PW - Westward Growth and Manifest Destiny Lesson

Westward Growth and Manifest Destiny

32 MANIFEST DESTINY This term, coined by John L. O’Sullivan in 1845 in an article in his United States Magazine and Democratic Review , reflected the expansionist spirit of the era. It was, O’Sullivan wrote, “our manifest [read ‘obvious’] destiny to overspread the continent.”Between 1800 and 1860, the United States more than doubled in size, and the number of states expanded from 16 to 33. There were three primary motivations for America's westward growth:

  1. The desire of most Americans to own their own land.
  2. The discovery of gold and other valuable resources.
  3. The belief that the United States was destined to stretch across North America (Manifest Destiny). There were strong economic motivations behind this belief as well as racist beliefs about Native Americans and the Mexican people, but it became a popular political belief in the United States during the early 19th century.

Manifest Destiny was the name given to the idea that the United States would naturally occupy the territory between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. The word manifest means "obvious," and the word destiny means "fate." According to Manifest Destiny, the obvious fate of the United States was to expand "from sea to shining sea." Americans even began interacting with people on the opposite side of the world. The efforts of Commodore Matthew Perry began to open up Japan to western influence and trade.

View the presentations on the election of 1844 and the Oregon Trail below.

 

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