At the close of the first half of the 19th Century, the West beckoned as a promising beacon. Wide open spaces. A seemingly endless frontier. The land was cheap; sometimes, the land was free. Citizens of the United States of America began seeking their fortunes, pressing deeper into the interior of the continent, expanding U.S. borders. U.S. settlers moved onto Western land, amassing in numbers great enough that soon it began to be United States land. Texas was a prime example, declaring independence from Mexico in 1836. Even though Texas originally declared as the Republic of Texas, by 1845 it was admitted to the Union as the 28th state. As the U.S. allowed annexation, without the consent of Mexioc, a justification was needed for the land grab made by the U.S. on behalf of its pioneering citizens. In 1845 editor John O’Sullivan coined the term “Manifest Destiny.”
The idea that the United States was specifically concerned with the American Hemisphere was not particularly new. Twenty years eariler, in 1823, the president James Monroe warned the countries of Europe not to interfere in what he referred to as American concerns. Indeed, by 1845 it was the position of the United States, and its people, that it was divine destiny, manifest by the grace of God, for the United States of America to extend its western border to the Pacific Ocean. President James Polk reiterated the Monroe Doctrine and the concept of Manifest Destiny in 1845 and 1848 in an effort to pre-empt attempts by Spain and Britain to establish colonies along the west coast. In 1865 the U.S. sent troops to the Rio Grande in order to enforce its demand that France withdraw from Mexico.
Manifest Destiny hinges on the idea that it is the God-given right for the United States to control the territory between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and between the Rio Grande and Canada. But there was more to Manifest Destiny than simply holding land. The United States was experiencing a population boom. The East was becoming crowded, densely populated. The government encouraged people to move West, enabling the further growth of human resources. Between the years 1820 and 1850, four million U.S. citizens relocated to frontier areas.
The West was also rich in natural resources: vast fields for farming, rangeland for cattle operations, forests of timber, mines of precious metals and semiprecious stones. The western coast of the continent itself was considered a valuable resource. New opportunities for maritime trade were opened as settlements sprang up the entire length of the coast. This expansion meant an increase in hte flow of wealth to the United States.
The idea appealed to the people of the United States as well. In a culture where owning land was considered a symbol of status and wealth, the inexpensive, and often free, acreage in hte West tantalized and promised the fulfillment of dreams. Two ecomomic depressions were felt prior to the end of the first half of the 19th Century: in 1818 and in 1839. These lean times prompted many families experiencing financial hardship to mover west and start all over again. Settling “out west” was seen by many as a much needed, and deserved, fresh start.
As far as the U.S. government and its citizens were concerned, the land was uninhabited. When the pioneers began appealing to the government for protection from the Native Americans living on the land they considered theirs, through Manifest Destiny, it seemed only natural that the land be divided into U.S. Territories and then into States.
Part of Manifest Destiny was an ideal that persists in U.S. society today. Americans in the 19th Century believed it was their duty to spread their democratic ideals to others, in order to perpetuate their form of government. They were striving to help make America’s form of government the dominant form of government. Even today, there are large numbers of U.S. citizens and government officials who believe that the ideas of “freedom” and “democracy” should be brought to countries without these values. Sometimes even at the cost of war.
However, during the period of expansion spanning the era of Manifest Destiny, it was believed that the ideals of freedom were only for those capable of self-government. For the most part, it was widely held that those not of European descent were not able to accomplish such a feat. Because Native Americans did not live the way the U.S. citizens lived, and because the Americans of the time did not have the same form of “democracy,” most settlers had no qualms about claiming land inhabited by Native Americans.
The idea of Manifest Destiny is what truly jump-started the United States on the road to becoming economically and politically powerful. When Manifest Destiny because the popular rallying call, a further outflex from East to West ensued. The opportunities afforded the citizens of the U.S. in the west allowed the formation of the middle class, providing a sound economic base. Westerners were forced to be largely self-reliant due to their initial isolation. Interestingly enough, even though suffrage was federally granted to women in 1920, many wester territories recognized the female vote and entered the Union with women voters. The hardships of frontier living often forced women to share burdens with men, allowing for a more gender-equal societal framework to form.
Politically then, and to a certain extent now, land and wealth begat power and influence. As the U.S. began to subdue the continent, the European powers were forced to acknowledge the validity of the American political system. As the U.S. exerted its control through expansion, it became evident that the land truly was “home turf” for the United States. European powers were driven out, their colonies absorbed into the U.S. Spain tried to maintain its sphere of influence in the American Hemisphere, but the U.S. had become too wealthy and had too many resources to allow such a thing. Spain steadily lost ground until the Spanish-American War in 1898 completely ended Spain’s aspirations.
By the end of the 1800s, the idea of Manifest Destiny had propelled the United States into a position of wealth and power. The U.S. extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and owned territories including the Philippines, Alaska, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Manifest Destiny gave the people of the United States a joint vission. No nation rises to wealth and power without expansion. While today expansion is defined mostly in economic terms, driven by industry and technology, in the 19th Century the acquisition of land was the means of expansion, and the root of economic and political power. The idea of Manifest Destiny gave the citizens of the U.S. a reason, and a justification, to expand, and thus to begin its rise to prominence on the world stage.
