manifest destiny

Examples of manifest destiny in the following topics:

• Manifest Destiny

  • Manifest destiny was the 19th century U.S. belief that the country had a divine right to expand across and take over the continent.
  • Advocates of manifest destiny believed that expansion was not only wise, but that it was readily apparent (manifest) and could not be prevented (destiny).
  • "Manifest destiny" was a term Democrats primarily used to support the Polk Administration's expansion plans.
  • Manifest destiny was a general notion rather than a specific policy.
  • Evaluate how the concept of manifest destiny shaped U.S. thought and movement

• Jackson's Democratic Agenda

  • Jacksonian democracy was built on the general principles of expanded suffrage, manifest destiny, patronage, strict constructionism, Laissez-Faire capitalism, and opposition to the Second Bank of the United States.
  • Manifest Destiny was the belief that white Americans had a destiny to settle the American West with yeoman farmers and to consolidate political control over lands from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
  • The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.

• The Politics of Expansion

  • By the mid-1840's, U.S. expansionism was articulated in the ideology of "Manifest Destiny".
  • The concept of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent, was primarily used by Democrats to support the expansion plans of the Polk Administration, and the idea of expansion was also supported by the Whigs like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln who wanted to deepen the economy.
  • The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history.

• In the West: The Native Americans

  • Americans coined the term "Manifest Destiny" to characterize their right to continually expand to new territories, mainly in the west.
  • "Manifest Destiny" was a term coined in the 1830s and 1840s that expressed the belief that the United States was pre-ordained to expand from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, and became a rallying cry for expansionists in the Democratic Party in the 1840s.

• The Democratization of the Political Arena

  • In national terms the Jacksonians favored geographical expansion, justifying it in terms of manifest destiny.
  • Manifest Destiny: This was the belief that white Americans had a destiny to settle the American West and to expand control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and that the West should be settled by yeoman farmers.
  • The Whigs generally opposed manifest destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.

• The Breakdown of Sectional Balance

  • In 1840, territorial expansion became a priority for President James Polk, as Texas was annexed shortly before his inauguration.Believing in the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States to expand to the Pacific, Polk supported "Texans in their efforts to seize all land to the Rio Grande and claim the river as their southern and western border, in spite of the fact that Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the Texan border.With the annexation of Texas and the growing conflict between Mexicans and Texans, the Mexican government broke diplomatic relations with the United States.
  • With the conflict over the Texan border escalating, Polk sent Zachary Taylor and American troops into Texas to defend the Rio Grande boundary, provoking the outbreak of war.The American public largely supported the war and was eager for news of conquest and war stories disseminated from newspapers and magazines.The war also held romantic appeal for Americans who believed that it was the destiny of the United States to possess the North American continent and to expand "progressive democracy" to new territories acquired from backward nations.
  • However, the Mexican War was the source of much political conflict in the 1840s and compounded the sectional divides that already split national political coalitions.Most Whigs in the North and South opposed the war, while most Democrats supported it.In particular, Southern Democrats who were animated by the belief in Manifest Destiny enthusiastically supported the war in hope of adding slave-owning territory to the South (and thereby maintaining a political-balance of power with the faster-growing North).For most Whigs, the Mexican War represented little more than a weak justification by southern politicians for the aggressive expansion of slavery.However, Polk and southern Democrats continued to justify the war using arguments of Manifest Destiny and claiming that territory ceded from Mexico would repay the United States for several hefty loans given to the Mexican government during its war of independence.

• The Jackson Presidency

  • Jacksonian democracy was built on the principles of expanded suffrage, Manifest Destiny, patronage, strict constructionism, and laissez-faire economics.
  • The concept of "Manifest Destiny" was the belief that white Americans would inevitably settle the American West and expand control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and that the West should be settled by yeoman farmers.
  • The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.

• Victory in Mexico

  • Southern Democrats, animated by a popular belief in manifest destiny, supported it in the hopes of adding slave-owning territory to the South and avoiding being outnumbered by the faster-growing North.
  • While the Mexican–American War marked a significant point for the nation as a growing military power, it also served as a milestone especially within the U.S. narrative of manifest destiny.

• Moving West

  • Despite the Jeffersonian aversion and mistrust of federal power, the government bore more heavily in the West than any other region, and made possible the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny.

• Tyler and Texas

  • He had long been an advocate of expansion toward the Pacific, and of free trade, and was fond of evoking themes of national destiny and the spread of liberty in support of these policies.
  • By the mid-1840s, US expansionism was articulated in the ideology of manifest destiny.
  • John Tyler endorsed the idea of manifest destiny to defend the continued expansion of the United States, including the annexation of Texas.