Manifest Destiny

reby “limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny, allotted by Providence. “Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country… A population will soon be in actual occupation of California, over which it will be idle for Mexico to dream of dominion. Missionaries were being sent westward in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. Therefore, since it was the will of God for humans to spread his religion, and in order to do so, Americans had to acquire more lands, it was argued that conquering new territory was also God’s will. 1845 edition, to prove that the United States had a right to the Oregon territory, after which the phrase gained popularity in use by first Congress and then the general press.

In fact, O’Sullivan cites this in his article, stating that the annexation of California was an inevitable consequence of America’s population expansion, which was not done at the prompting of the government, therefore it had to be because of America‘s inherent destiny. ” O’Sullivan then went on to further explicate his theory in an article published in the New York Morning News, Dec.

However, religion was not the only means used to justify Manifest Destiny, population expansion, considered inevitable, being another fact used to justify the ideas of Manifest Destiny.

Divine preordination was the main argument of those who supported Manifest Destiny, meaning that it was the will of God for the United States to spread westwards and over the entire continent, an argument that appealed to the basic values and ideals of a majority of the American people, since many were religious. Beginning with the exploration of fur trappers with the search for new reserves of beavers, the population slowly migrated to the West. Their tall tales and exaggerated accounts of the West glamorized the idea of moving, so that when people heard the stories, they were enticed to explore the region.

This was related to the idea of the “white man’s burden,” which was extremely pervasive at the time.

Furthermore, Mexico was considered to be a weak country, so it would have to submit to American superiority and give up the lands it possessed. Christians thought that it was their religious duty to propagate the ideals of democracy throughout the continent and convert to the so-called heathens to Christianity, so that they could be saved.