Was it Destiny to Move West? Manifest Destiny was the belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American Continents was justified and inevitable. Although it was not justified or inevitable. There was violence that did not need to happen. And the expansion of the US did not happen through inevitability it happened through government action. Therefore, it was not destiny to move west but was the American settlers own greed. The American settlers were violent while obtaining land in America in Kansas there were increasing amounts of conflicts several wars caused violence between the settlers and Native Americans and the Native Americans were forced out of their land. In Kansas, it was up to the people to decide if it was pro-slavery or a free state earning Kansas the name of Bleeding Kansas. (SQ4, C)This shows the amount of fighting that happened in Kansas. There were many conflicts from 1750 to 1882. in 1715 to 1717 there was a …show more content…
the Homestead Act forced Indians out of their land, the Indian Removal Act made Indians leave the land they were on, and the territories pushed the Native Americans to move farther west. The Homestead Act allowed settlers to buy land from the government. (SQ1, F) The act let them take land that was not theirs in the first place and use it for themselves. The Trial of Tears was when the settlers ignored the treaties that both the settlers and Native Americans had signed. (SQ3, B) The Trial of Tears was when the Native Americans lost a lot of land due to the settlers. The Missouri Compromise was every state above Missouri were free states, but as the settlers gained more territories the Native Americans were moved farther west. (SQ4, A) The Native Americans were treated poorly and were constantly moved from the land that was originally theirs. It was not fated the settlers came to America it was through government
The Manifest Destiny Effect and the Nez Perce In the mid 19th century Americans believed it was their duty to permeate the U.S. boundaries and into western territory. Not only did they believe it their duty as an American, but their divine right to obtain these lands. This is known as manifest destiny, “a future event accepted as inevitable” (Merriam-Webster). At the very heart of manifest destiny, was an obtuse belief in the supremacy of whites.
In the 1800s, Manifest Destiny, or also known as “obvious fate,” stretched all over the country, and intrigued many people. It took on many forms. The United States expanded through treaties, settlement, and war. But before that, the US only owned from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. The rest was owned by Great Britain, Russia, France, and Spain.
From 1820-1860 Manifest Destiny played a major role in American Politics. Manifest Destiny was the expansion of American settlement onto Western land, and the belief that it is God-given land. Manifest Destiny impacted America politically because Americans felt they had a right to all Western land, so this resulted in the creation of the Missouri Compromise of 1820,and the Mexican American War of 1846. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 created a border line between free-soil states, and slave States in Western territories. The Mexican American War of 1846 was a war between the Mexicans, and Americans for Western land.
This had no consent from the Mexican people and, in the name of American expansion, showed a clear disregard for their right to self-government. The Mexican-American War violated the value of the governed's consent and disregarded the sovereignty of another nation and the rights of the people living there. The Trail of Tears, in which thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and relocated to reservations without their consent, was another time of Americans not following the value of consent of the governed. The government used the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to justify these actions, arguing that it was necessary for the expansion of white settlers. However, this forced relocation ignored the rights of the Native American tribes and violated their right to self-government.
Manifest Destiny is a unique, yet mysterious fundamental series of events in American history. No other country’s history contains such an eventful history as the United States. Amy Greenberg’s book, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, provides documented evidence that settlers believed they were destined for expansion throughout the continent. In other words, many religious settlers believed that it was a call from God for the United States to expand west. On the other hand, people believed that Manifest Destiny vindicated the war against Mexico.
Even though the War of 1812 led to the victory of the U.S over the British this greatly weakened the Indian tribes. As a result of this defeat over the English many tribes were forced out of the “New Nation”. In 1835 this became known as the “Trail of Tears”. All Five Civilized Tribes were forced into Indian Territory. The name awarded to the path the Indians had to travel fitted well.
Manifest Destiny is the expansion westward into new territory for a better economical society and an increase of resources for those who expanded. White Americans fulfilled their desire to stretch from coast to coast and receive land and resources in the process. On the other hand, African Americans were forced to expand as labor for their slaveholders. In 1872, John Gast painted a picture of an angel leading a spread of civilization depicting Manifest Destiny (Document 2). As Manifest Destiny is occurring and colonists are expanding westward, slavery is brought along with it.
“Manifest Destiny,” written by John L. O’Sullivan, explains how expansion is needed for america and how it could better our nation. The painting “American Progress,”supports expansion by displaying what it looked like when the settlers moved in. The text, “Reporting to the President, September 23-December 31,1806,” by Stephen Ambrose, supports westward expansion by talking about how lewis and Clarke did good things to help westward expansion. What do you think about westward expansion?
Westward expansion not only opened up the west coast to America, it also opened up America to new interactions with Native Americans. Westward expansion created one big question for Americans, what to do with the Native Americans? The answer to this was not black and white, many Americans felt as if assimilation was the key, while other Americans felt that annihilation was the key. This created a big divide in America on deciding what to do with Native Americans and whites in the new frontier. In this collection of documents, the primary sources differ from helping the Native Americans to exterminating the Native Americans: A congressional speech by James Michael Cavan given on 1868, a book called A Century of Dishonor written by Helen
Manifest destiny is something that went down in the early 19000ths. It was an expansion on the U.S To basically expand the states of the U.S.American continents was both justified and inevitable. It started in 1840. But it was mostly recognized in the 19000ths. It made states like california join the union.
If this be a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon the territories of Great Britain. . . . They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their own territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages” . This showed that the United States would state firm in their endeavor to not only Christianize the North American continent but remain in control of the lands they had already acquired with
If Native Americans were not compliant, Americans would murder them. Although Manifest Destiny was seen as an inevitable movement among Americans and resulted in the formation of the American West in the Nineteenth century, it was truthfully an act of invasion and subjugation against peoples who had settled the land for hundreds of years earlier. Manifest Destiny led to an obvious upsurge in racial
The people who settled the west were greatly dependent on the US government and the policies they adopted. The settling of the west in the late 19th century was similar to the settlement of the south in the 1830’s. Andrew Jackson drove out the indians so that the valuable land of the south could be secured by white settlers. Once again, the federal government made it possible to settle the west by forcing indians off of their lands. A recurring theme in American history is manifest destiny and the attempt to develop unsettled lands by the federal government.
The Westward Expansion consisted of almost 7 million Americans migrating west, hoping to get land and be wealthy. It is often called Manifest Destiny, because many people believed settlers was intended to expand the west. Because so many people thought this way it was also thought the U.S was physically separated from Europe. This migration of people included people from Spain, France, Mexico, and other countries. The Western Expansion had a part in the foreign policies in the expansion towards the pacific and the way the U.S treated their relationship with other
Manifest Destiny was the term used by John O’Sullivan to describe America’s desire to expand West due to reasons including both the vast amount of unclaimed land and the opportunities Americans wanted to explore. During this time, Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand West, and therefore they were entitled to push away any groups that were in their way. Due to the mindset that the Americans could do as they pleased with the groups of people who got in their way, Manifest Destiny affected many groups of people, including the American Indians and Slaves, and continued to build up the preexisting tension between the North and South. One of the groups of people affected greatly by Manifest Destiny were the Native Americans. Manifest Destiny affected the American Indians by spreading foreign diseases to them as they moved Westward, through the Native American territory.