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Negative impacts of the manifest Destiny
Negative impacts of the manifest Destiny
How manifest destiny affect the relationship between the US and Native Americans
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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.
“Manifest Destiny” is a phrase that perfectly sums up the American experience in the early 19th century. During this time, Americans were moving west with the idea that they had the god given right to do so and this idea didn’t stop there. Continuing into the American imperialism ages of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States never abandoned the “justification” given to them by God and used this to drive their expansion into foreign nations and beyond, as stated in Document B. It could be argued that the expansion of the late 1800s and early 1900s is a continuation of the previous westward expansion, but many aspects of expansion changed during this time as well. Obviously, the expansion of the early 19th century and
The concept of manifest destiny heavily influenced the Mexican-American war. Manifest destiny is the belief that “God” had destined the US to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and from Canada to the Rio Grande river. Manifest destiny had strong influence. One reason of Manifest destiny’s popularity was to encourage US expansion west. Manifest destiny was a nationalistic idea; however, there is no justification to arrive in Mexico and claim “American” land that was not America’s.
In the 1800s, Manifest Destiny, or also known as “obvious fate,” stretched all over the country, and intrigued many people. It took on many forms. The United States expanded through treaties, settlement, and war. But before that, the US only owned from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. The rest was owned by Great Britain, Russia, France, and Spain.
And under the guise of Manifest Destiny, America expanded westward until it reached the Pacific Ocean. Manifest Destiny was the belief that God wanted America to expand westward, and it also included aspects of spreading the Christian religion as well as American culture. During Manifest Destiny, Americans believed their culture was superior to the Native Americans, and therefore needed to be spread. Pro-imperialists during the Philippine-American war used the same argument. According to the Diplomat Asia, “Accounts of the U.S. decision to seize the Philippines often treat it as an extension of Manifest Destiny” (The Diplomat Asia).
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.
Although times are different now, newspapers and websites alike would agree that Jackson was a cruel and unfit president. In this paper, I will seek to persuade you to look at history for yourself and make your own conclusions. While he did some inexcusable mistakes such as relocating the Indians, Jackson was as a suitable president for the following three reasons: he held the unstable union together, encouraged expansion into
The United States was unjust in achieving Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny had a strong influence and was one of the reasons why Americans supported for US expansion. The US felt that they were justified in achieving Manifest Destiny because this notion “offered a moral justification for territorial expansion” (466). However, what they did was unfair because they took control over Mexican territories that wasn’t theirs in the first place. President Polk lust for new land gave him motives in seizing Texas from Mexico.
Throughout the turn of the 19th Century a big question was raised among the American people and their leaders, was America going to become an Imperialist state or not? The question was not really raised previously during the 1800’s. The people of America were previously occupied colonizing its own land and settling towns throughout the area. However, once they reached the end of their exploration, which ended at the Pacific Ocean, where would they go? Should they start to colonize other islands around the world, or shall they be content in their own little world?
As previously mentioned, the Louisiana Purchase had significant impacts on the size, territory and history of the United States. The purchase that would currently translate to 50 cents per acre (in dollars) increased the size of the United States by 828,000 square miles. Through this purchase, the country increased by ten states and parts of three more states (Wills par, 1). The Louisiana Purchase reflected the increased measures to ensure the growth of the United States and its eventual control and rise to become the world’s super power. Prior to the Louisiana Purchase, many Americans were dreaming of having a bigger country and believed that the United States would grow to become an even greater nation (Landau, p.5).
Manifest Destiny was the belief Americans had that they were destined to stretch from coast to coast. All throughout the 19th century, this attitude was enforced. To reach the goal of successful expansion, The United States tried to get all land possible. These territories were no easy task to achieve, however. Not only for America, but for the country on the other side of the agreement, it was difficult.
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.
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.
“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.
