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Manifest Destiny Essay

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A great deal of people do not understand what the term manifest destiny really is or what it truly means or can mean to considerable amounts of people. The specific term, manifest destiny, is the idea that it is the White Americans God-given right to move west. This idea was first introduced in a newspaper article written by John O’Sullivan. During the time of manifest destiny, which was about 1810’s to the early 1860’s, there was a great dispute within the United States on whether or not the idea of manifest destiny was moral, if it actually helped the country in any way, or if it was just a ploy to spread slavery. All of these things were hugely contradicted and defended, over a time span of about 50 years. All this time, the president at …show more content…

In the graph titled, “Oregon Populations,” as the amount of non-indian people went up, the amount of the Natives drastically dropped from about 30,000 to a low of about 6,000. (Oregon Populations). This is because the white settlers would come into or pass through native tribal lands and kill for a sport. The people thought of the Native Americans as nothing more than animals to just hunt down and kill. This brutal act of so called “civilization” would cause the Native American population to decrease drastically. However, there were other factors for the Natives to be reduced that much. Another source, which was a picture, showed a killed buffalo lying beneath the shadow of a mound of buffalo hides. Sitting on top of these hides is a white man (The National Archives). Although the picture may seem as if it is just a thriving buffalo business, this “business” was one of the key factors in the mass destruction of the Native population. Since the whites came in and saw hunting buffalo as a sport, just like hunting deer or small game, they killed them by hundreds. However, on the Natives side, the buffalo were the people’s main source of food. By the white settlers coming and killing the buffalo there was a shortage of food, basically starving the Native Americans to death. All of this disaster coming upon the American Indians was a result of

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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.

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As a result, The Native American culture was devastated

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Those Native Americans who fled or retaliated were hunted down, starved, became diseased or were killed. Columbus' and his men additionally

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Assignment 5 1. The massacre of the buffalo herd was the end of a way life for the Plains tribes because thy depended on every part of the animal so much. The used the buffalo for food, clothing, tools, and shelter. The American’s single handedly drove the buffalo species to near extinction, which caused the Plains tribe’s way of life to drastically change.

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The great herds were not decimated overnight. The slaughter was a gradual process, reaching its full momentum in the 1870s. The Native Americans of the Great Plains had relied upon and hunted buffalo for thousands of years. Without the arrival of the Caucasians—and with them the gun, the horse, and the market for bison products—it seems likely the Indians could have lived sustainably with the bison far into the future.

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Many people died from not only diseases, but also from hunger because they "could not get to search for food" and "everyone else was too sick to care of them, so they starved to death in their own beds" (Document 7). Document 2 shows that the effects of the diseases caused a large decline of population for the Native Americans– estimating a decrease of roughly 25 million people to 1.5 million people within about 85 years. Through the exchange of goods, the Americans imported a lot more than they intended. In effect of that, they killed many people and destroyed many civilizations. To make matters worse, they did not have any intentions of helping or caring for the people who they

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Because European goods and wampum could be obtained by killing animals, large numbers of wild animals began to disappear. As animals began to disappear, natives faced food shortages, which led to the trade of their furs for more important subsistence. “…by so willingly overhunting the beaver and other game animals, Indians across North America were responsible for attacking one of the major bases of their own subsistence.” As trade goods began to vanish, Indians were force to give up all they had left, their

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During this time period, the settlers would kill the buffalos and cut down the trees. The settlers would kill the buffalos because while they were constructing the land, the settlers did not want the buffalos to get in the way, so they killed

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These ideas combined with the ever present belief in American exceptionalism gave rise to the concept of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the driving force behind the rapid westward expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century as it was the expression of the belief that there was a “God-given” right to to spread across the continent. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 379)

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In addition, poverty impacted the natives as well and pushed them further back from making progress. Indian communities were destroyed

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The Buffalo in which the native populations had depended on for years were suddenly diminishing. Millions of Buffalo were killed, resulting in Buffalo hides being sent throughout the railroad in a form of trade. Mining also began on the fertile soil owned by Native Americans, resulting in a massive depletion of land. As this benefited the people that had migrated throughout the United States, it harmed the Native American

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Time after time, reservation after reservation, Native Americans were promised safe and secure lands. However, Eastern settlers constantly traveled upon these Western lands and searched for fame, fortune, and livelihood. But for every dollar these settlers were gaining, they were causing sufferable harm to the Native Americans. one such industry was Buffalo hunting. Native Americans relied on the Buffalo as a food source, clothing, and other various tools and goods.

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Many of them starved and died of diseases because they were not use to being to such harsh conditions. The American settlers slaughtered the Buffalos that Native Americans used to eat and make shelter, instead using them for making money from using them for robes and leather. The Native Americans suffered greatly from the Americans Westward

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Class, When considering the events regarding the Plains Indians there are three things that come to mind first as contributing factors to the decline of their culture. The existence of the buffalo was seriously threatened. The white pioneers brought disease not experienced by the Indians. The federal government fought them with “military force”.

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Many wars happened because the white people weren’t loyal to them, so due to those problems,therefore the Indians hated them. All of their food which was bison, also meaning buffalo, were killed by the military troops and the starving Sioux tribe decided to fight back and to defend themselves from this outrageous problem. Lots of Native Americans and white men died, which in this case, the Sioux fled. The influence the Americans did on their tribe culture made many changes.

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