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History Lesson 6
The West (Grades 8)
Instruction 6-1
Manifest Destiny
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Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny has been called the idea that turned America
into a nation.
Simply put, it was the belief that the American people would
expand into and posses the entire continent.
Evolution of an Idea
The words "Manifest Destiny" were first used in 1845 by magazine editor John L.
O'Sullivan in a publication called The United States Magazine and Democratic
Review. Politicians everywhere picked up the phrase and used it to promote
territorial expansion. Representative Robert Winthrop of Massachusetts used it
to end joint U.S.-British occupation of the Oregon Territory. In ringing tones, he
invoked "the right of our manifest destiny to spread over this whole continent."
The words may have been new. But the idea had been around since the country
began.
God and Mission
The idea of Manifest Destiny landed with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. And
with the settlers at Jamestown Colony. The 1600's were religious times. Many
Pilgrims were convinced that God had brought them to America for a purpose.
They felt that it was their destiny to acquire and "Christianize" the land. They
believed that territorial expansion was God's will.
Other colonists simply saw it as historically (and geographically) inevitable. Some
considered it an altruistic way to extend American liberty to new territories. Many
saw it as a way to acquire more land and resources. These expressions of
Manifest Destiny have been called "ecological imperialism."
Political and military leaders considered territorial expansion essential for
American security. They saw it as necessary to prevent European nations from
encroaching on what "rightfully belonged" to America.
Businessmen saw new markets.
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© B. J. Subbiondo 2003
History Lesson 6
The West (Grades 8)
Instruction 6-1
Manifest Destiny
www.etap.org
Whatever the justification, the concept of Manifest Destiny was behind every
farmer who built a cabin on the frontier. Every pioneer in every Conestoga
wagon. Behind the leaders who expanded the territory of the United States "by
military conquest, treaty and purchase."
The Louisiana Purchase
It was behind Thomas Jefferson when he made the Louisiana Purchase.
The Constitution did not give the President the right to buy land. But Jefferson
managed to do it through his treaty powers. The Louisiana Territory had been
owned by France, then Spain, then secretly by France again. Napoleon, who
ruled France, wanted to expand his influence in the New World. But after a
horrific defeat by ex-slave Touissant L'Ouverture and his rebels in Haiti, he
changed his mind. In 1803, he agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to the
United States for $15,000,000. It doubled the size of the country overnight.
Jefferson immediately commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore and map the
new territory. Which they did. With the help of 31 men, Sacajawea (their female
Shoshone guide) and Seaman, Lewis's Newfoundland dog. Their "Journey of
Discovery" lasted three years. They virtually opened the West. And through all
their hardships only one person died -- of appendicitis. Even Seaman the dog
came back alive.
Manifest Destiny was the guiding principle behind the Monroe Doctrine. In 1822
President James Monroe warned the European powers to stay out of the
Western Hemisphere, which you learned about in a recent Instruction.
It led to the annexation of Texas and the Mexican-American War, which we'll
tell you about in an upcoming Instruction.
But, most of all, it was behind the settlement of the West.
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© B. J. Subbiondo 2003
History Lesson 6
The West (Grades 8)
Instruction 6-1
Manifest Destiny
www.etap.org
Settlement of the West
The first wagon trains headed west in 1831. By 1840, the expansionist
movement was at its height.
The settlers took several different routes. Some took the Santa Fe Trail. It led
from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles. The
Oxbow Trail went from Missouri to California. The Oregon Trail was based on
the route taken by Lewis and Clark. It was the longest and wound for 2000 miles
from Missouri to Oregon. Over 300,000 settlers took it. Thousands died along
the way.
But although these pioneers built one nation, they displaced others -- the
American Indian nations. For American Indians, the doctrine of Manifest
Destiny was a disaster. It resulted in the movement of their tribes, their
confinement to reservations and the loss of many lives.
When Did It End?
Manifest Destiny led to the America we know today. But did it end when
the American continent was conquered? Some historians don't think so.
Westward expansion happened quickly. It took 200 years for Americans to
expand from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River. But it took less than 50
years for them to go from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1890, the Bureau of the Census officially declared that the interior frontier was
closed. But was Manifest Destiny really complete once America stretched from
coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico?
Not really.
In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. Interest
was expressed in Latin America. As well as in various Caribbean and Pacific
islands. Wars were fought and, in 1898, the United States took control of the
Philippines after the Spanish-American War. It also annexed Hawaii, which
became the 50th State.
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© B. J. Subbiondo 2003