Manifest Destiny
For two centuries, Americans had been progressively taking over and establishinga continent. People felt that westward expansion between the 17th century and the 1840swas 'golden', but dangerous. People felt it was feasible only through patient work andtimorous calamities. With each year of national gr
Manifest destiny was the belief ofnineteenth-century Americans that their nation's territorial expansion was inevitable andultimately a good thing, even for those being conquered. Americansbegan to feel that the whole continent was to be theirs to do as they please with. Due to manifest destiny, politicl boundaries became insignificant andexpansion was occuring rapidly. "The fulffillment of ourmanifest destiny to overspread the continent alloted by Providence for the freedevelopment of our yearly multiplying millions". This was a land ofopportunity, a showcase to manifest the goodness of democratic institutions, tangibleproof that the Americans were God's chosen people. It wastheirs to exploit and theirs to make into a great, unified nation. O'Sullivan, a journalist,summed America's new atmosphere up in a sentance in 1845. owth, the confidence and power of thepeople was magnified, and every step forward divulged a broader horizon. This conviction helpedAmericans justify the aggressive acquisition of new territories in the 1840s and later inthe 1890s.
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