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Colonialism and its effects
American indian manifest destiny
Colonialism and its effects
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Manifest destiny has been idealized in America since the budding of the nation, and in the late 1800s it went hand in hand with the American Dream. It was government funded and railroad approved, as both ruling powers promised immigrants and citizens a prosperous life in the West. Americans weren’t apt to allow anything to keep from recognizing their dream, and unfortunately Native American tribes in the West proved to be roadblocks for American settlers. Thus began the dissolution of tribes and the belief that colonization of the Native Americans would be anything but destructive. Though these actions may have been met with relief from American settlers, the implications of cultural immersion and forced education proved to be disadvantageous to Native Americans residing in the West. With the passing of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, Native American lands were divided by the United States government and given in allotments back to the rightful owners. The Reverend Lyman Abbott, the author of A Proposal for Indian Education (1888) described it as “the solution of the land problem” with regards to the obstacles that the government created when concerning itself with Native American reformation. Abbott wrote that the nation planned to “consecrate the entire [Native American] continent to civilization, with no black spot upon it devoted to barbarism.” He firmly believed that if the United States government did …show more content…
In it, he claims that the “white man’s burden” is the responsibility to colonize and civilize less advanced countries. In this case, Kipling urges America to imperialize the Philippines, however the goal still stood true in American citizen’s minds with regards to all races, indigenous or otherwise. These ideals stood out to Americans in this time, and may have pushed many of them to further support reformation and colonization of the Native
People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans through the schooling that stained the past and futures of Native Americans not only with blood but also with emotion. It was all a slow and painful plan of the "white man" to hopefully get rid of the Indian culture, forever. The Native American schools were created in an attempt to destroy the Native American way of life, their culture, beliefs and tradi...
The term “Manifest Destiny” was never actually used until 1845, but the idea was always implied from the Doctrine of Discovery. Without understanding the Doctrine, it is impossible to understand the reasons and fundamentals behind why Manifest Destiny began.This Doctrine was a set of ten steps and rules that European nations followed in order to avoid conflict over land holdings, created in the early 1400s. The first few steps give the discovering country full rights to buy the land from the native peoples. This is important, since it gave the discovering country the power of preemption. Conquered Indian peoples lose sovereign powers and the rights to free trade and diplomatic relations, and the land they occupy is said to be vacant. Religion played a massive role in the regulations of the Doctrine, since “non-Christian people were not deemed to have the same rights to land, sovereignty, and self determination as Christians”(Miller 4). These rules were all meant to favor the ethnocentric, with full understanding of the repercussions on those who lived in the places being conquered.
In the 1830’s America was highly influenced by the Manifest Destiny Ideal. Manifest Destiny was the motivating force behind the rapid expansion of America into the West. This ideal was highly sponsored by posters, newspapers, and various other methods of communication. Propaganda was and is still an incredibly common way to spread an idea to the masses. Though Manifest Destiny was not an official government policy, it led to the passing of the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act gave applicants freehold titles of undeveloped land outside of the original thirteen colonies. It encouraged Westward colonization and territorial acquisition. The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. To America, Manifest Destiny was the idea that America was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout this time Native Americans were seen as obstacles because they occupied land that the United States needed to conquer to continue with their Manifest Destiny Ideal. Many wars were fought between the A...
The Manifest Destiny was a progressive movement starting in the 1840's. John O'Sullivan, a democratic leader, named the movement in 1845. Manifest Destiny meant that westward expansion was America's destiny. The land that was added to the U.S. after 1840 (the start of Manifest Destiny) includes The Texas Annexation (1845), The Oregon Country (1846), The Mexican Cession (1848), The Gadsden Purchase (1853), Alaska (1867), and Hawaii (1898). Although this movement would take several years to complete, things started changing before we knew it.
The entire concept of Manifest Destiny was created by the New York journalist John. L. O’ Sullivan. It meant that America’s fate was to possess or expand across the entire North America; it was undeniable and just waiting to happen. This is the point where many people started traveling west. It is true that America did acquire much land from expanding, but at what cost did we obtain it? I believe that America did not have the proper incentives while fulfilling its “destiny” and its voracious citizens and leaders took advantage of Native Americans.
On February 8, 1887, the United States Congress decided to pass the Dawes Act also known as the General Allotment Act. The Dawes Act was named after its writer Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. The congressmen who sought to pass and enforce the Dawes Act aimed at pushing the Native Americans into assimilation at a high pace. The reformers of the act also expected Native Americans owning private property to build a foundation on which the natives could support themselves and their families (Stremlau, 265). The Act allowed the President of the United States to break up Indian reservation land into 160 acre allotments, and divide it out among each individual Native American. The Dawes Act Stated, “To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and to each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section…” (PBS-Archive of the West). The act also determined which tribal lands were too allotted. Tribes such as the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and many mo...
...reservation even with the Fort Laramie Treaty, which swore for the reconciliation amongst Native Americans and white settlers. The Manifest Destiny, the resettlement of the West, conveyed an abundant adjustment in the antiquity of the United States of America (PBS).
