many moral drawbacks, negative effects on the environment, and political disputes that came along with the expansion. In April of 1803, the United States made a deal with France, purchasing “828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River in exchange for $15 million”(National Archives). Around this time, the United States for the most part, was populated east of the Mississippi River, split into two regions, the north and south. The North...
Words: 1079 - Pages: 5
...The concept of Manifest Destiny, first introduced by journalist John O'Sullivan, encompassed the belief that White Americans had a divine mission to colonize the American West and spread Protestant democratic values. This ideology significantly influenced the American Westward Migration, shaping the geographical expansion and the attitudes of White Americans towards other tribes and cultures. Manifest Destiny propagated the idea of White American superiority over Native Americans, promoting the belief that they possessed superior forms of administration and religion. It fueled a sense of destiny and entitlement among the White Americans, leading them to disregard the rights and territories of Native American Indian tribes and Mexicans living in regions such as...
Words: 432 - Pages: 2
...(Kaufman 38). However, when there was no more land to claim, we turned our attention to Cuba and the Philippines, Spain’s footholds in the Atlantic and North Pacific. Unlike Spain, we were doing a favor for these helpless, indigenous people. We used the justification of saving people from the treachery of colonization as a mask for our own desire to get power overseas and neutralize Spain. The Spanish-American War is the defining example of why America cannot remain true to its founding ideals and still have an empire. American imperialism was not more moral than the actions of other European colonial powers, as our desire to grow militarily and economically was masked by altruistic motives that turned out to be thinly veiled racism. In this paper, I will argue that America cannot have an empire because the main goal is to serve our economic and military interests; we trample on the will of the locals, and threaten them if they don’t...
Words: 1710 - Pages: 7
...foreign policy. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the U.S. was destined to expand westward. The people of America slowly began to believe in the idea of moving westward and taking the land that belonged to Americans and Americans only. The belief in Manifest Destiny was definitely, the most important factor underlying the U.S. foreign policy, and the American Growth. At first people were hesitant about moving westward, but overtime people slowly accepted it and realized its importance. Since they were taking over land that technically didn’t belong to them, new tariffs and policies had to be passed by congress. This is the time period when the U.S. really grew. The idea was first proclaimed by John O’ Sullivan, whom wrote a paper called “The Great Nation of Futurity”. In O'Sullivan's essay, he wrote and believed that America was and is supposed to expand from sea to shining sea. The Manifest Destiny movement hurt many people though such as Indians, Mexicans, and ironically U.S. Citizens themselves. Everyone lost their homelands and many people became upset. Civilians were becoming angered so in order to calm down the citizens, the U.S. Government had to establish new policies and protective...
Words: 1374 - Pages: 6
...Manifest Destiny, which was first used by journalist John O’Sullivan, expressed the belief that White Americans had a mission to colonize the American West and establish Protestant democratic values. The American Westward Migration was impacted by this concept and increased the likelihood that the migration would spread geographically. The Manifest Destiny maintained that White Americans were superior to the Natives. They believed they had superior forms of administration and religion and were predestined by God to move to the west and expand. This caused them to despise other tribes along the route, including Native American Indian tribes and Mexicans living in Texas, California, New Mexico, etc. Even while many of the individuals who live in the Wild West had...
Words: 507 - Pages: 3
...During the 19th century, American settlers wanted to expand westward for new territories. This expansion was known as manifest destiny. Many Americans wanted to enlarge the size of their country, so they could compete with other larger countries. Others wanted to expand America for economic reasons such as more land for farming, or for industrial purposes. While some viewed the expansion of the U.S. as a good thing, many others opposed the idea for various reasons. In the 1800s, the expansion of the United States gained many supporters and opposers. The expansion of the United States began in the 1800s. In 1803, while Thomas Jefferson was president, France had owned a large area of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River...
Words: 784 - Pages: 4
...Did the Americans have the right to manifest destiny/ annex Texas?Americans and Mexicans, In disputed territory or Texas/ Mexico. It all started when Mexico wanted more citizen so they made a compromise deal with Americans, they had to follow the guidelines that the Mexican government had created, but they broke them because they wanted to have slaves and were lazy people and Mexico did not like that idea. So because Americans wanted to disobey the law they thought it was a good idea to go to war with texas and eventually gained their independence.The U.s was not justified to go to war with Mexico because For one they stole mexico's land from under their nose, two Americans illegally brought slaves, which were specifically quoted in the deal,...
Words: 304 - Pages: 2
...The idea of Manifest Destiny is that America is destined from God to bring freedom from “sea to shining sea”. This is not what America did for the Mexicanos by setting up a government that was not fair. John O’ Sullivan is the man responsible for coming up with this idea. This dream was his ideology. Ideologies are the body of doctrine or belief that guides an individual, social movement, or a class or large group. The idea hasn't let America set up a good government for Mexico, but has made an abominable government for Mexico and this is not fair. Manifest Destiny has not set up a fair system for Mexicanos because America has annexed Texas illegally leaving them with not much. Annexed means to add to something larger, especially the incorporation of a new territory into the domain of a city, country, or state and in this situation America illegally took over Texas, which belonged to Mexico. This happened because Texas didn't want to be apart of Mexico because of their government, so they threw a revolution which is now called the Texas Revolution. The Texas Revolution was a revolutionary movement, in which settlers asserted their independence from Mexico and established the republic of Texas. Some people may say that Mexico didn't need the land and America...
Words: 625 - Pages: 3
...Sullivan influenced people with his writings and on top of the he was a US Minister to Portugal. He was also an editor and used “manifest density” in a paper he wrote in the New York Democratic review. In fact, Sullivan first made it as a slogan for the paper, but then it influenced the westward expansion. Manifest density made the philosophy that people were destined by God to expand their territory. Manifest destiny also impelled the Louisiana purchase. The land purchased in the Louisiana purchase pressured many people to migrate west, so they could receive more...
Words: 543 - Pages: 3
...Abstract According to the Webster dictionary, migration is the movement of people from one country or locality to another. They are different types of migrations; some of which are Global migration, interregional migration and, intraregional migration. There is a significant diversity as it relates to the issues of migration in the United States. These issues vary from state to state. However International /global migration posed the most issues in this country. These issues have affected the United States for many years. James Rubenstein notes that “unrestricted immigration to the United States ended when congress passed the Quota Act in 1921 and the National Origins Act in 1924. However over the years different issues arose on this topic; some of which are job threatening, deportation, population overgrowth, devaluing of property, and increased crime rate. Legal as well as illegal immigrants encounter problems to some extent. The questions of who belongs? Who stays? And who goes? Are often widely debated topics by citizens of the United States? It has also been a focal topic in presidential debates. Others made reference to the DREAM Act by claiming that the political parties fail to address the heart of the immigration problem. Immigration has impacted the United States socially, economically, and politically. Like Global migration, interregional migration also creates issues, in the United States. Introduction The topic of immigration can be broken down into many different...
Words: 7696 - Pages: 31
