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American Progress, By John Gast, Manifest Destiny,

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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. The first text, American Progress -John Gast, is a painting that helped describe the Americans relationship with the western lands which was a rich one due to the Americans beginning to populate the area. The painting shows the American people moving towards the western land and beginning to settle on the land. The painting also portrays the iIndians and buffalo being moved off the land due to the Americans beginning to colonize the western lands. The Americans knew that they could not control the land without physically being there …show more content…

In a by claiming ownership of the land. All three texts, all describe of how the Americans expanded westward in order to gain control of the land. In the painting, it shows the Americans settling on the western frontier. “Manifest Destiny, 1839” describes that America is destined to control the whole hemisphere and the idea of Manifest Destiny will help get them to fulfill that goal. Lastly, “rReporting to the President, September 23- December 31, 1806” tells of how Americans explored the wWest to show that they had big plans of controlling the wWest. All three texts describe America's relationship to the land and what they would do to help achieve that main goal of controlling the

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In 1845, the idea of Manifest Destiny was created by John O’Sullivan. Manifest Destiny continued to have a large impact on the development of the U.S. Furthermore, Manifest Destiny helped unite the U.S. through the common goal to expand, however, it further developed the split on slavery. Documents one, four, and six show that Manifest destiny led to a common goal to expand westward, specifically, unifying whig and democratic parties to a common objective. The first document was from a Whig journal and it is clear that he was for expansion,” the natural progress of events will undoubtedly give us that province[California]”(document one).

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In the colonial era, through the Revolutionary War, the foundation of America was oratorically clarified as an act of prudence—that is, God led people, specifically the white Europeans, to America to find a new and superior or incomparable societal order that would be the light unto all realms.2 In fact, many settlers also believed in creating a new nation filled with history and stories. Along the same lines, Americans imagined a community created through selectively and elaborated events, myths of origin, courageous stories, and asserted values.3

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While the Louisiana Purchase was a key starting point for American expansionism, aggressive imperialism into the West didn’t begin until the middle of the Jacksonian Period. Many Americans considered Manifest Destiny as a benevolent movement and a divinely ordained right to move west toward the Pacific Ocean. It combined discourses of imperialism and freedom by claiming that it was the duty of the US as a Christian, democratic country to take over lands in the Southwest. Manifest Destiny was aggressive imperialism that created a greater need for slavery, oppressed natives, and lead to the Mexican-American War.

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The manifest Destiny is a nineteenth-century belief that the United States were destined to expand west across the North America continent. In which they would claim the land, and spread their form of freedom, culture, and democracy. Many believed the mission was inspired to them by god, while others felt it was more of a selfless right to expand the territory of liberty. This mission led Americans to move and develop the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

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The Great Land Rush and the making of the Modern world, 1690-1900, written by John C. Weaver, discusses the distribution of land, its changing process, and the introduction of property rights in a market economy throughout various parts of the world – North America, South Africa New Zealand, and Australia among others. This essay will discuss the definition of property right, how it was implemented by the settlers onto new territories and the development there after. Through the analysis of Weavers dissertations, the essay will also draw similarities and difference of the way various colonial government treated indigenous people and other settlers; along with how settlers treated aboriginals and one another. The book takes into consideration how the Neo-Europeans gained and distributed land that they discovered.5 The process of how a land comes into ownership and the legislation around it is called property rights.5 Property rights where developed after it was realized that Neo-Europeans where excessively violent with natives over their land.5 Europeans would discover new lands and would use their native beliefs, and legislation as a tactic to gain control of the niche.5 this would harm the native people of that land as these practices of land taking where violent between settlers and natives.5 The settlers used property rights within their own people but had aggressive beliefs with the natives that resulted in gruesome wars between the two parties for the land.

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The most important progress that was very negative was the horrible work conditions for people during the Industrial Revolution, the Trail of Tears and other unfairness to Native Americans. America was slowly conquering all of the Native American land. In document 2, there is 11 maps that shows the amount of Native American owned land. It is very sad to see that in each image that the Native Americans get more and more land taken from them. The main idea that I am taking from this is that America was power hungry to get more land.

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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.

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During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

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Manifest Destiny was a phrase that was made up by journalist John L. O’sullivan back in 1844. The United States wanted to push westward to the frontier such as Texas, California, and Oregon. The reason behind Manifest Destiny was to expand to provide new places to live and jobs. Manifest Destiny is the belief that the Americans could extend themselves from coast to coast. The way Americans conquered the new land were removing the Native Americans from their land.

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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.

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“The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of god in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past.” This is telling the reader that we have a huge desire to go and capture something that no one can stop us from.” Manifest Destiny” is supporting of expansion, discovering new lands and resources. “Manifest Destiny,” “American Progress,” “Reporting to the President, September

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During the 1840, the United States was able to access much more land in the west than previously before. The United States saw this as an opportunity to expand their territories and to settle and obtain all things the land has to offer. The United States justified their actions through the idea of Manifest Destiny, which they viewed to be a harmless and benevolent philosophy. Manifest Destiny was in fact not as benign as the United States has come to believe; it caused the colonization and imperialism of land that held many Natives who were eventually killed or sent into reservations. People in the southern region of the conquered land were greatly influenced by this expansion as well; it caused many families who were living in the Texas area

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John Gast also does not show the social and economic challenges that many pioneers and settlers faced as they moved west, such as poverty, disease, and isolation. Finally, the painting also does not show the contributions of diverse groups of people who played important roles in westward expansion, such as Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. This absence suggests that John Gast had a thin and unrealistic view of American progress and was not interested in acknowledging the contributions and experiences of these groups. So, while "American Progress" celebrates the achievements and triumphs of westward expansion, its omissions and absences suggest that John Gast's concept of American progress was incomplete and completely

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Manifest Destiny was the term used by John O’Sullivan to describe America’s desire to expand West due to reasons including both the vast amount of unclaimed land and the opportunities Americans wanted to explore. During this time, Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand West, and therefore they were entitled to push away any groups that were in their way. Due to the mindset that the Americans could do as they pleased with the groups of people who got in their way, Manifest Destiny affected many groups of people, including the American Indians and Slaves, and continued to build up the preexisting tension between the North and South. One of the groups of people affected greatly by Manifest Destiny were the Native Americans. Manifest Destiny affected the American Indians by spreading foreign diseases to them as they moved Westward, through the Native American territory.

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“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.

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