More handpicked essays just for you.
Manifest destiny and foreign policy
Manifest destiny and its consequences
Manifest destiny and its consequences
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Manifest Destiny is the belief of the nineteenth century that America was destined by God to expand westward. The author of Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis believed that God established Anglo-Saxons as the superior people whose purpose was to spread Christianity. (Doc B) This idea of spreading a superior culture or religion has been a motive for expansion for decades before this. Despite this support for expansionism, there were those who were against it.
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.
American settlers wanted to expand from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean for more opportunities. The settlers decided to make an expansion far west because they believed that there would gain more money, they believed in Manifest destiny because they felt that it was there tight to expand if they wanted to. Some reasons for the settlers to move West were mining opportunities, adventures, expanding railroads for easier access for trade and transportation, and a great deal of land for cheap. Also,” During hard seasons, when crops failed or when farm prices fell, many headed for a new beginning in the West” (Walter Havighurst, First Book Of Pioneers). There are many pros and cons with the expansion, for example some pros are… created new jobs, it was discovered that they could get medicine from plants, they had new ways of trading goods through mining and new transportation, and the people of the South wanted to move slavery to the North but the people of the North did not want slavery to become legalized.
It was the time when Manifest Destiny concept, an idea in special role and destiny of the United States, was highly popular. The concept that consequently justified the expansionism and nationalism. Therefore, Polk’s expansionist impulse, though strong and quite successful, was a product of dominant thoughts that were circulating among Americans.
It was felt that America had a destiny to grow across the continent and with that growth create new unlimited opportunities for wealth, adventure and freedom. The Westward Expansion fulfilled the Manifest Destiny of the United States and brought many changes
Westward Expansion The idea of westward expansion was a pivotal point in our nation’s history. People were looking for something new and exciting. They found it in the form of adventure, excitement, fame, and untold riches! Two key events played a role in the move to push colonists farther into new territory.
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.
A generation earlier, the American idea of manifest destiny fueled American colonization of the West. At that time expansion fever exploded for reasons of national pride, acquisition of resources and foreign competition for the land. Around that time the American border reached the Pacific coast, European nations started to colonize much of Asia and Africa acquiring the resources and global power their countries desired. The American imperialists believed it was their duty to join in the frenzy or lose any opportunity for expansion to foreign competition. Imperialists also cited an alleged duty for whites to colonize others.
The social reaction to expansionism continued throughout both movements because the opposing sides of each argument disagreed on completely different topics. Many during the time of Imperialism believed America was destined to expand due to the believed superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race (Doc 1), and was justified in expanding due to the fact that America would spread democracy and that they were required to expand because it was the “White Man’s Burden” (Doc 1-POV). This is also true for Manifest Destiny, which was built on the idea that God ordained the western hemisphere for Americans.
As few know, the very root cause of all the Pre-Civil War events was Manifest Destiny, a powerful and ruthless belief that had changed the course of history. Manifest Destiny caused the US to go for a greater goal that scarred others, driving all Natives off their land and expand until every other country knew of their power. They went from protecting newly freed countries, to taking all important possessions from the natives before them. The belief of the US to expand all over North America and be seen as a powerful nation has caused their minds to want more and more of what is around them, land.
Manifest Destiny is justified,it was something that people thought they had to do, they thought that they had to expand west and spread their cultures and freedom all over the country.always a good thing. Sure, there were good things about it but that doesn't mean there weren't bad things as well. Manifest Destiny was something that revolutionized this country, there were more land for them to take over and there were more land to discover. More resources were found such as , plant, trees were and materials, Manifest Destiny was something Americans could take pride in.
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.
United States Imperialism in the late 19th century was very selfish time. Many people in that time, debated about whether are not benefiting our country was the right way or the wrong way. The motiving factors that impacted our imperialism are economic, military, and cultural. These factors impacted the American Imperialism from 1890-194 by having control over weaker territories meeting our expanding needs.
The citizens of the United States felt they had the best form of government and culture and felt the obligation to expand it across the nation. Manifest Destiny had both positive and negative effects on social and political values during this time. Americans felt because they were experiencing such growth that God was blessing them and that by incorporating others into their culture they would be blessed too. However, greed eventually took over and the belief that the white man could destroy anyone or anything that got in the way of its progress led to many wars and lives lost over the acquisition of much needed land.
While, imperialistic dynasties in Europe struggled to hold on to their waning empires across the globe due to the rise of ideas like nationalism. America was still able to participate in this same imperial structure, and expand its borders, but also look to other social and political movements for legitimacy . The United States made sure there was a difference between its god given right of expansion versus european imperialism. “The distinction they drew between their own “empire of liberty” and contemporary weren’t always concrete.” This quote further exemplifies that the true identity behind Manifest Destiny as Americanized imperialism.
