Cause And Effect Of Manifest Destiny

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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. According to an Oregon population graph which showed the population of Native Americans and non-Indians, the Native American population dropped drastically between the years 1805 and 1841, while the non-Indian population increased greatly between the years 1841 and 1870. The vast amount of Americans moving Westward resulted in many Native Americans dying. An extensive part of Native American deaths were a result of the new diseases that Americans brought while traveling through American Indian territory. Due to the fact that many of the Native Americans had never experienced these