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Manifest Destiny On The Oregon Trail

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The Oregon Trail was a huge historic movement in the mid-1800s which stretched over 2000 miles across the American Midwest. In present-day America, the Oregon Trail would go across the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and finally end in Oregon. The trail was constantly showing the American pioneer's problems because of how hard it was to cross and with hundreds of thousands of them trying to get to their destination there were plenty of casualties and hardships. Determined to spread their religion, gain wealth, or find a place to live, many pioneers took these hardships head-on in hopes of making a better life for themselves or spreading what they believed to new people. The Oregon Trail surely helped boom the United State’s growth …show more content…

With things like the Oregon Trail Act in 1850, many people were very encouraged to settle in the Oregon territory which made the American West become settled much quicker during the 19th century.” Overall, on the Oregon Trail, there were many problems and triumphs that helped shape the United States with things like manifest destiny, preparing for the trail, the dangers on the trail, and how the trail improved over time.
Manifest Destiny had a huge role in shaping the Oregon Trail and the United States in general. Manifest destiny is defined by history.com as, “the idea that the United States is destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent.” From this definition, it is pretty obvious how Manifest Destiny played such a big role in not only the Oregon Trail but also just the entire United States since it talks about how the advocates believed that they must spread their dominion across North America. Manifest Destiny started when the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson decided to go through with the Louisiana Purchase and begin the westward expansion of the United States. With the new land from the Louisiana Purchase, many Americans started flooding the …show more content…

With geographical, ecological, and cultural discoveries, the journey proved to be a huge success and helped the United States learn a lot.” Along with Lewis and Clark, from 1804 to 1806 many merchants, traders, and trappers helped make the Oregon trail and urge others to start their own expeditions. The next big group of people to forge ahead with the idea of Manifest Destiny were the missionaries. These missionaries had the idea to spread their religion to the people they met while traveling on the Oregon Trail and because of that, they had a huge part in creating the trail. One of the most notable missionaries who crossed the Oregon Trail was Marcus Whitman. Marcus was determined through Manifest Destiny to spread Christianity to the American Indians on the frontier. To do this he headed out in 1835 to traverse the trail and made up to the Green River Rendezvous. After returning he decided to set out again in hopes of making it farther than he had before and with a small party of people, and a grueling journey, he finally made it to Fort

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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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Manifest Destiny brought an age of expansion and exploration upon the United States throughout the 1800s. The vast Great Plains were unexplored, and held lots of promise and opportunity for new communities and businesses. With the establishment of the railroad system, transportation became much more reliable and efficient, sending a wave of settlers to the West. Railroad companies also posted many advertisements that encouraged settlers to buy plots of land for reasonable prices. The railroad during this time played a key role in Western Expansion by giving people access to fertile and open land, uniting communities together, and lowering transportation costs, but inflicted cruel treatment on those who worked on the railroads.

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Though the Oregon Trail was used for another twenty years, its place in U.S. history was over” (Blashfield 39). Though many made the effort to move to the west for a better life and search for gold. Blashfield explained, “Sadly, many pioneers who made the terrible journey did not find what they wanted in Oregon. Others, however, claimed land and settled in for the long work of making a better life. These pioneers helped establish the new state of Oregon in 1859, Washington and Montana in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890”

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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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After years of waiting and preparing we started on the journey to the west. We made our way to Independence, Missouri to go on the Oregon Trail which was laid by traders and trapers. While there I became familiar with George Wilson who was also a working family man. A lot of families left together making the trail busy and causing jams..

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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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