HIST 101 America Public University Week 4 Manifest Destiny By William Response – Description
Response to Peer| Manifest Destiny| By William
Manifest Destiny is the set of ideas that the United States was destined by God to expand and spread its belief in democracy and capitalism across the North American continent (History.com, 2019). For others, Manifest Destiny was the inevitability of America spreading from coast to coast in the North American continent (The Components of Manifest Destiny).
The US government’s role in Westward Expansion was crucial. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from France. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and became known as the greatest real estate deal in US history, with 828,000 square miles for the small price of 15 million dollars (Corbett et al., 2022). With this new amount of land, largely unexplored President Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis and Clark were instructed to map the new territory and pave the way for American trade among the Western tribes (book). In 1862 Congress passed the Homestead Act. This act allowed Western settlers to claim up to 160 acres of federal land by living on the property for five years and improving it (Corbett et al., 2022).
Manifest Destiny did not cause historical events to occur, rather it justified them (History.com, 2019). There are several events that came from the belief in Manifest Destiny; Texas Annexation, The Mexican-American War, and The Oregon Treaty. The annexation of Texas in 1845 led to the Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and gave the US 525,000 square miles (History.com, 2019). Other historical events would include forcibly relocating Native Americans to Indian Reservations (The Components of Manifest Destiny).
A&E Television Networks. (2019, November 15). Manifest destiny – definition, Facts & Significance. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/manife…
Corbett, P. S., Precht, J., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T. J., Vickery, P. S., & Waskiewicz, S. (2022a). U.S. history. OpenStax, Rice University.
The components of manifest destiny. The Components Of Manifest Destiny
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