Abstract
Manifest Destiny is a concept that influenced United States in the extension and the stretching of their land. It reflected a belief that Americans had regarding the boundaries of their land, which was believed to extend from Atlantic to Pacific. It is clear that out of determination and much effort, which to some extend involved war the United States managed to extend its boundaries and Establish a United States. The Struggle and the achievement are both attributed to the leaders and the enlightened citizens who lived in the early 19th Century. The efforts were later translated to the magnificent powerful Country that the united State of America has turned to. In this paper various ways and methods applied in expanding the United States have been explored and discussed.
Introduction
The expansion and the stretching of the nation depended on the purpose and the destiny that was coupled with a specific belief of the far the nation was meant to expand. The certainty under which the nation beliefs about the expansion or the possession of the territories believed to be part of the nation is referred to as manifest destiny. The concept of justification is also utilized when considering the increment on the size of the nation. Manifest destiny promotes and supports the concept of acquiring more territories through the belief that the expansion is meant to take place on the benefit of the whole nation, which is ideally considered as a legal move. Through this belief the European Americans managed to expand to the western part of the United States and acquired many territories. Manifest destiny also supported the ideological belief that defined the expansion of United States from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean.
The concept of manifest destiny was first applied on the year 1845 in order to assist in expanding and acquiring territories on the western side of United States. The Jackson democrats politically motivated the idea and the process was carried out. The idea did not end since around 1890s the expansion was targeted outside the United States, which was actually influenced by the republicans[1]. The move was aimed at expanding the land in order to provide more fields, which can be translated into more wealth and possession.
From the wider perspective manifest destiny was a phenomenon, which was utilized by the Americans to stand for beliefs and concepts that enhanced the American culture and can be used to define the American history to some extent. Philosophical decisions and opinions were therefore based on the manifest destiny, which saw the existences and subsequent growth of the United States. Manifest destiny was also applied as an expression of power and strength of the nation of United States. The possession of more fields would be integrated into resources, which would therefore empower the economy and enable United States to grow and develop more as compared to other regions. Through exploration and the need to establish the development Americans resulted into justification of the land that is certainly believed to be among the American property, which facilitated the Americans to skip and ignore legal measures that pertains to the acquiring of new lands.
From the historical perspective, early 1600s Europeans had moved from Europe and they established settlement in parts of North America. This eventually developed into colonies of the Europeans depending on their settlement. British were among the European society to form colonies in North America between year 1607 and 1732 [2]Great Britain had many colonies of which 13 of them acquired independence later transforming into states in United States. Among them were Georgia and Virginia states. Continuous rebellion of the colonies from Britain and other colonizers contributed in the formation of more states, which eventually formed the United States of America as a country with complete and independent governance.
During the struggle to gain independence states were acquiring independent governance after its formation into a states. Some of the colonies, which are now referred to as states, started to organize how to expand and extend their boundaries. Few states achieved the target, which was triggered by the manifest destiny a term that was ideally used to justify the expansion[3].
Although it was not very clear the concept of manifest destiny was practiced in some occasions after the independence of the United States. According to John Q. Adams the United States should cover all the area of North America and it would be all under the same governance of the United States[4]. He was actually involved in the establishment of the border between Canada and United States, which saw the border extending to the west and providing bigger region of the United States. Still on the aim of stretching the United States region, Florida was purchased from the Spain, which was a move that made the United States to expand towards the Pacific Ocean.
Manifest destiny can also be viewed from the fact that the United States had conspired to eliminate the British Empire from the whole region of North America. The move was conspired since the colonies became independent and organized themselves as the United States of America. The attempt was actually witnessed during the American war that took place in 1812 but since the attempt failed the British continued to settle in that region of North America.
During the same war of 1812, the United States attempted to include Canada among its states but the move failed. This was after the application of persuasive method that sought the intervention of Britain to facilitate the United States to possess Canada but it also failed. The other attempt is when Canada was requested to negotiate through representatives in the continental congress. In this congress the proposal of Canada to join the United States was pre-approved and the process was expected to initialize but eventually the process failed and the Canada was not acquired by the United States. This failure was also influenced by the British Empire who had been involved in the establishment of the Canada government.
The claim to possess the unoccupied land was based on some philosophical arguments, which were proposed, by some scholars and leaders like journalist J.L Osullivan’s who argued that Oregon should be posed by United States[5]. According to his claim United States had the right to expand and replace the Europeans who were considered to have occupied the American field. The process was destined to take place without use of force from the military or the government.
