Manifest Destiny A Historical Expansionist Doctrine History Essay
In an essay published in the July issue of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, John O'Sullivan wrote that America's "manifest destiny" was to expand and settle the country across the continent. O'Sullivan may have given it little thought when he wrote the sentence, but many of his readers understood Share Cite. Manifest Destiny was a phrase used to justify the inevitability of the United States' territorial expansion west and beyond. The idea was floated to support the annexation. The Doctrine of Discovery is the modern name for the principle of international law that European countries developed and then used to claim most of the non-European world. The Doctrine was applied in North America by England, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Russia. The United States adopted this legal principle and applied it to 19th century American ideology, which held that the US was predestined by God Almighty to be a powerful nation. Therefore, many Americans believed that the US should expand its territories west and dominate all of North America. The early post-independent Americans had this expansionist mentality. The Journal of San Diego History SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY. James E. Moss, editor. Book reviews. Mexico Looks at Manifest Destiny, 1821 -1846: An Essay on the Origins of the Mexican War. By Gene. That the Texas Question and Manifest Destiny were causes of the war. The idea of inevitability, however, may be just a secular variation on the theme of expansionist editor John L. O'Sullivan, who coined one of the most famous sayings in American literature. history when he wrote of “our manifest destiny to spread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our annual multiplication. Like Winthrop's sermon, Manifest Destiny is a statement of American exceptionalism. A teleological national story, an ideology, a mythology and an expansionist slogan that conveys the spirit of the times, a manifest destiny serves many purposes. It was an era of enormous expansion, as was the national domain. This essay on Manifest Destiny examines the ideological force that propelled American expansion into the century. Defined as the belief in the divine right and destiny of the United States to expand across the North American continent, it motivated colonists to move west and influenced policies such as the annexation of Texas.,