Manifest Destiny

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At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States began to grow and develop regions in the west. During the 1830s and 1840s, migration increased, and led some Americans to dream of a continental empire, going all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Like the Puritans, who considered their colony a "city upon a hill," the Americans believed that the United States had a goal to spread liberty across the continent. A New York journalist named John L. O'Sullivan labeled the said goal as "Manifest Destiny." (Chiodo, John J.). Manifest Destiny was one of the greatest historical theories/beliefs, held by American settlers, before the 19th century.
Manifest Destiny explained the United States’ goal of spreading its systems of democracy, federalism, and personal freedom, as well as managing its growing population, by taking control of the North American continent. O'Sullivan believed that Manifest Destiny revoked any claims that European states had made, regarding who discovered or settled on North America first. O’Sullivan believed that the way to gain control of the continent was to be peaceful, and this was achieved through the work of "Anglo-Saxon emigration." Unlike imperial European nations that dominated their empires, the United States would wait for people living in other places, to realize the advantages of annexation and wait for them to join the Union (Robert E. May).
Manifest Destiny had many values that Americans were fond of. For starters, Manifest Destiny included the expansion of land, and thus, it greatly expanded the geography of our country. Americans owning land was an important step towards prosperity. Also, Manifest Destiny made it so America could trade with Asia, and not just Europe, so Man...

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America’s Manifest Destiny first surfaced around the 1840’s, when John O’Sullivan first titled the ideals that America had recently gained on claiming the West as their ‘Manifest Destiny.’ Americans wanted to settle in the West for multiple reasons, from the idea that God wanted them to settle all the way to the West co...
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Many Americans packed few belongings and headed west during the middle to the late nineteenth century. It was during this time period that the idea of manifest destiny became rooted in American customs and ideals. Manifest Destiny is the idea that supported and justified expansionist policies, it declared that expansion was both necessary and right. America’s expansionist attitudes were prominent during the debate over the territorial rights of the Oregon territory. America wanted to claim the Oregon territory as its own, but Great Britain would not allow that. Eventually the two nations came to an agreement and a compromise was reached, as seen in document B. The first major party of settlers that traveled to the west settled in Oregon.
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Manifest Destiny

Compare and contrast America’s “Manifest Destiny” of the mid-19th century with its “Imperialism” of the late 19th century.

Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Manifest Destiny