Manifest Destiny: How America Justified Westward Expansion

During the 19th century, Americans believed westward expansion was their inevitable and preordained right, or their Manifest Destiny, to inhabit new territories such as Texas, California, and the entire western United States of today.

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Today's Daily Dose short history film covers Manifest Destiny, which was an American mindset in the early to mid-19th century that American, as ordained by God, had the right to expand the nation's landholdings all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:

Today on The Daily Dose, Manifest Destiny.

During the first half of the 19th century, the United States population witnessed a near five-fold expansion due to high birth rates and a rising tide of immigration from Europe. Combined with the economic depressions of 1819 and 1839, westward migration exploded as Americans searched for new land and opportunities. In response, President Thomas Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, followed by the acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819. By the time Texas gained statehood in December of 1845, the notion that the U.S. would inevitably expand to the Pacific Ocean had become so widely accepted in the mind of most Americans, setting in motion a flood of migration and political will into what would become the American west.

The term “Manifest Destiny” first appeared in an editorial published in the the Democratic Review in the summer of 1845, when a writer made criticism of the lingering opposition to the annexation of Texas from Mexico, urging readers toward a national unity for “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”
That same summer, an article by John O’Sullivan in the New York Morning News referenced “Manifest Destiny” in light of the Oregon Territory, which was another vast swatch of land that American politicians and laymen alike were eager to assert control over.

By the time the Oregon Territory joined the U.S. following a treaty with Great Britain, America was now embroiled in the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848, which was driven by the spirit of “Manifest Destiny,” as pioneers freely encroached upon Mexican land. When war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 525,000 square miles were added to the United States’s landing holdings, including what is now California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

While the conquering spirit of Manifest Destiny witnessed a near stunning territorial expansion over the first half of the 19th century, the unrelenting westward spread of Americans not only led to war with Mexico, but also witnessed the wanton mistreatment and dislocation of Hispanics, Native Americans and other non-Europeans living in the path of westward settlers, at the same time fueling a contentious two-sided debate over which new territories and states would embrace the brutal institution of slavery, eventually leading a divided nation headlong into Civil War.

And there you have it, Manifest Destiny, today on The Daily Dose.

[CurtisThomas-lp]

Other nations had their versions of manifest destiny...Nazi Germany called it lebensraum, lzrel calls it Eratz lzreI and the colonial Southern Africans had the same ideology

[frankt]

Hawaii got some of that manifest destiny also.

[catfight]

We're getting a destiny manifested all over us now!

[lLooNy]

Manifest destiny is why we had a pacific fleet, calfornia being one of the top economies, etc, etc. This was a no brainer for any think tank or intellectual whether now, then, or 1000 years before.


The religous aspect was just to get the general populace on board, but this was a necessary movement/policy.

[lenisbennett]

It's my understanding that President James Polk Democrat is normally credited would the term manifest destiny

[googlegilbertlevinmars]

God Bless America, the french, the spanish, the irish, the mexican, the brazilian, the Honduran, the polish, the jewish, the german, the african, the albino, the premature and the end of life suffering. May God Bless all Life within this universe and all other universes that exist, cease to exist, and will exist within time-space. Halleluiah

[JohnCampbell-rnrz]

Interesting. No mention of the fact that the first serious effort to take over the whole continent, the War of 1812, was an abject failure. If Napoleon hadn't been broke and stupid and given away the Louisiana Purchase for less than 3 cents an acre, the U. S. would have been stuck on the east side of the Mississippi and a long, long way from the Pacific.

[briannat]

Haha. Manifest Destiny? Euphemism for Genocide.

[guapcry]

blud wanted a boosie fade but got this instead

[sidgreenblatt]

Is this not what Israel is doing to the west bank to the Palestinians ???

[Big_Glizzy.]

Martin Van Buren (founder of the Democratic party) was anti slavery. He enforced Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, I like to think that because the southern tribes owned African slaves, he had no problem removing them from their lands to "Indian Territory"

[regular-kt]

Manifest Destiny made more sense than we can imagine.

[googlegilbertlevinmars]

God Bless The Children Of Futures-Time.

[mggentry]

It was inevitable that Beyonce would become queen of pop call that Manifest Destiny’s Child

[brittanyhayes]

These are some of my ancestors! I love them.

[brittanyhayes]

I love my ancestors to piss off the haters. 😂

[aricgoetz]

Im proud of my ancestors, ill say it loudly and dont care who that pisses off.

[dakine]

whats w the chick in a bikini at the start of the vid 😂

[jamescoe]

North America was and still is loaded with trillions of dollars worth of natural resources just waiting to be taken. No form of government living here was powerful enough to protect it in 1600 like the American military is trying to do today. So, if European Christians are not to your liking, who would your rather have had to come in and "take it"? Based on a look back on history, you would not have to worry about Indian Reservations because Indians would not exist today in any number worth considering.