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Similarities Between Westward Expansion And American Exceptionalism

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Westward Expansion and American Exceptionalism From the very first settlers in America, there has always been a keenness for land accumulation. In the 1800’s, America began an expansion. Whether it was for the salvation of the natives, Manifest Destiny or the hope for more opportunity, Americans developed a mindset that they had a unique role to pursue in spanning the new nation. Numerous documents of the time insisted Americans were superiors of the human race and had a special destiny designed by God in worldwide history. This term, later coined American Exceptionalism, is the intellectual foundation of expansion. The Westward Expansion happened because of American’s Exceptionalism. White Protestants believed Native Americans needed to be …show more content…

In the westward expansion of America, not just Protestants were compelled to cross the nation by the power of God; the people of America believed God had called upon them to accomplish their “high destiny” (para. 7). In the 1800’s American propaganda and numerous documents of the time were full of telling Americans that they were a superior people. It was not long before the American’s adapted this way of thinking and saw themselves excellent enough to be selected by God to carry out His pious tasks. For example, in 1839, the editor of the widely circulated Democratic Review newspaper, John L. O'Sullivan, proclaimed that America was “the nation of progress, individual freedom [and] universal enfranchisement” and was “destined for better deeds” (para. 4 and 7). Not only did O’Sullivan speak highly of America as the nation of “unparalleled glory,” but he went on to declare that moving Westward was the American people’s foreordination to “manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles” (para. …show more content…

Not only did he praise the new nation, which gave his readers a sense of unification and patriotism, but he also went on to admire the people of America. He said that it was their God given duty to fulfill their destiny. This destiny included setting an example for the rest of the world and to assimilate natives into their ways. Saying that God gave Americans this specific and exclusive fate alludes to how special and crucial it was for the American’s to uphold this expectation. God does not give opportunity like this to everyone. O’Sullivan specifically makes a point to state God gave this fate and was expecting the Americans to do this, not any other nation of the world. He wanted and trusted Americans to carry out his worldly deeds, which made them superior and more exceptional than the people of any other nation. Also at this time, America was branching away from England and Europe whom were governed by oppressive political systems. To prevent the American people from being subjugated like Europeans, Americans tried a new democratic political system. It became part of the American’s destiny to set an example for the rest of the tyrannically ruled European world that there was a just, liberating way of government and it was found in the exceptional America. According to O’Sullivan, the other part of America’s destiny was to bless the natives who were “shut out from the life-giving light of

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