Facts about Manifest Destiny

Originally a political catch phrase of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the territorial expansion of the United States across North America.

Manifest Destiny is a nineteenth-century belief that the United States had a mission to expand westward across the North American continent, spreading its form of democracy, freedom, and culture.

President Woodrow Wilson continued the policy of interventionism in the Americas, and attempted to redefine both Manifest Destiny and America's "mission" on a broader, worldwide scale.

O'Sullivan believed that Manifest Destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") superseding other considerations, including international laws and agreements.

The public now linked expansion with slavery; if Manifest Destiny had once had widespread popular approval, it was no longer the case.

Without official government support, the most radical advocates of Manifest Destiny increasingly turned to filibustering—the mounting of expeditions of unauthorized volunteer soldiers often motivated by a belief in Manifest Destiny.

On the northern border of the United States, Manifest Destiny played its most important role in the Oregon Country border dispute with Great Britain.

Manifest Destiny had serious consequences for American Indians, since continental expansion usually meant the occupation of Native American land.

Manifest Destiny played a role in U.S. relations with British North America (later Canada) to the north, but was more consequential in relations with Mexico and the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.

Filibusters like William Walker continued to garner headlines in the late 1850s, but with the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1860, the "Age of Manifest Destiny" came to an end.

The pervasive racialism of Manifest Destiny had serious consequences for American Indians.

During that time, Manifest Destiny was cited to promote overseas expansion.

That was the first and only time a president had used the phrase "Manifest Destiny" in his annual address.

Racism was used to promote Manifest Destiny, but, as in the case of Calhoun and the resistance to the "All Mexico" movement, racism was also used to oppose Manifest Destiny.

What was meant by "manifest destiny" in this context was not clearly defined, particularly since the Republicans lost the election.

According to Frederick Merk, "Manifest Destiny had contained a principle so fundamental that a Calhoun and an O'Sullivan could agree on it—that a people not capable of rising to statehood should never be annexed.

The phrase "Manifest Destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from 1815 to 1860.

Today, in standard scholarly usage, Manifest Destiny describes a past era in American history, particularly the 1840s.

Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who had approved of the annexation of Texas, was opposed to the annexation of Mexico, as well as the "mission" aspect of Manifest Destiny, for racial reasons.

Meroл under the Kushite kings appears to have prospered due to political stability and peaceful trading relations with her neighbors.

After the turn of the century, the phrase Manifest Destiny declined in usage, as territorial expansion ceased to be promoted as being a part of America's "destiny."

First of all, idealistic advocates of Manifest Destiny like John L. O'Sullivan had always maintained that the laws of the United States should not be imposed on people against their will.

Texas became a U.S. state shortly thereafter, but O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "Manifest Destiny" attracted little attention.

Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of Manifest Destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by more earthly interests.

O'Sullivan's original conception of Manifest Destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force.

Historians continued that debate; some have interpreted the overseas expansion of the 1890s as an extension of Manifest Destiny across the Pacific Ocean; others have regarded it as the antithesis of Manifest Destiny.