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The manifest destiny theory
A essay on manifest destiny
Manifest destiny eassay
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The United States became a continental nation by the Westward expansion regarding annexations, purchases, lands ceded, treaties, and the manifest destiny. United States were able to fulfill the manifest destiny, the belief that says US is clearly meant to expand to the Pacific. This belief was pleased by various annexations, purchases, lands ceded, and treaties. Texas was annexed to the US when Sam Houston tricked US that Texas might become allies with Britain. Several purchases helped manifest destiny come true.
United States of America won independence on the 4th of July 1776. Christopher Columbus discovered the USA. The nation stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans after territories were added. Many Americans were convinced in manifest destiny, which is the idea that the United States had the right and duty to rule North America from Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. War against Mexico began after the United States annexed Taxes.
Between 1830 and 1860, Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion did more to divide America than it did to unite. While it was not the main for the divide of America that was shown in the South’s secession from the United States, it brought up many issues that ultimately led to the Civil War. These issues are shown in the annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War that resulted from that, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Until 1836, the area of Texas was controlled by the Republic of Mexico and was a distant and irrelevant piece of land in most American’s minds. A few Americans had emigrated there from the South at the invitation of the Mexican government, but not many.
Manifest destiny was the belief that was created by John L. O'sullivan in the 1840. Manifest destiny consisted of three steps, the creation of manifest Destiny, the process of achieving manifest Destiny, and finally achieving Manifest Destiny. These are the three subjects that will be talked about in this article. Like I said in the previous Paragraph it was created by John L. O’sullivan when he wrote it in his article on Texas annexation and the dispute over the British Oregon trails. There were several diffrent way people used the word Manifest Destiny like the way John L. O'sullivan used it was he believed that “ majority of Americans at the time believed was their mission from God: to expand to west and bring the United States government to unenlightened people.”
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.
In the 1800s, many Americans believed that the mission of the United States was to occupy the entire continent, this idea was declared by John Quincy Adams that expressed that the expansion to the Pacific was as inevitable. The president and the secretaries of states never used the phrase "Manifest Destiny" when they wanted to refer to the expansion of the United States. It was a newspaper editor John O’Sullivan, who put the idea of a national mission, so O’Sullivan declared it was America’s “Manifest Destiny" that was a slogan that he used, and, in the newspaper, he also declares that the United States was destined to extend its territory all the way to the Pacific and, consequently, white settlers began to settle as far west as the
The Manifest Destiny contributed to the Civil War because the expansion of new territories and states added into the United States. If the new territories were to vote in Congress for slavery and no slavery, it could be a threat for slavery in the South. ‘’many Southerners and some Northerners wanted slavery to exist everywhere in the United States, including in the new territories added to the country. Many other Americans did not want slavery to expand at all, and some people wanted slavery to be prohibited across the entire nation. Eventually these tensions would lead to the American Civil War’’ (Manifest Destiny, N/d).
The manifest destiny was the American conviction that Americans had the right to expand U.S. territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Among the Americans who strongly supported this belief was President James K. Polk and as a strong advocate of manifest destiny, he pushed for the annexation of Texas and additional territories from Mexico, and Oregon territory to appease Northerners. The Democratic party, the party from which Polk was from, remained adamant about increasing territory to uphold southern needs. Because of manifest destiny, presidents such as Polk (Texas and parts of Mexico) and Pierce (Cuba) strived to expand territory despite large opposition, and military filibustering that later arose contributed to opposing political
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.
The Manifest Destiny of the United States affected many countries, some of the countries that had been more affected by it were Canada, Mexico, and Brazil (Manifest Destiny, 65). All three of these countries had a similar idea of what the U.S. Manifest Destiny was but they each defined it in there own way since each country's experience was different. To Canada, Manifest Destiny was America's way of saying it's their right to take the land that they need to expand (Finkel et al., 12). Mexico saw America’s Manifest Destiny as “the belief that the USA was the “country chosen by providence” to inhibit the American continent and the US people had been chosen by divine will to Cultivate and benefit from the land. ”(Lopez
There were many negative and positive aspects to Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the idea that the United States was meant to expand from the East Coast to the West Coast. Many people agreed with this idea when John L. O’ Sullivan first used it in his essay, “Annexation in Democratic Review.” Although many people disagreed with this motive, causing it to be quite a controversial subject. One positive effect of Manifest Destiny was the discovery of new land, plants, and animals.
Population boomed because of immigrant going for the open land and americans reproducing like crazy after the war. During the western expansion Americans justified the things they did as something that god would want, like going westward. Some americans did stuff like kick natives off their land and fooled them into selling their land cheaper than it actually was. Manifest destiny went in the favor of white people and against natives and african americans. Manifest destiny helped americans have a reason to go west which resulted in more people getting land which caused war.
Manifest Destiny was a positive force in American History. Because of Manifest Destiny, American settlers were able to travel to the more Western parts of our country like Texas. A lot of events took place in Texas which also helped us build our country throughout history. One of the main reasons why Manifest destiny was very important to our American history is because of its political effect. When Americans started to travel Westward, they had come across Texas, which was near Mexico.
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.
“Once we became an independent people it was as much a law of nature that this [control of all of North America] should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea” –John Quincy Adams (Henretta, p. 384). In the 1840s, Americans had a belief that God destined for them to expand their territory all the way westward to the Pacific Ocean. This idea was called Manifest Destiny. In the nineteenth century, Americans were recognized for coming together and building up one another for one cause: westward expansion.