MANIFEST DESTINY

John Louis O’Sullivan was a journalist in favour of democracy and wrote an essay
emphasizing the importance of annexing Texas to the US. Many others also believed that expansion
was both justified and inevitable, and it is this 19th century doctrine that came to be known as
manifest destiny. Although given a name in the mid-19th century, this belief was present in the minds
of people ever since the Constitution. Their justifications were based on the strength of American
values and institutions, political and agricultural improvements, and the task to eventually spread
democracy throughout the world. Bringing this ideology into prominence, the Young America
movement downplayed the political and ethnic divisions in the country. There was, of course, an
opposition as well. Some, including Emerson and Lincoln, argued that the expansion was exactly the
imperialism that the revolution was supposed to repudiate. Whigs said America should lead by
example, not by conquest.

INDIAN REMOVAL

Westward expansion meant intruding on Indian land, which the whites justified with the
belief that they were the best to seize opportunities of the land. Florida was one of the first cases of
Americanization of new lands. Spain began to lose control over the area cause of increasing
migration from slave-owning states. Seminoles (Native Americans) began providing havens for
runaway slaves. US armed forces attacked the Negro Fort (an armed outpost) and this was the basis
for Jackson’s invasion of Florida and the First Seminole War. Spain handed Florida over to America
after these conflicts. The purchase is known as the Adams-Onis Treaty. The Second Seminole War
followed. Jackson planned to completely remove the Native ‘savages’. Congress passed the Indian
Removal Act in 1830, pushing them westward. The Cherokee Nation tried to sue the state of
Georgia, leaning on previously signed treaties with the US. Negotiations led to even more violent
behavious. The Treaty of New Echota meant ceding lands in Georgia for a large sum of money, but
many Natives didn’t agree to this. President Van Buren used the Treaty to force the Natives off the
lands. Many died on their journey due to bad weather, an event known as the Trail of Tears. The
North participated in the removal too (The Black Hawk War). The Comache were powerful in the
South and had a strong resistance. They raided north Mexico and controlled a part of Mississippi.
They allowed captives into kinship which produces a diverse assimilation of people. Florida became a
state in 1845 and the former Indian lands were occupied. Anglo-Americans also intruded into the
Great Basin and provoked more Indian wars. Along with the removal movement, Americans saught
to ‘civilize’ Indians. Schools were provided for Indian children, but often in return for ceding more
land. Indian tribes also created a schooling system of their own.

LIFE IN THE WEST

 The West was seen as a promising land for agriculture and families mostly settled on
navigable and potable rivers. During their journeys, women struggled with social norms set for them,
but the able ones succeeded in negotiating certain power in their homes.

The government had a role in creating improvements in the new settlements in order to
include them in the country’s economy. After such instances as the Panic of 1819, many farmers
were in grave debt and were forced to move even further westward where the government was
providing access to more land.

New roads and canals helped migration. Work on the National Road began in 1811 and this
invited more people to settle West since a lot of employment was needed on the road. However,
this was also a costly project for the country. The most notable canal project was the Earie Canal in
the East, which proved very profitable. Work on railroads was, nonetheless, progressing very slowly
due to national, ethnic, political and similar issues.

TEXAS REVOLUTION

Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and allowed immigrants from southern
American states to populate the northern areas (Texas) (for protection against the Comanche).
However, afraid of the growing Anglo influence, they outlawed slavery and required immigrants to
convert to Catholicism. Later they even closed their territory to new immigration. Americans ignored
all of it. General Santa Anna was in favour of centralization, which the Texians (Anglo settlers in
Mexican Texas) were against. They requested that Texas be a separate state within Mexico, and
after this request was denied, gained independence in the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. The
Mexican army forced Americans to flee from Texas, an event known as the Runaway Scrape.
Nonetheless, due to a surprise attack in 1836, the Texians captured Santa Anna and forced him to
sign a treaty. Texas was now a separate republic. Some American politicians were afraid of provoking
war with Mexico, but others were in favour of annexation. The latter was accomplished in 1845,
Texas became the 28th state. After this, Mexico and America quarreled over a piece of land between
two rivers (Nueces strip), but the land in fact belonged to Natives. War was declared in 1846, but not
all were in favour and the opposition to ‘Mr. Polk’s War’ soon grew. A peace treaty was signed in
1848. Many Mexican territories were ceded to the States. This raised the question of slavery once
again. Should it be legal in the new states?

GOLD RUSH

The manifest destiny’s agricultural ideals got lower on the priority list when gold was
discovered in California. People beseeched Congress for a transcontinental railroad. Due to the huge
economic potential of the road, there were many debates about the route, and slavery and ethnic
issues arose once more. Soon, the landowners were, unsurprisingly, rich white males, while blacks,
Chinese and Mexican immigrants and poor whites were miners.

FOREIGN POLICY

John Quincy wanted to settle the border disputes with other European countries, and this
was put into practice with the Monroe Doctrine. Adams’ concerns weren’t territorial, but
commercial (primarily with the British concerning Latin America). The doctrine pleaded against
further European colonization, while promising no interference in existing colonies.

Filibustering is the term used for illegal capturing of land in the interest of expansion.
Aspirations were set towards annexing Cuba, a significant trade center that was struggling to escape
the British influence. This, of course, never happened.