Manifest Destiny, By John L. Sullivan - 1491 Words

It is hard to read anything about the history of the United States without coming across the term â€Å"Manifest Destiny†. Manifest Destiny is a term, which was first coined by John L. Sullivan in the summer 1845 issue of the Democratic Review. â€Å"Hence it was carried into the debate on the Oregon question in the House of Representatives and proved to be such a convenient summing up of the self-confident nationalist and expansionist sentiment of the time that it passed into the permanent national vocabulary.† (Pratt, 798). The term voiced the idea that God had destined America to spread westward to the pacific. â€Å"It meant expansion, prearranged by Heaven, over an area not clearly defined.† (Merk, 24) Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century as they saw it was their destiny to expand their thriving country. This attitude that it was Americas destiny to expand helped fuel the drive to push west and begin the removal of Native Americans. Manifest Destiny is an extremely important aspect of American History and has ultimately helped to shape The United States into the successful country that is today. Being that Manifest Destiny was a major part of American history it is considered to be a very positive aspect. â€Å"Being that American expansion was viewed in the United States less as a victory for principles of free democratic republicanism than as evidence of the innate superiority of the American Anglo-Saxon branch of the CaucasianShow MoreRelatedManifest Destiny, By John L. O Sullivan925 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"In 1845, John L. O Sullivan, a newspaper reporter in New York City, coined the phrase manifest destiny. O Sullivan claimed that it was the God-given destiny of the United States of America to spread over North America. O Sullivan summarized his view this way: And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrustedRead MoreWas Manifest Destiny, An Ideology Coined By John L. O Sullivan Essay1100 Words   |  5 PagesKelsey Daniels HIST1301.01.16S2 August, 2 2016 Essay 4 Was Manifest Destiny a benevolent movement or in fact was it early imperialism pursued at the expense of others? The Manifest Destiny, an ideology coined by John L. O’Sullivan, described the attitude of American’s in the 19th century in regards to the expansion of the United States. There are disagreements on whether this expansion was a benevolent movement or an act of early imperialism. Some think because the 19th century Americans sawRead MoreNative America, Discovered and Conquered: Manifest Destiny803 Words   |  4 PagesTerritory and the prospects of future land acquisition, Americans used the idea of Manifest Destiny to justify their actions for moving westward and their treatment of Native Americans. The idea of Manifest Destiny was created directly by the European-used Doctrine of Discovery and industrialization; this direct correlation was proven to be true from the verdict of the court case Johnson v. M’Intosh. The term â€Å"Manifest Destiny† was never actually used until 1845, but the idea was always implied from theRead MoreManifest Destiny By James K. Polk1257 Words   |  6 PagesJack Biernesser Mr. Schulten U.S. History 16 March 2016 Manifest Destiny Manifest Destiny is the belief during the 19th century, that the United States of America not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. The idea of Manifest Destiny helped to fuel the war with Mexico and the removal of Indians from the United States. The American people and government lived by this belief. Manifest Destiny had many good results like the expansion of the American territory. It also had manyRead MoreWhat Is The Most Dangerous Ignorance Or Fear?1778 Words   |  8 Pagesinhibits rash decision making and can lead to fall out for many years to come. In the mid-1800s, narrow-minded selfishness, misplaced religious ideology, and gross neglect of fellow mankind resulted from America s Western Expansion or also known as Manifest Destiny. However, the consequences of the expansion did not stop there. The blurred lines of entitlement and ethics were unfortunately crossed again, but this time the driving force was fear. In 1919, the start of the Red scare after the Great War andRead MoreThe Civil War And The American War1318 Words   |  6 PagesThe question of what caused the Civil War is debatable because there are several events that may have influenced the war such as the Western Expansion, Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War. The war also stems from slavery, the North and South basically fought over whether or not slavery should be permitted. Another point that may have influenced the Civil War is the economic and social structure of the country, which also falls under slavery because the South main source of income was slaveryRead MoreAp American History - by: Alberto Alonso937 Words   |  4 PagesAmerica because they believed in Manifest Destiny (an idea during the 19th century in which people believed that America should expand over the entirety of North America) or because they feared that Texas was an independent state, even the Gold Rush in California (1848-1855) contributed to the expansion of America. Even t hough â€Å"the opponents of the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War attacked slavery as the root cause of expansion† the idea of Manifest Destiny, fear, and the Gold Rush were otherRead MoreManifest Destiny1327 Words   |  6 PagesManifest 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 is a term coined by John L. Sullivan in 1845 when talking about the annexation of Texas. He believed, along with other expansionists, that it’s inevitable that the US population would spread across North America because the land is given by Providence toRead MoreManifest Destiny Is An American Philosophy Essay2281 Words   |  10 Pages Manifest Destiny is an American philosophy with which it is to justify how that country has understood their place in the world and how to relate to other people. It is a doctrine, phrase or idea that expresses the belief that the United States is destined to spread to the four winds as supports the idea that is, to expand on the territories conquered North America and, in general, on the Western Hemisphere. This doctrine was not free of racism, considering that the American people wereRead MoreNative Americans During Westward Expansion Essay1592 Words   |  7 Pagesthe time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism. Despite that, the United States government told the Indians that they would not invade their lands. They soon heard that the Indians had fertile land and decided to allow settlers to move west. â€Å"After hearing tales of