Among the expansion that took place is the expansion of the Oregon state, which was affected by disputes that took place with the Britain around 1845. Initially Oregon was occupied by Great Britain, which was responsible for colonizing many states in the North America. From the pressure that mounted from the Americans towards the Great Britain in Oregon paved way for the negotiations of both nations to occupy the region. An agreement was reached around 1818. This enhanced the relation of both the Americans and the Britain at large.
The occupation of majority of Americans in the region caused the proposal of dividing the region and boundary in order for the occupants to be able to share. Another attribute that facilitated the mounting of pressure in the region is the rejection of the British to divide this region[6]. At this juncture, Americans felt that they had the right to occupy and acquire the whole part of Oregon, which was triggered by some philosophical argument, definition, and elaboration of manifest destiny, which was done by some Americans. This resulted to protest and the enlightment of more Americans towards the right of acquiring the region. Pressures were directed to the leaders and the issue also turned to be political creating major disputes.
Under the leadership of president James Polk more struggle came up from the American Expansionists with increase of influence on Americans. Protest and determination of the Americans forced the British to agree on the division of the region, which was also contributed by president Polk who had threatened to disregard the agreement earlier made of occupation by both Americans and Great Britain. This eventually cooled down after the signing of Oregon treaty, which was done around 1846.
Manifest destiny was also extended to the Mexico, which led to the consideration of the borderline between United States and the Mexico. American Indians occupied initially western Mississippi land but England and Mexico claimed that it belonged to them. The enlightment and the influence of the region was contributed much by the journalist Ossulivan in 1845 who wrote articles describing that the united states is supposed to occupy from Atlantic to pacific and that Americans have the right to acquire and occupy all this regions. Different views related to J. Ossulivan influence were raised both from the opposing side and from the Americans who were deep rooted in manifest destiny phenomenon. Further elaboration of this terminology gained more support, which was later, considered as the positive contribution towards the American expansion and establishment of new territories. Some opposing influence came from some democrats and some anti-slavery activists who viewed the expansion from a negative perspective concluding that increased size of land would cause a region for accommodating new slaves.
The expansion of the American territory was clearly indicated in the process of Texas joining the United States and it became one of the states. Previously Texas was under the governance and control of Mexico. It was actually viewed as part of Texas and it depended on Mexico more than United States. Around the year 1835 the struggle between the Mexican government and the people who had settled in Texas developed and the cooperation between Texas and Mexico was interrupted and affected. The trigger of the disagreement was influenced by the abolishment of 1824 constitution, which caused instability in the Mexico thereby causing war to erupt in Texas in the same year 1835.
As the war advanced, the Texas army achieved victory against some of the Mexican army and later the war ended. After the end of the war the republic of Texas was formed and it became independent although the Mexico government were reluctant to recognize the Texas republic. In what can be termed as a dramatic move, the Texas republic initiated the negotiation with the United States to join it and become a state of the United States. The move was considered as among the concepts that clearly defined the manifest destiny according to many Americans. This is because a group of Americans were opposed to the use of force in extending their territories although they believed that the extension of United States is a scenario that should be achieved. The move of Texas to join United States was also controversial since as earlier discussed some American citizens viewed it as the region that would provide a place to keep more slaves and therefore would facilitate the expansion of the slavery. The consideration of the fact that Texas republic is the one that requested to join united state and be governed by it did not however lead to automatic acceptance since president Jackson declined the move under the strong pressure of the slavery issue which was considered as a sensitive issue to cause the instability to the government and democratic party.
The decline of Texas to join United States was actually effective since it had a tremendous influence in the issue of presidency. In controversial move the democrats instead left Van Buren who was ex-president due to the confusion that was caused by the Texas request to join United States and favored Polk. Polk who was in support of the Texas move managed to convince the citizens regarding the Texas request to be one of the states terming it as a positive move and the gain on the side of united states towards the expansion and growth. Under the tight and courageous struggle, Polk was elected the president of the United States in the year 1844. Immediately after the election Polk facilitated the process of expansion of United States by positively contributing a lot to the annexation of Texas later the congress approved the process and it was complete.
