Pros And Cons Of Manifest Destiny

“ Sixteen thousand Cherokee began the journey, but harsh weather, poor planning, and difficult travel resulted in between 3,000-4,000 deaths on what became known as the Trail of Tears” (yawp). Some Native American Nation’s still dislike/fear the American government. We have taken over Native American land and left them with

In 1763, Britain took some of Spain’s land despite having just helped them. King Louis XV tried to give his land away to his cousin because he thought that the land wasn’t rich enough. Many Native Americans such as the Sioux lived in the region. King Louis gladly gave the land to Spain because of how expensive it was. The British wanted to defeat Spain so badly that they had the Native Americans attack them.

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.

Private John G. Burnett accounted his military experiences in 1839 as follows:"I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west.” A direct result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this was the harsh reality for more than 20,000 Native Americans living in America’s southeast (“Cherokee Removal - The Trail Where They Cried”). In order to acquire more land for white settlers and farmers producing profitable crops in the south, President Andrew Jackson proposed a plan for removal in 1829 (Stewart, 37). This plan was signed into law in 1830 as the Indian Removal Act. The act only gave the president the power to negotiate relocation with southern tribes; however, when many Native Americans resisted, the government turned to much more damaging and harmful methods of expulsion (Stewart 38).

This quote represents an effect that Manifest Destiny had on Chief Joseph's tribe. White settlers were encroaching the tribes native lands and the natives had no where else to call home and they would die from freezing and starvation. Manifest Destiny led to Chief Joseph's tribes encroachment of their

Chief Joseph lived for 64 years. Most of his life was running away from the U.S army. He surrendered on October 5,1877 he told the U.S army “Hear me, my chiefs! I’m tired, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” This took place in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana.

On December 7, Colonel Moodie attempted to ride through a roadblock to warn Sir Francis Bond Head, governor of Upper Canada, but the rebels panicked and killed him. Mackenzie waited for Bond Head 's force of about 1000 men, led by Colonel James Fitzgibbon[? ], which outnumbered Mackenzie 's approximately 400 rebels and inflicted heavy casualties upon them. In less than half an hour the confrontation was over. Meanwhile, a group of rebels from London, led by Charles Duncombe, marched toward Toronto to support Mackenzie.

Manifest Destiny's ideas of spreading democratic principles along with the belief that God had chosen America's people for the great task of extending freedom across the continent would lead to a mindset best described as the white man's burden. The great task of bringing the heathen nations that surrounded America under her promising, beautiful banner of democracy and civilization seemed no small task to bare, but one that was imperative to accomplish. The importance of this task was well outlined by the very man who coined the term, saying "In this path we cannot go wrong. It is only to be cautious not to go too fast. Such then is our democracy."

Native Americans were forced to pick up their homes and resettle in areas that were less than sufficient to meet their basic needs. 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

Dunbar-Ortiz began her book by introducing the audience to the fact that the colonization of the Indigenous People of present-day United States and the captivation of their land by Anglo settlers was motivated by both their “belief in white supremacy” (36) and the theory of Social Darwinism, a theory which became popular in the mid-nineteenth century (39). For one, according to Dunbar-Ortiz, “skin color has been and continues to be a key component of racism in the United States” (36); racism is what fueled white supremacy to formulate, allowing for Anglo settlers to consider themselves more supreme that the Native people of North America. In addition to the perception of white supremacy, Anglo settlers were also influenced by the concept of Social Darwinism, in which English scientists theorized that people of color “has descended from apes, while the English were descendents of ‘man’ who had been created by God ‘in his own image’” (39). Both the concept of white supremacy and the Social Darwinism theory allowed for Anglo settlers to continue with the mistreatment of the Indigenous, for their actions seemed to be justified by both a racial point of view and a religious point of view. However, the colonization of the

128). When times were rough for the Chickasaws in the 18th century, warfare brought their numbers down to merely 400. (Calloway, pg. 128) The near extinction of their tribe called for the help of their English allies that put them in this situation. In order to prevent the downfall of their own kind, they asked the Governor of South Carolina to return the members of their tribe that were sent to other nations and for weapons and ammunition to help protect their homeland (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, pg.

On March 27, 1814, General Andrew Jackson had led 2,600 Americans, 500 Cherokee, and 100 Lower Creeks to fight the Upper Creeks. The battle was a violent one, and with the dead Natives, Jackson 's troops made bridle reins with the Natives skins, conducted a body count by cutting off their noses, and took their clothes for the ladies of Tennessee. In the end, the General had forced the Creeks to sign The Treaty of Fort Jackson. The Creeks had to give up their territory, from what jackson determined needed a sense of

This was a vast number of people. A significant impact of the Indian Removal Act of 1820 was the Trail of Tears. The Trail of tears represents one of the most brutal and morbid episodes in American history. The Cherokee Nation lost a majority of their population due to the spreading of diseases due to cold weather with lack of proper clothing attire. Many even died of starvation with lack of food on the long journey.

All Five Civilized Tribes were forced into Indian Territory. The name awarded to the path the Indians had to travel fitted well. “The Trail Where They Cried”. Indians suffered very much due to their removal from land they had lived in long ago. Even though the United States was gaining control over more land it was at the cost and suffering of other

From where the sun now, stands, I will fight no more forever”. The US Government broke a treaty with the Nez Perce forcing them off their lands of the Wallowa Valley to be put on a reservation in Northwest Idaho. When Chief Joseph heard about a few young Nez Perce killing a few white settlers he started one of the greatest retreats in American military history. Over the next three months Chief Joseph led his people 1,000 miles to try and get to the Canadian border with 2,000 strong army after them. They were not successful, only 40 miles short Chief Joseph was surrounded by the US