Reasons For Manifest Destiny
Arianna Stansfield
Lee/ Barry
Soph Accel 1
2 December 2015
What were the real motives behind Manifest Destiny?
Since 1776, the United States has been considered the most abundant advocate of freedom and equality. Its emphasis on liberty is dramatically due to its dedication to the Christian belief that all men are created equal by God. Why then, did the Native Americans’ civil and equality rights seem to parish upon the Europeans’ desire for western expansion in the 1830s? Western America, a “new world” to profit-seeking European explorers, was home to many different religious and cultural groups including the Native Americans. These two worlds were separated by language, landscape, tradition, and myth. When the Europeans arrived …show more content…
Longing to gain money and resources in the United States, white settlers grew envious of the remaining acreage owned by the Native Americans. In an attempt to claim the land as their own, the U.S. government announced the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which authorized the exchange of southern Indian territory to land owned by the Europeans West of the Mississippi River (“Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830”). The Indian Removal Act was passed to open up for settlement those lands still held by Indians in states east of the Mississippi River, primarily Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and others. Jackson declared that removal would “incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier.” Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would “enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power” (“President Andrew Jackson”). White inhabitants of Georgia were particularly anxious to have the Cherokees removed from the state because gold had been discovered on tribal lands. Violence was commonplace in Georgia, and in all likelihood, a portion of the tribe would have been decimated if they had not been …show more content…
In the late 19th century, foreign territories such as Hawaii and Latin America were sought after by the United States. The Teller Amendment and the Platt Amendment were used in unison to grant the United States the right to intervene in those territories if that particular government was deemed unfit to rule itself. The American government now held the power to both criticize and occupy these nations if they were deemed to be unstable. Stuart Creighton Miller says that the public's sense of innocence about Realpolitik impairs popular recognition of U.S. imperial conduct (“American Imperialism”). The resistance to actively occupying foreign territory has led to policies of exerting influence via other means, including governing other countries via surrogates or puppet regimes, where domestically unpopular governments survive only through U.S.
Lee/ Barry
Soph Accel 1
2 December 2015
What were the real motives behind Manifest Destiny?
Since 1776, the United States has been considered the most abundant advocate of freedom and equality. Its emphasis on liberty is dramatically due to its dedication to the Christian belief that all men are created equal by God. Why then, did the Native Americans’ civil and equality rights seem to parish upon the Europeans’ desire for western expansion in the 1830s? Western America, a “new world” to profit-seeking European explorers, was home to many different religious and cultural groups including the Native Americans. These two worlds were separated by language, landscape, tradition, and myth. When the Europeans arrived …show more content…
Longing to gain money and resources in the United States, white settlers grew envious of the remaining acreage owned by the Native Americans. In an attempt to claim the land as their own, the U.S. government announced the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which authorized the exchange of southern Indian territory to land owned by the Europeans West of the Mississippi River (“Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830”). The Indian Removal Act was passed to open up for settlement those lands still held by Indians in states east of the Mississippi River, primarily Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and others. Jackson declared that removal would “incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier.” Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would “enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power” (“President Andrew Jackson”). White inhabitants of Georgia were particularly anxious to have the Cherokees removed from the state because gold had been discovered on tribal lands. Violence was commonplace in Georgia, and in all likelihood, a portion of the tribe would have been decimated if they had not been …show more content…
In the late 19th century, foreign territories such as Hawaii and Latin America were sought after by the United States. The Teller Amendment and the Platt Amendment were used in unison to grant the United States the right to intervene in those territories if that particular government was deemed unfit to rule itself. The American government now held the power to both criticize and occupy these nations if they were deemed to be unstable. Stuart Creighton Miller says that the public's sense of innocence about Realpolitik impairs popular recognition of U.S. imperial conduct (“American Imperialism”). The resistance to actively occupying foreign territory has led to policies of exerting influence via other means, including governing other countries via surrogates or puppet regimes, where domestically unpopular governments survive only through U.S.