The struggle still continued and in 1846 war broke and the forceful occupation and acquiring of the region dominated in the same period. Taylor who was by then united states General moved army troops to Texas. After fighting they managed to capture the city of Monterrey. From the determination of most Americans the struggle continued and other troops moved to the Mexico City capital, which caused the Mexican government to compromise and accept the negotiating between them and the United States government. The concept of the manifest destiny was actually acceptable to James Polk who was the then president of the United States since he also had a dream of extending the land to California[7].
The negotiation that took place led to the United States acquiring nearly half of the region under controversy. According to some United States citizen they didn’t appreciate the war but rather they considered the force used as unaccepted and it portrayed a bad illustration towards the United States. Nevertheless, United States went ahead and acquired California extending its territories further. This followed the acquiring of the New Mexico, which was facilitated by the treaty signed.
During this period the united states citizen were in a state of confusion since they were influenced by the manifest destiny and at the same time they were opposed to the brutality which can be applied in the struggle towards extending the boundaries and achieving what many believed to be the right of the united states to possess the land that they claimed it belonged to them. It is also observed that they were facing another threat of slavery continuity, which was by then being completely eradicated.
Slavery was a practice that was generally opposed during the 19th century and it was abolished in many places and taken as the violation to human rights. American citizens were at the forefront to advocate in the complete elimination and abolishment of the slavery and slave trade. This is another concept that hindered much the process of expanding the united states territories since the idea corresponding to the feeling of increase of the war in 1848 between Mexican and American the government also did not support the territory acquisition. This led to most supporters of the manifest destiny to start the illegal military moves of invading other regions like Latin America with an intention of causing a revolution[8].
This move was extended to the plot of acquiring the Cuba. According to the situation although the United States had not supported filibustering it was concerned with the Cuba that was under Spanish empire and there were some signs that the British might possess it. This facilitated the United States governments to plan arrangements of how the Cuba can be their territory. This consensus was reached by the United States organizing to purchase the region from the Spain but later the Spain did not accept the deal, which led the United States not acquiring the region.
Later the concept of acquiring the Cuba was rekindled when president Franklin took over the government and made new arrangement of purchasing the Cuba again from the Spain with a better offer. This was actually affected by the idea that was to the public that in case the Spain declines to sell the land of Cuba, then United States would acquire the land forcefully. The concept of the slavery expansion was still on the influence in the matters of acquiring more territories, which eventually caused the plan to purchase Cuba turn to failure.
The manifest destiny received a lot of opposition from individuals with different ideology towards it. This attracted many scholars and politically motivated people who engaged in investigating and explaining differently the concept behind the manifest destiny. It is also observed that the effective force that caused much resistance and opposition on the issues regarding the manifest destiny was the issue of slavery and the human rights violation. But since many expansionists and American citizens were determined to the expansion and establishment of the United States the concept was still found to hold.
Before the United States was established some people used to live in that region without the states or any organized government that was in charge of the region, this Native Americans were American Indians[9]. They have the occupation of hunting and they had low civilization. This actually caused them to play little part in whole process of organizing the United States. Eventually the United States organized with the Indian tribes and purchased the rights of the land, which involved signing of the treaty but with an intention that the American Indians would become, farmers. This provided more avenues to purchase additional land and increase the United States thereby promoting the manifest destiny.
Conclusion
Manifest destiny can therefore be related so much with the growth and expansion that took place in the early 19th century[10]. The individuals who advocated for the concept are clearly seen to put a lot of effort in explaining the concept that determined the direction of the United States. The understanding of majority citizen regarding the phrase facilitated much on the achievements that were witnessed in the struggle to expand the United States.
Considering the current position of the United States and the superiority it holds globally the efforts that were put by both the government and the citizens in those days laid a firm foundation that reflected the commitment they had for their country. The massive production of the United States can also be attributed to the concept of manifest destiny whereby through the expanding and stretching of the United States fields, the resources were increased and the growth was enhanced.
The big size of the United States provides a base for the establishment of power in the region contributed much to higher output of manpower especially in military sections and other sectors. In other words manifest destiny contributed a lot to the development and the power dominance in the United States of America.
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[2] Vickers, Daniel, ed. (2003)
[3] Smith, Gene A.(2000).
[4] McDougall, Walter A.(1997).
[5] Thomas R. H. (1985).
[6]Burns, E. M.(1957).
[7] Paul H. (1987).
[8] May, Robert E.(2002
[9] Hans Koning, (1993).
[10] Stephanson, A.(1995).
