Thomas Jefferson had many important roles in his lifetime. He was a public official, historian, and a philosopher. He was also one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and became the third President of the United States. He was in service to the country for over five decades. He inherited some slaves from his father and father-in-law. On a regular year, when he was younger than the age of sixteen,he owned around two hundred slaves. During his presidency, in 1803, Jefferson decided to purchase the Louisiana territory from the French for fifteen million dollars. This purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans. The Louisiana purchase affected the United States by doubling its size. In Jefferson’s opinion, the westward expansion was the right path towards the nation’s health. Since there was a reasonable population, the need to provide enough land for the population was necessary. In order to get more land, the west expansion must continue. This expansion encouraged the Manifest Destiny and spread of christianity. Since the Manifest Destiny was the belief of expanding the United States westward, the Louisiana purchase helped it by doubling its size. This purchase did come before the Manifest …show more content…
The Manifest Destiny was the expansion of the United States allowing it to stretch from coast to coast. Americans believed that they were fated by God to expand the nation and make the United States more stronger. The Manifest Destiny was believed to be fated by God because many things were easily handed to the Americans such as winning against the United Kingdom in the War of 1812 , taking over Spain without any big conflict and lastly, the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson. Both, Jefferson and the Manifest Destiny, took action to make the United States more
The Louisiana Purchase Dear Editor: I think that Thomas Jefferson and the United States Government should buy the port of New Orleans because they need the get the port so that we can trade and expand the United States. One of the vast reasons that we bought the hefty territory was that we wanted total control of the New Orleans port so we could further our trade. We wanted to be in total control of the port because they stopped our trade and we needed to import and export goods. Another reason was the we wanted the port so we could trade whenever and no one could stop out trade.
The purchasing of the Louisiana Territory promoted Jefferson’s vision for the country because his plans for this nation depended on western expansion as well as access to the international markets for American farmer products. His vision was threatened when France gained control of Louisiana. Napoleon threatened to block American access to the New Orleans port. Napoleon, for a number of reasons, most to do with money, offered the Louisiana territory to the US for a minimal amount. The US now owning the Louisiana territory more than doubled its size overall.
While the Louisiana Purchase was a key starting point for American expansionism, aggressive imperialism into the West didn’t begin until the middle of the Jacksonian Period. Many Americans considered Manifest Destiny as a benevolent movement and a divinely ordained right to move west toward the Pacific Ocean. It combined discourses of imperialism and freedom by claiming that it was the duty of the US as a Christian, democratic country to take over lands in the Southwest. Manifest Destiny was aggressive imperialism that created a greater need for slavery, oppressed natives, and lead to the Mexican-American War.
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 was an era of expansion of the U.S. to the western side of the North American continent. It took place from 1812 to 1867. Manifest Destiny was the belief that America was destined, by God, to expand its territory westward. Manifest destiny was caused by acute American supremacy; it widely affected natives while being essentially negative in that it promoted racism, encouraged Americans’ culture superiority, and generated the extermination of Native American people. Manifest Destiny was the cause of plummeting numbers in the Native American population.
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.
Around the 1840s, a movement called manifest destiny was introduced to the American people. In simple terms, this concept was Americans wanting to expand the boundaries of their current America outwards and claim new territory. The leaders of the movement hoped to justify expansion throughout North America by calling it “inevitable, just, and divinely foreordained” (Locks, 618). The supporters argued that they needed the land because of the growing population. Although the idea of manifest destiny was accepted and pushed by many Americans, it wasn’t agreed on by everyone.
Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were divinely ordained to settle the continent of North America. It also inflamed sectional tensions over slavery, which led to the Civil War. America wanted to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean but Mexico and Great Britain stood in between. Manifest Destiny was brought into the Mexican-American War because, the southern wanted to find more land for cotton and that could expand slavery. Manifest Destiny gained more than 520,000 square miles of land, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Also, with the control of the Mississippi river we could now have stronger trade and be able to use the Mississippi river for different things. This evidence supports that it was a very smart move that the United States decided to make the Louisiana Purchase with France. To conclude, the Louisiana Purchase was a very smart move by the United States because this allowed many positive thing to happen. First, it allowed the western country to have peace and prosperity mainly with the Indians and opened a free and valuable market. Second, it doubled the size of the United States making it a bigger and stronger nation.
This is because the Manifest Destiny improve technology, was vital in the transition from rural to urban, more efficient trade, and more job opportunities for the Chinese. The Manifest Destiny helped the U.S to evolve and advance. Many of the advances help to make the foundation of what the U.S is today. The evolutions made during the time of westward expansion made the U.S a more powerful nation. Countries/ civilizations have to advance and change at some point or else it will inevitably be destroyed and conquered.
“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.
During the transition from George Washington, to Thomas Jefferson’s election, the U.S began to expand its foreign policy. The U.S Foreign Policy began to transition during after the election of Thomas Jefferson; though Britain was still bitter, and refused to create a commercial treaty or even merely ratify it’s Navigation Laws. While Britain continued to refuse to trade, Spain was just as inhospitable. Due to Thomas Jefferson’s election, the Louisiana Purchase was made (1803), the Embargo Act of 1807 was established, as well as the Non- Intercourse Act, Amid to George Washington’s farewell address, he warned the country regarding foreign relations, alliances, and foreign nations.
Manifest Destiny and the Westward Expansion was made so that the Americans could expand as far as the Pacific Ocean. All though this was a benefit for the Americans, it caused the Native Americans and the Mexicans to deal with a lot of hardship. There were many political, economic, and social reasons for Manifest Destiny, but these reasons did not always have positive outcomes. The Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny negatively impacted the economic vision of America.
Jefferson’s dilemma in the Louisiana Purchase In April of 1803 Thomas Jefferson was faced with many moral dilemmas in the process of buying the Louisiana territory. Though the price for the territory was beyond generous, Jefferson felt that by purchasing the territory he would be going against his beliefs that the constitution should be followed word for word. The constitution said nothing of the president having the power to purchase land from another government, or to use money of the states for the same purpose (“the moral dilemma”). Another problem was once the land was purchased, there was a fear that it could have been a waste since they had no way to know the layout of the land, and what it would be useful for.
The Westward Expansion consisted of almost 7 million Americans migrating west, hoping to get land and be wealthy. It is often called Manifest Destiny, because many people believed settlers was intended to expand the west. Because so many people thought this way it was also thought the U.S was physically separated from Europe. This migration of people included people from Spain, France, Mexico, and other countries. The Western Expansion had a part in the foreign policies in the expansion towards the pacific and the way the U.S treated their relationship with other