Manifest Destiny is the belief of the nineteenth century that America was destined by God to expand westward. The author of Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis believed that God established Anglo-Saxons as the superior people whose purpose was to spread Christianity. (Doc B) This idea of spreading a superior culture or religion has been a motive for expansion for decades before this. Despite this support for expansionism, there were those who were against it.
In 1845, when John L. O’Sullivan used the term “manifest destiny” to describe America’s given right to expand west, he did not know what impact it would have on the United States. Manifest destiny influenced the expansion and settlement of America, as well as the culture and economy. As the United States expanded west in the 1800s, wars and treaties impacted the growth of the nation. War and treaties, specifically the Mexican-American War and the Oregon Treaty of 1846, impacted the westward expansion of the United States. At the end of the Mexican-American War, which occurred from 1846 to 1848, the U.S. and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
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.
The United States expanding across the world was caused by many things. During the time from 1865-1910, one of U.S.’s goals was to get rid of European presence in the Americas, and cast an American presence all over the world. The reason for America to grasp control like they want to, is so they can benefit themselves in numerous ways. The objective of this goal was drawn up by the U.S. government, not exactly the people. The main reason for American expansion during the time of 1865-1910 was to gain more global power, strengthen economically, and the people felt a religous movement to expand.
The United States was not interested in having people with different cultures, languages, and religions where an older generation of moralists thought it violate a core principle of republicanism, while a younger generation believed that the United States had a role to uplift backward societies. When the foreign policy changed after 1890, the US became an imperialist nation. After the United States bought Alaska from Russia the US quickly decided to look into overseas. Their plan was to take over other foreign lands and slowly gain an empire, and soon become a world power. The two major causes for US expansion after 1890 were for economic benefits and military control overseas.
Territorial expansion and national unity from 1800-1850 involved many events. Western expansion boosted national unity at first, spurred the issue of slavery, and created extreme sectionalism between the north and the south. There are many events that helped boost national unity like the Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny, Era of Good Feelings, and the Monroe Doctrine. The United States needed more land in order to continue moving out West.
Was American expansion justified during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s? This was a debate that Americans fought over then and still now fight over now. There were two types of people some were for expansion and others were against expansion of the U.S. Both sides of the story will be well explained in this essay. First, this will explain the people for expansion’s side.
It was felt that America had a destiny to grow across the continent and with that growth create new unlimited opportunities for wealth, adventure and freedom. The Westward Expansion fulfilled the Manifest Destiny of the United States and brought many changes
The belief of manifest destiny spread and took hold of the country incredibly fast. The common definition of Manifest Destiny is the “god given right to expand westward”. People wanted to expand west for new opportunities. This mass movement of people from east to west started in 1812 and ended in 1867. Although the US hadn’t been granted the land west of them specifically or bought it, because of their military power and belief in expanding patriotism and influence, they were justified in expanding west.
Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had joint many similarities and differences to the prior American standards. American citizens believed it was time to expand land territories in order to keep The United States at the top. American citizens had so much pride and spirit it was thought that the United States was the strongest and finest nation on the globe. Many Americans wanted a strict foreign policy, while others desired to remain neutral and not get involved in any crisis. Former
Discuss the reasons why Americans were drawn to expansion in the late nineteenth century? America’s was drawn into continual westward expansion in the late nineteenth century because it wanted to expand trade amongst other reasons. There was that small-group of Americans who warned that the country must not let itself be shut out of the scramble for empire. American was beginning to a overflowing population of America, which according to, a census, which stated by census that there was no longer a clear line separating settled the land from unsettled land.
The United States became first place in the world in farm output and and in number of factories. For example, the number of American export tripled wile American direct investments increased as well. Generally, new businesses and economic interest motivated expansionism within the United States. However, the book also states that politics, joined profits, patriotism, and piety played a huge role in expansionism. What do you think the biggest role in expansionism in the 1890's was?
In the 19th Century, there were strong supporters of the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was basically the belief of expansion by settlers expanding all over America because god supposedly destined the Americans for expansions by their resources. This resulted for the Americans to find a modern mode of transportation that would make traveling from the east to the west coast easier. This resulted in a mega construction known as the Transcontinental Railroad. The railroad not only helps with transportation but with trading.
“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.
How did the United States expand over the years and why? The expansion of the United States was a vital part of America’s history and greatly affects how we live today. America's early days only started in 13 states and then progressively grew to 50 states in total. The time throughout the 1800’s and what happened throughout that time greatly impacted how America expanded land, resources, opportunity, trade, and money. Two of many main causes that evoked American expansion was the amount of opportunity that America could take, the idea of Manifest destiny, and the amount of power that the US had on other countries.
