Manifest Destiny: was a slang term used in 1845 to encourage the attitude displayed within the 19th century period of Texas used after American settlement of European colonial and Indian lands in the Great Plains and the West and, more generally, as a justification of America’s empire. This term was ultimately the idea that Americans were destined, by God, to control the North American continent, and imply deep American roots into the…
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.…
Manifest Destiny was a belief held by Anglo-Saxon Americans in the 1840s that it was their mission to expand their values from coast to coast across the United States. The ideal of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness fueled this divine obligation to expand westward. Manifest Destiny is a word that originated from a report written by John O’Sullivan. He discusses how these white pioneers felt privileged since God was giving them a mission and had angels looking over them. Also, he described how pioneers were driven to spread democracy across the United States in order to have it in the agrarian settlements.…
“Limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent,” Those are the words of John O’Sullivan, thus creating the term “manifest destiny”, which is still in popular use today. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the US had the divine right to claim the whole of North America as well as push out Natives. However, as cruel and arrogant as it might seem, there were both benefits and negatives to it.…
The expansion of America from the thirteen colonies across the entire continent was known as westward expansion. In 1845, John O’Sullivan, a newspaper editor that was writing about the possible annexation of Texas, coined the term Manifest Destiny. “Manifest Destiny…to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” (Wexler 96). Manifest Destiny inspired a 29-year old named Stephen F. Austin to talk grandly of colonizing the Mexican province of Texas with "North American population, enterprise and intelligence" (digitalhistory.edu). It led expansionists, united behind the slogan "54° 40' or fight!," to demand that the United States should own the entire Pacific Northwest all the way to the southern border of Alaska. Manifest Destiny was a 19th century view held by Americans who felt they had the right to expand across the North American continent. The events of this westward expansion did provide the United States with security and prosperity by eliminating European powers as well as the North American Indians. However, the necessary balance of the slave versus non-slave states, so essential in Congress, caused the sectional conflicts that led to the Civil War.…
Almost everyone believed that America should extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The two words Manifest Destiny soon became in meaning that those who favored expansion had God on their side. It appealed to both the supporters of slavery, those who wanted Texas annexed, and to antislavery supporters who favored adding California to the Union. The Manifest Destiny claimed that the United States would benefit from trade, commercial advantages, and from lower tariffs. It was a belief that the United States was divinely mandated to expand from coast to coast, the country began to use any means necessary to expand. Among these were unprovoked wars, purchases from other countries, and…
Manifest Destiny is defined as "a belief that it was God's will that Americans spread over the entire continent, and to control and populate the country as they see fit." Many expansionists conceived God as having the power to sustain and guide human destiny. It was white man's heavy burden to conquer and Christianize the heathen and savage land. While the positive side of Manifest Destiny was a surge of enthusiasm and energy from the white settlers for pushing West, the negative side was the belief that the white man had the right to destroy anything and anyone -- namely Indians -- who got in the way. Tracing the path of Manifest Destiny across the West would highlight mass destruction of tribal organizations, confinement of Indians to reservations, and full blown genocide. The dark side of Manifest Destiny revealed the white man's belief that his settlement of the land and civilization of its native peoples was preordained.…
In the 19th century, Manifest Destiny, which is the idea that the United States’ expansion was inevitable and justified throughout the continent, became prevalent and was used a way to validate the nation’s acquirement of new territories. The idea brought forth a sense of nationalism and led to the nation working towards expanding and laying a foundation for an empire. However, as the US made an effort in developing a dominating country, the nation became divided as conflicts regarding the spread of slavery and the beginning of the Mexican war lead to disagreements and a lack of unity.…
The idea of Manifest Destiny ran through American history since the 19th century. America began to expand through the continent, because it was their destiny to expand. America wanted to become bigger and greater. Manifest Destiny not only included the idea of being destined to expand America, but it also included the idea of expanding America for economic opportunity and for the progress of Liberty. America went straight for Manifest Destiny to better its economy and strength. Imperialism degrades other nations making them oppressed by their ruling countries, however the United States did try to expand their colony into the pacific ocean for the ideology of Manifest Destiny by having people from America going to other countries, building canals in other provinces and creating companies in China to expand the American economy.…
The term Manifest Destiny was first used by John O´Sullivan in July-August 1845, in the Democratic review; “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” O´Sullivan said this while asking Congress for the annexation of Texas. The annexation followed quickly after but O´Sullivan´s use of sentence was barely noticed. Later in 1845, O´Sullivan reused the phrase but this time it created an extremely influential political idea.…
It was the destiny of America, to spread across the continent from one ocean to another and this belief is know as Manifest Destiny.…
Between the years of 1820-1850 a tremendous amount of change occurred in the U.S., thousands of people started to move to and populate the western territories of the United States in order to start a new life there. “Manifest Destiny” was a phrase coined by John L. O'Sullivan, which was the belief that Americans had the god given right to expand westward and spread their democratic ideals. Many believe Manifest Destiny was a positive movement that had many benefits, but it can be argued that it was a destructive act of greed that resulted in the causality of others. The expansion of the United States involved many aggressive moves made by the U.S., and overall caused more problems than solutions, politically and socially, but did hail some…
In the mid-19th century, the West drew increasing numbers of American settlers despite the hardships of the journey and the difficult living conditions that waited them at their journey's end. Thus Americans were immediately sized on the phrase " Manifest Destiny"- believing that United State's destiny is manifest, inevitable, to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican territory.…
The phrase Manifest Destiny became known in 1895. It was a phrase that inspired Americans, or rather drove them to want to expand west of America. It was believed to be a right they had as Americans, something decided by god. (Nelson, 2004). According to Nelson (2004), Texas has been a deciding factor towards the Civil War. The Kansas Nebraska act was a bill that allowed settlers to decide whether or not slavery would be allowed within new state borders. (Kansas-Nebraska-Act, 2009) According to the article, Kansas Nebraska Act(2009), the disagreements between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers was a leading factor on the rode of the civil war. Not only did it divide nations, it worsened the relationship between the North…
Manifest Destiny was a wide belief held in the United States in the 19th century, it was beliefed that American settlers were destined to expand throught the continent. Manitfest Destiny came from the idea that it was their job to reedeme the old world.…