Manifest Destiny Dbq

Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was America’s destiny to spread across the entire continent of North America. It was started by a group of expansionist called the Young American Movement and they were affiliated with the Democratic Party. By their idea, America was able to double its size and obtain new land from Mexico and Britain. However, this also caused pain to the Native Americans. In the end, America obtained new land, and its people achieved what they believed to be their God given right to expand and move west.

In the 19th century there was a popular doctrine or belief that the westward expansion of the United States not only could happen, but that it was destined to stretch from coast to coast. For awhile, the nation’s leaders were unable to resolve the divisive issue of slavery. This belief was called Manifest Destiny and it eventually provided a larger stage for the growing conflict over slavery in America.

Manifest Destiny is a term used to describe the reason behind the US expansion into the West. What are the social, political and economical effects of this idea on the people living in the United States colonies and the West?

Manifest destiny was a 19th century concept that the expansion across North America was destined to happen. It influenced the government to expand westward which led to problems with the natives and thence led to the U.S- Mexican War. It was debated by many whether or not slavery should be allowed in the new territories so the democratic party split in two.

Manifest destiny was the idea that the citizens of the United States had a God-given right to extend their way of life from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that no physical barrier or human force could stop the settlement of these lands. This idea became a prevalent thought in the minds of many United States citizens. The expansion into new territories across the continent was a direct link in the chain of events leading to the Civil War.

Manifest destiny and territorial expansion greatly united the United States from 1830 to 1860. During this time period, America was still developing and growing in many ways. America’s geographical growth, formerly known as Manifest Destiny, or westward expansion, was the beginning of many changes for the nation. Manifest destiny and territorial expansion united the United States socially, politically, and economically.

The term of Manifest destiny for the American people was to expand the land from sea to sea. This idea led them to gain more land to gain more liberty and freedom. Liberty of the nation was only liberty for the few. For the slaves, Native Americans, and the Free Blacks, they had little to no liberty with this idea of Manifest destiny. The nation was expanding and the American’s freedoms were expanding with it; the minorities were losing freedoms with the expanding of the rest of the nation.

While Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion created conflict with foreign nations, including the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and within the United States, it worked to unify the United States from 1830 to 1860 by strengthening the nation as a whole, creating economic opportunities for people from all different walks of life, and expanding the United States through the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California from Mexico.

Manifest Destiny means clear or obvious future or fate, therefore; the United States believed that it was their Manifest Destiny to expand Westward and to gain more land, this is how they came to war with Mexico. The expansion westward/ Manifest Destiny would change their standings economically, socially, and geographically. It changed them economically by making them money by working different jobs, mainly in factories, it changed them socially by having different views than Mexico; which made them develop new laws, and government it changed them geographically because of more and more land was being farmed, factories being built.

The Manifest Destiny was a popular idea during the 1840s. Many people thought that the U.S. was destined to stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. As a part of the U.S. journey to achieve the Manifest Destiny, many people wanted the annexation of Texas and California. While, Mexico did not want to give Texas or California to the U.S.; over time. These territorial disagreements between the U.S. and Mexico started to become a stimulus for war. When the U.S. started to gain territory from Mexico, the issue of slavery became more frequent because lawmakers argued over whether the adopted territory allowed for slavery or not. Although the idea of the Manifest Destiny sparked a wave of patriotism among Americans, territorial expansion ultimately divided the U.S. between advocates and opponents of slavery. Americans not only wanted the land for economic purposes but they also felt that they needed to teach Mexico a lesson; these ideas were used as the basis of unity during the mid-19th century.

Today’s America was built slowly, but the early 1800s was a great time of new ideas and inventions. New modes of transport and communication were invented and to this day, are still used whether they have been upgraded or tweaked. A huge part of modern-day America was the Louisiana Purchase which was part of the ideology of Manifest Destiny. The new modes of transport in the early 1800s; railroads and canals were both time efficient and cost effective compared to the old ways of transport via wagons or horse drawn carts.

Manifest Destiny in America in the 1800s outcomes have many political, economic, and social factors.

In a short history, American manifest destiny was a big mistake for Indian people in the past. The Indian people lived on the land before the Americans came. However, manifest destiny is the affliction Americans have that makes them believe God and took control all their land. For example, American settlers took their land and forced them into another uncomfortable place, less nature resource, and difficult to survive. Moreover, America settlers brought diseases into Indian tribes that made a lot of Indian people sick and dead. In addition, American settlers had a negative impact to the environment and natures resource such as more hunting and fishing that cost extinction, more cutting trees to build houses due to deforestation. In conclusion,

There were a lot of divisions that was emerging in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s. Manifest destiny at the time provided a pleasant response to, or a nice covering over of what was actually happening. First of all, during the 1830 and 1840 there was increasing class division in the United States. Similarly, increasing numbers of poor people that migrated from Europe to the United States in hope of a better future, not to mention in the north there seem to be an “end of slavery". Due to the north “ending slavery” white American were now competing not only with African Americans but as well the massive immigrants that were coming to America. Manifest destiny could have not occurred in the best time were average Americans wanted

Manifest Destiny, one of the most influential ideologies in American history, was used as the basis to justify almost-continuous conflict from the early- to the late-19th century (Greenberg 3). This conflict included the relentless displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, a war of aggression against Mexico in 1846, and attacks on countries such as Canada, Cuba, and even Central America, by filibusters and military action to gain overseas colonies (Greenberg 10, 25, and 26). While Manifest Destiny first arose as a dominant ideology during the early nineteenth-century, the concept of American exceptionalism, the heart of this ideology, was older than the nation itself. This concept was taken by white Americans as proof that they, and their nation, were unique and marked by God for a special destiny (Greenberg, 5). It would be several decades before the advantages of American settlement would be presented to the world. One advantage being the Louisiana Purchase, which was the expansion westward.