Manifest Destiny On The Oregon Trail

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

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

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