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This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 9 January 2025. Cultural belief of 19th-century American expansionists For other uses, see Manifest Destiny (disambiguation). American Progress (1872) by John Gast is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Columbia, a personification of the United States, is shown leading ...
The historian Gordon S. Wood has argued, "Our beliefs in liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and the well-being of ordinary people came out of the Revolutionary era. So too did our idea that we Americans are a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy."
John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895) was an American columnist, editor, and diplomat who coined the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. [1]
Manifest destiny did however provide the rhetorical tone for the largest acquisition of U.S. territory. It was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico. It was also used to threaten war with Britain, but President Polk negotiated a compromise that divided the Oregon Country half and half. Merk concludes:
The Frontier Thesis, also known as Turner's Thesis or American frontierism, is the argument by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that the settlement and colonization of the rugged American frontier was decisive in forming the culture of American democracy and distinguishing it from European nations.
Manifest destiny was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent. [100] Manifest destiny was rejected by modernizers, especially the Whigs like Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln who wanted to build cities and factories – not more farms. [b] Democrats strongly favored expansion, and won the key election of 1844.
Beliefs such as, "It's not safe to ask for what I want," "I struggle with money," "I'm not smart," or "I'm not worthy of love" can dominate our consciousness and become our reality. We manifest ...
Foreign policy was a major issue in the 1840s as war threatened with Mexico over Texas and with Britain over Oregon. Democrats strongly supported Manifest Destiny and most Whigs strongly opposed it. The 1844 election was a showdown, with the Democrat James K. Polk narrowly defeating Whig Henry Clay on the Texas issue.