Manifest Destiny Summary
Newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan first used the term manifest destiny in an 1845 article to describe the inevitability surrounding the annexation of Texas. Since then it has come to describe the belief among American settlers and political leaders that it was their God-given right and duty to expand U.S. territory, customs, and institutions throughout North America from coast to coast. The concept gained traction during the nineteenth century as immigration and land acquisitions, including the Louisiana Purchase (1803), drastically increased the feasibility and pace of westward expansion.
The idea of manifest destiny catalyzed the expansion into much territory in the West and South. After running a 1844 presidential campaign to appeal to …show more content…
During the mid-nineteenth century, a number of U.S. business leaders attempted to take expansion into the region into their own hands by financing unauthorized military interventions, known as “filibusters,” in countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua with the hope of overthrowing the government and expanding the United States. Although the federal government refused to recognize such unauthorized expeditions as legitimate, it did invoke the expansionist doctrine in the buildup to the Spanish-American War (1898), which resulted in the United States taking possession of a number of Spanish territories in the Caribbean. By the close of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny had led to the U.S. acquisition of the outlying territories of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Midway Islands, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Wake Island, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Although it resulted in a significant expansion of U.S. territory and made the United States a dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, the concept of Manifest Destiny proved contentious among citizens and political leaders. The expansion of the United States was detrimental to Native Americans, who were often ruthlessly killed or evacuated from land that had been their home for generations. Manifest Destiny also heightened conflicts over slavery, because abolitionists and pro-slavery factions
The idea of manifest destiny catalyzed the expansion into much territory in the West and South. After running a 1844 presidential campaign to appeal to …show more content…
During the mid-nineteenth century, a number of U.S. business leaders attempted to take expansion into the region into their own hands by financing unauthorized military interventions, known as “filibusters,” in countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua with the hope of overthrowing the government and expanding the United States. Although the federal government refused to recognize such unauthorized expeditions as legitimate, it did invoke the expansionist doctrine in the buildup to the Spanish-American War (1898), which resulted in the United States taking possession of a number of Spanish territories in the Caribbean. By the close of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny had led to the U.S. acquisition of the outlying territories of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Midway Islands, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Wake Island, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Although it resulted in a significant expansion of U.S. territory and made the United States a dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, the concept of Manifest Destiny proved contentious among citizens and political leaders. The expansion of the United States was detrimental to Native Americans, who were often ruthlessly killed or evacuated from land that had been their home for generations. Manifest Destiny also heightened conflicts over slavery, because abolitionists and pro-slavery factions