Manifest Destiny is a phrase used to express the belief that the United States had a mission to expand its borders, thereby spreading its form of democracy and freedom. Originally a political catchphrase of the nineteenth-century, Manifest Destiny eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the territorial expansion of the United States across North America towards the Pacific Ocean. The United States government believed that the Native Americans were a problem that was hindering Manifest Destiny from being fulfilled (or at the very least, used the idea of Manifest Destiny to gain land and resources the Indians possessed), and would do everything in their power to exterminate the “Indian Problem.” The U.S. government, along with the majority of the U.S. population, eradicated this problem through lies, forced removal, and murder. This eradication nearly wiped out a race of people, whose only crime was mere existence in a land they had lived on, respected, and cherished for hundreds of years. The U.S. government had three main ways of solving the “Indian Problem”. They would remove them, kill them, or segregate them from the “civilized” white man by placing the Indian on reservations. The Indians soon learned that the U.S. government could not be trusted, and fought fiercely against the harsh injustices that were being administered. Tragically, the Indians would eventually have their spirits broken, living out their meager existence in the terrible homes called reservations.
The Dawes Act was a policy passed on February 18, 1887, by Massachusetts senator Henry Dawes. The act stated that the president (which at the time was Grover Cleaveland), could break up land in Reservations, and organize them into plots. The plots ranged in size from forty to one-hundred sixty acres. The plots were then distributed out to the Indians. From there, they were expected to farm it. That was an attempt to assimilate them. Assimilating the Indians was very important to settlers. They believed that if they could make them “more American”, they could have more control over them.
The debate over manifest destiny has not at anytime taken place without the issue of place of violence taking the centre stage. Manifest destiny as a belief was propagated by the Democrats in the 1840s and asserted the United State’s expansion over Mexico and the western frontier was apparent and inexorable. As such, the argument posited that there was nothing that could come between this belief and its realization. Though the expansion policy was older, the term manifest destiny was first used in 1845 by John O’Sullivan in a newspaper review, (Adams). The idea was not only expansionist in the territorial sense but in spreading of a world ba...
When the shape of America first started to grow from just land to the 13 colonies to the westward expansion of our country in less than a century, it sure feels like hopes and dreams came true. Though it might have seemed like an easier task, it took luck, labor, and intense warfare. The long process of American territorial expansion was justified by a mid-century ideology known as Manifest Destiny (pg 1). The one people we seem to forget about when we discuss the growing settlement of our country are the Native Americans. They had inhabited the country long before Columbus had discovered America, and still play an important part in today’s society. Manifest Destiny justified the displacement and domestication of Native Americans all while
In the late eighteenth century, the United States government wanted to acculturate and assimilate Native American people as opposed to instituting reservations. The officials endorsed the practice of education for Indian children in the customs of white people. To help in bringing this to life, the Civilization Fund Act of 1819 provided financing to mostly religious societies who worked on educating Indians, often at schools. Schools were founded by missionaries next to Indian settlements, which later became reservations. As time went on, schools were built with boarding facilities, to provide accommodations for students who lived too far to be there on a daily basis (Lajimodiere 8). The Civilization Fund Act was immoral and had tremendous negative impact because it assisted in funding the Indian boarding schools, which resulted in abuse of Native children, supported the loss of their own culture and language, and lead to forced separation from families and tribes.
Manifest Destiny! This simple phrase enraptured the United States during the late 1800’s, and came to symbolize an era of westward expansion through numerous powerful entities. The expansion can be inspected though many different contextual lenses, but if examined among the larger histories of the United States, this movement can be classified as one of the most influential developments of the post-Civil War period. While very influential to the larger part of American history, the seemingly barbaric methods that were used conquer the western lands and their peoples took physical and economical forms that proved to be a plague upon the West.
The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 brought about the policy of Cultural Assimilation for the Native American peoples. Headed by Richard Henry Pratt, it founded several Residential Schools for the re-education and civilization of Native Americans. Children from various tribes and several reservations were removed from their families with the goal of being taught how to be c...
In source 7, Lyman Abbott states in his proposal for a solution to the education issue, that no solution has been offered “for converting them from groups of tramps, beggars, thieves, and sometimes robbers and murderers, into communities of intelligent, industrious, and self-supporting citizens.” Many personnel on various Native American affairs boards believed that Native American adolescents should be taught the same material as American youth, so that they may be ready to be introduced into American society as an adult, along with being able to become a citizen. Army officer Captain Richard Pratt began education Native American youth after witnessing the education of Native American prisoners. Pratt saw many similarities between that of the treatment of Native Americans and of African Americans. In his account, he speaks on behalf of African Americans and their journey to citizenship by stating that schools are not to be awarded for developing citizens. Instead “denied the right of schools, they became English-speaking and industrious through the influence of association” (source 9). He believed the best way to promote growth of the Native Americans into American society, was not to keep them sheltered on reservations, but instead to promote their integration into schools and