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Manifest Destiny: The Colonization Of North America

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Since the beginning of colonization in North America, Anglo-Saxon Americans have continuously been moving west. Some might say that their westward colonization was destined; a right given by God. While this expedition began from the colonization of the New world, it was truly identified as Manifest Destiny in the 1840s. Anglo-Saxons saw it as their duty to spread civilization and replace darkness with light. After the second Great awakening, many truly believed that God Himself had blessed the advancement of the American Nation. Americans began to Christianize Native Americans, further acting as racially and culturally superior. The heart of Manifest destiny was the belief that America as a race and culture was superior and was deemed to spread …show more content…

After California and Texas joined the union, many began to question whether these new states were going to be slave or free states. California requested to be a free state which made the south concerned about the balance between 15 free states and 15 slave states. The south was also agitated by the north passing the “personal liberty” Laws to try and end slavery, essentially countering the fugitive slave acts of 1850 and 1793. The south ended up blocking California’s admission and chaos ensued. Extended tension led to the Compromise of 1850 which stated that California would be admitted as a free state, stricter fugitive slave laws would be authorized, Congress would not interfere in slave trafficking in the south, the prohibition of slave trade in the district of Columbia, and finally popular sovereignty on slavery in the new states. While many argue that the joining of Texas and California to the Union is what “poisoned” America, others argue that the Kansas-Nebraska Act is what truly sparked the fire that would soon spread throughout America becoming the Civil

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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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In the 1800’s Manifest Destiny became a widely-held belief among settlers, their mentality was that they were destined to expand across North America pushing the natives out of their land. This attitude among western settlers fueled the removal of Native Americans and war with Mexico. The thinking of some of these settlers was both inevitable and justified by their God to expand and take more land with no limit. Geographically speaking, modern day America is the result of this “Manifest Destiny”. This was also happening around the time the United States experienced its second “Great Awakening”, which was another protestant religious revival movement happening in the early 19th century.

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Manifest Destiny By John L. O Sulliv Article Analysis

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Colonists used Manifest Destiny as their justification to do whatever they needed to expand and explore all of North

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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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Manifest destiny was almost like a way of life for the American people. It was the idea that something was destined to happen and that it would be better for the people if they followed this instinct. One of the thoughts that they got was traveling West. They thought that it would help them gain more land and become richer. This movement affected many people and places and tribes.

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Manifest Destiny (first developed in 1845) was the idea that during the nineteenth century, America not only could but would expand from coast to coast. The accomplishment of this idea came with the removal of indians in areas like the great plains, as well as many smaller conflicts in between the indians and the Americans. The Americans attempted to make a compromise with the indians so that they would leave peacefully, examples of this would be the offer to pay the indians in the form of supplies and annuities. The idea was a good one until Americans denied a payment in 1862 because John pope regarded the Indians as “maniacs or wild beasts ” and states that they do not deserve treaties or anything of the sort. Another big factor in the expansion of America from coast to coast was the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, not only with the people that it had brought to the west for the work, but the ease that it had provided for those who wanted to travel from the east to the west and did not have the money nor the time.

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