manifest destiny definition us history

manifest destiny definition us history

Manifest Destiny: A Comprehensive Analysis in US History

1. Introduction to Manifest Destiny

Americans have chosen this task. Resolving the issue of Texas and deciding what the treaty obligations are can be far less controversial than actions are taken. This does not always or perhaps often happen voluntarily. Neither do Americans run the risk of imminent war or crisis in international affairs through murder of the peace or outright negotiations. They expect no snags nor embarrassments from such a mission. Such missions are difficult to pursue and defend. They mean work and care which are necessary to make this all smooth or even well-behaved. They require energy, and among those who would join in the merriment of peace, they require unity. As an American diplomat once said, it is the heartfelt opinion of most of us ambitious enough to present our country any less radical than the paramount decision of leading a lifelong anti-American revolution which contributes the utmost security to the vital Union of the United States. This is the Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny, a concept coined in 1845, expressed the philosophy that drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion. The article “Annexation,” explaining how the new purchase of Texas was a matter of policy and discussing what kind of government Texas would have, appeared in the April 1844 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review. In the context of the Oregon country, the term “Manifest Destiny” had first been achieved by the Oregon press in the spring of 1844. The meaning has now come to be understood by all. The magazine’s editorial voiced the views of many Americans when it said, “It is peace, commerce, laws, and more people. As a South Carolinian friend said, he would make no argument with one who demonstrates a manifest destiny. He needs none.” He is with all who would act.

2. The Origins and Ideology of Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny expressed the conviction that white Americans were fated by Providence to rule the North American continent, from one shore to the other. Northern Mexico and the northern frontiers of Mexico were considered by the Americans as barren and desolate places, much like the aboriginal lands of the Indians, who in the opinion of the Anglo-Saxon white man would never make anything out of it, because they lacked a knowledge of the instruments of civilization and stability. Therefore, it was the manifest destiny of the North Americans to take possession of that territory and bring to it their character, energy, and intelligence such that it could develop in an exemplary way for the rest of the continent. That sense of superiority was founded upon the legal and cultural differences between the regions claimed by the Anglo-Saxons and the surrounding territories administered by Spaniards and Mexicans, and used by semi-nomadic Indians for a territorial range.

Manifest Destiny was a phrase which invoked the idea of divine sanction for the territorial expansion of the United States. It first appeared in 1845, in the July-August issue of the Democratic Review, and with this it is most frequently associated. The anonymous author, thought to be its editor John L. O’Sullivan, proclaimed “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions… the most noblest destiny ever laid down.”

3. Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion

The movement was helped materially by the Monroe Doctrine and the success of Lewis and Clark. All of the ramblings of the filibusters, the fur traders, and also the armed expeditions which eventually followed were rooted deeply in Manifest Destiny. The concept of an Empire of Liberty was ever present in the minds of the American people who were almost consumed by the fires of adventurism. This, then, was what the basic concept of Manifest Destiny was in the mid-nineteenth century. It was, in fact, a type of utopian ideal that helped to inspire and energize America at this time. The pioneers who struggled through the mud and desert, the dry fury, and rapid waters rarely thought of the movement in explicit terms, and it was only when entering into lands of the British, Spanish, Mexicans, or the Indians that they would think otherwise. However, not everyone went out of noble purposes. Some went on simple trips of discovery and Indian devilment. There are also the trees, towns, and forts where the filibusters landed, and these could only be dreamed by charged admirers of Manifest Destiny, who were not the adventurers whom we knew.

Manifest Destiny was what led a sizable number of Americans to lands still under the control of the British, the Spanish, and also the Mexicans. Manifest Destiny was a broad movement that came at a time when America was fast becoming an industrial power. It was full of expansionistic imperatives and promised new beginnings for many Americans. This was, after all, why the Louisiana Purchase was made, and it was these concepts which convinced President Polk to make Texas, New Mexico, and also California integral parts of the United States. They would hopefully fill in to some extent the general indifference felt by the overwhelming majority of the American population, which was concerned not so much with external questions as with their own struggles for success or survival. Since the motives lay in boredom and the need for emotional satisfaction, there was also indifference and naivete. California quickly became the Eldorado of millions.

4. Critiques and Controversies Surrounding Manifest Destiny

The most important underlying causes for these three events are the intertwined issues of economic strife, political turmoil, and a quest for ‘Manifest Destiny’ by settlers who had embraced the spirit of the Jacksonian era. The contemporary critics of Manifest Destiny focused mainly on the political swings and roundabouts of the concept and focused their discussions on the politicians who ostensibly raised high the mantle of Manifest Destiny. It was argued by critics that the term was used to defend the wrong with an admittedly more approved level by heralding that America would not be held to be accused of motivated war as they had not declared said war. Other critics reviled Congress and those who brought on the American Civil War as it distracted the leaders from their primary mandate to expand the nation. Finally, the abolitionists also had their say. Their criticism centered on the fact that the possibility of gaining new territories would certainly encourage the South to enslave the new territories.

The topic of Manifest Destiny did not come into common usage until the 1840s. The term was used by leaders and politicians who believed that expanding the American republic was a divinely ordained goal. They sought to spread America’s values and institutions across the land. Expansions were so significant as to take on a special quality. The expansion across the land was relatively easy. This might have led Americans to believe that their destiny, though difficult to achieve, was inevitable. The impetus for the use of the concept of Manifest Destiny stemmed from three sources: the discontinuance of joint occupation of the Oregon territory through the treaty with Britain, the hostilities between the Mexicans and the Texans, and the annexation of Texas which precipitated a war with Mexico.

5. Legacy and Impact of Manifest Destiny in American History

Manifest Destiny also had its critics who believed that it symbolized the erasure of national frontiers. Dispossessed Mexicans and Indians were left to ponder the inadequacies of a political and social philosophy that legitimized and promoted American intervention, conquest, and expansion. Expansionism and the rise of southern sectionalism juxtaposed differing regional concerns in the minds of many. Expansionist tensions would mount on the road to the American Civil War. After expansionism was fulfilled, trade relationships would often dictate national policy. The U.S. would use its powerful naval forces to dominate the major ports of the Americas, sometimes by economic imperialism. These physical curtailments of free trade would encourage other countries to use Manifest Destiny against the U.S. “back home” (economic imperialism) as well as internationally. Like the rest of the United States, its merchants, businessmen, and industrialists began to travel down the road to free market capitalism, commerce, and industry, where they resembled both Miranda, who is credited for the discovery of the idea of Manifest Destiny, and Turner by advocating their own “new path” and/or frontier.

While Manifest Destiny justified and was used to explain a period of heroic expansion in the American West (and before that, in the registry of pioneers across the Appalachian Mountains), expansion would have continued regardless of belief in Manifest Destiny. The United States was on the march from the time of the American Revolution. It was a nation constantly on the move. Immigration, low cost, and often free land, population growth, economic opportunities, freedom from perceived tyranny and oppression fueled the border to border migration. The main impetus to realize Manifest Destiny was Americans fulfilling Turner’s prophecy to move west and build a great society on the great frontier.