Ben Karp Manifest Destiny

For my blog post, I decided to write about Manifest Destiny because I wanted to learn more about our  history. Manifest destiny was a belief that the Democrats held, and that used it to promote democracy and expansion. The Americans, when taking more western states, used Manifest Destiny as a reason to take over land that belonged to the natives. Manifest Destiny stated that “Americans, with their civilization, had the god given right to expand and teach their religion and culture.” They killed many natives, as well as people of other countries, in order to completely control the USA we know today. However, not all of its work was negative. It did help the Americans to make the USA that we live in today. 

This picture is titled American Progress, and was created to show Manifest Destiny. 

As you can see, the right is very bright and happy looking, while the left is dark and gloomy. On the right are the Americans, and on the left the Native Americans. The right is showcasing the new forms of transportation, trains, and on the right the Native Americans are running away into the gloomy sky. Central in this painting is an angel, who is holding a book and telephone wire. This is to show all of the new advancements in technology, and the book is to show that they were bringing knowledge with them as they went west.

In the 1840's, Manifest Destiny was used to justify the invasion of Mexico, so that the USA could continue to expand to the west. When Texas was annexed in 1845, they claimed their border stretched far past where it actually did, which started a dispute with Mexico. The Texans started invading their own towns and claimed that it was the Mexicans, which created even more tension between these two Country's. The American government knew that most of America did not want a war, so they kept provoking the Mexicans until they made a declaration of war against the US. 

Manifest Destiny was also used in the acquisition of Oregon, as well as the 1844 presidential election. President nominee James Polk used expansion as a major part of his campaign, with the words "fifty-four forty, or fight." He wanted to acquire California, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon for America. He also established the boundary between America and British Canada on the 49th parallel. 

Overall, Manifest Destiny was not justified in its means by its ends. They slaughtered Native Americans just so that they could expand to the west, claiming that it was their duty to "teach their culture" while they were really just slaughtering Native Americans. They also used it as a reason to start        a war with Mexico, which they neither needed, nor did they have to raid their own towns to start it. The westward expansion was a good thing, but using Manifest Destiny to justify all of the killing that was done to reach what we see as America today was not justified. But I am not the only person out there, and I would also like to see what other people think about this subject. So please, if you read this, think about it and comment your opinions on this. I really appreciate the time that you took out of your day to read this. Thank you.

Sources: 

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny
• http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/manifest_destiny_overview.html
• http://www.shmoop.com/manifest-destiny-mexican-american-war/timeline.html
• http://www.history.com/topics/manifest-destiny
• http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/fairfield/saunders_d/homework/expansion/manifest.pdf
• http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/hist110/unit3/MexicanAmericanWar.html
• http://www.shmoop.com/manifest-destiny-mexican-american-war/timeline.html