Kyle Erickson 1700-026 02/20/2013 What is Manifest Destiny?

In the early 19th century, much of North America was a broad expanse of sparsely populated lands. For much of the rapidly growing population of the United States of America, the promise of these lands was too great to ignore. Their desire to settle these lands brought forth a new American ideal. This was an ideal of rapid expansion and the spreading of the American culture throughout the continent. In 1821, Mexico finally achieves independence from Spain, but their struggle has cost them. They no longer have the ability to defend their borders with the United States, who now owns all lands east of the Mississippi River. Mexico also lacks the population size to colonize their lands sufficiently. With the population of the United States growing by the millions, White American settlers begin to immigrate onto Mexican lands. These American settlers believed that the United States was destined to control all of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This was known as Manifest Destiny. Many white Americans believed in American cultural and racial superiority. This led to the rapid growth of the expansionist movement. Religious beliefs also played a significant role in this idea, with many of the first expansionists being Christian missionaries. John OSullivan, an American journalist, first wrote about Manifest Destiny when he suggested the annexation of the Republic of Texas and the Oregon Territory. Many

Democratic Americans agreed, believing that it was their god given right to spread throughout the continent. At first, most expansionists hoped for a slow and peaceful adoption of these territories. As time went by, their patience began to wane. More expansionists began to favor an aggressive approach to realizing Manifest Destiny. This new aggressive stance by expansionists led to a split in those who believed in Manifest Destiny. Many still felt that the use of force in spreading American culture was wrong, and began to oppose expansion. This bolstered the Whig party in the U.S. Government, who had opposed this expansion from the beginning. They felt that spreading the union throughout the continent would make it fragile and result in the dissolution of the country. For some time, Manifest Destiny remained prominent in U.S. society and Government. Native Americans, who were considered to be heathens, faced forced removal from their lands. After Americans had settled those lands, they moved on to those owned by Mexico. This ultimately led to war between the United States and Mexico. White immigrants to Texas staged a revolution against the Mexican government following a series of laws and regulations regarding religion and trade, including the abolition of slavery. When Mexico responded, the new Republic of Texas enlisted the help of volunteers from the United States to defeat the Mexican army once more. Eventually, The United States successfully completed its expansion to the Pacific Coast. Regardless of the end result of Manifest Destiny, one must ask, Was it right? The belief that American ways are best is fundamentally flawed. To force these ways on others goes against many of the things America claims to stand for. The United States of America was founded with a vision of a nation free from oppression. What gave us the

right to reciprocate the very oppression we fought so hard to escape? Unfortunately, the United States does not appear to have fully moved past the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Additional Sources: http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_introduction.html