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Manifest Destiny
Westward Expansion
In 1840, North America was
home to three republics, two
monarchies and dozens of
distinct Native American nations.
Within less than a decade, most
of it would belong to the United
States.
Americans had been trying to
expand throughout all of the nation's
history - pushing beyond
Jamestown, plowing the frontier of
Pennsylvania. Then they wanted to
cross the Proclamation Line, and of
course, go into the Louisiana
Territory. After the War of 1812,
they turned their attention to
Oregon.
In the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, both the British and
Americans explored and claimed
territory in the Pacific Northwest, an
area that came to be known to
Americans as the Oregon Country.
After the 1818 Rush-Bagot Treaty
reached a joint occupancy
agreement, thousands of settlers
crossed overland to the new
territory.
Stretching 2,000 miles from
Missouri to the Pacific Coast, the
Oregon Trail was blazed by fur
trappers like John Jacob Astor as
a footpath.
But within a couple of decades, the
wagon trail included bridges and
mountain passes, taking nearly half
a million people not just to Oregon
but to many 'jumping-off points,'
leading prospectors to California,
Mormon refugees to Utah and
settlers anywhere there was fertile
land, displacing thousands of Native
Americans in the process.
It wasn't long before many
Americans began calling for the
total annexation of Oregon - and
other territory, as well.
In 1845, journalist John O'Sullivan
defended America's claim on the
territory, saying, '…that claim is by the
right of our manifest destiny to
overspread and to possess the whole of
the continent which Providence has
given us for the development of the great
experiment of liberty and federated selfgovernment entrusted to us.' A lot of
people agreed with him.
Reasons for Expansion
Why the push to take over the
continent? There were a lot of
different reasons. Clearly, some
people believed that extending
America's borders from coast to
coast was both a God-given purpose
(or destiny) and it was obvious and
inevitable (in other words, manifest).
Some saw expansion as a matter of
national defense - they were concerned
about increased British or Mexican
influence in North America. Others
wanted to occupy as much territory in
North America as possible for economic
reasons and secure ports to Asia on the
West Coast. Some wanted to expand the
reach and influence of slavery into new
places.
Another motive was land. A baby
boom plus dramatic increases in
immigration more than
quadrupled the population
between the turn of the century
and 1850, and all those people
needed somewhere to go. Then
economic downturns occurred in
both 1818 and 1839.
The frontier offered people a
second chance with new
opportunities in business and
cheap (or even free) land. Land
ownership represented freedom,
wealth and political power.
And new technology such as
steam power and the telegraph
made the prospect of moving
westward a little less
intimidating. About 4,000,000
people (more than the population
of the 13 colonies during the
Revolution) moved west between
1820 and 1850.
Achieving Manifest Destiny
At first, many people envisioned
manifest destiny as a romanticized
ideal: white Americans would move
in to desirable land and set up
perfect societies that would soon
petition for annexation into the US.
Of course, America could negotiate
for more territory or buy it outright.
War was another option.
Regardless of the process, many
politicians adopted the phrase
'manifest destiny,' and
O'Sullivan's words came to
symbolize America's driving
national purpose for half a
century. Today, his phrase also
represents an era in US history.
Some expansionists didn't want to
wait for the US government to
achieve manifest destiny.
Unauthorized soldiers known as
filibusters or freebooters carried out
private military expeditions to
secure land. The infamous William
Walker attempted to colonize parts
of Mexico and Nicaragua.
He was on his way to victory
until he infuriated American
millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt,
who convinced the US navy to
destroy his regime. Undeterred,
Walker went into Honduras just
six months later. This time, he
made the British navy angry, and
they oversaw his execution.
With many options on the table for
achieving it, manifest destiny
became unofficial government policy
in the 19th century as America was
faced with the need, the desire and
the opportunity to take more land.
In the West, politicians saw
everything they needed to expand
the prosperity of America's growing
population: land, markets, ports.
In the 1840s, President James
Polk negotiated with Britain for
most of the Oregon Territory and
set the United States on a course
to control the land from sea to
shining sea. And it didn't really
matter who was in the way.