Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny

In the1840s, the term Manifest Destiny was used to justify the United States' westward expansion. This expansion took place in areas like Texas and Oregon. There was a belief that Americans had a mission which was divinely inspired to spread their democracy to the less fortunate. The less fortunate consisted of Native Americans and other non-Europeans.

The phrase “manifest destiny” first came in the 1840’s, which was primarily used by Jackson democrats, with annexations to expand territory and spread its form of democracy to Oregon territory, Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession, most of what is now the Western United States. This political catch phrase of the nineteenth century soon became a standard historical term.

In AP English we read a novel called “The Poisonwood Bible” which adequately related to manifest destiny. The novel took place in The Congo where the people were poor, hygiene was not an issue, and people died every day of diseases. Because of the way The Congo was run, the doors to the nation were wide open to the world; therefore, Spain decided to take over. Spain didn’t feel that The Congo was living up to their full potential and that they could raise them to a higher level of civilization. Even though the Congolese did not like what was happening they had little say in their country since they were poor and could not fight back. This is an example of manifest destiny since Spain imposed their beliefs on another nation to