Manifest Destiny is the belief or doctrine, held chiefly in the middle and latter part of the 19th century, that it was the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social, and economic influences. Basically when immigrants started coming to America, they needed more land because the eastern part of America was getting over populated and people who had nothing needed a better life and to start new.
My attitude towards manifest destiny and what people did, I both agree and disagree with it. I disagree with what people did by taking land away from people who were already settled in the land, such as Native Americans. I think it’s kind of sad and cruel that the newer people just took it right away from Indians and non-Europeans because they were there first and now they had nowhere to go. I think that is why Indians and the way they lived decreased majorly and we do not see much of it today. I also agree with manifest destiny because everyone needed a place to live and to start new with their lives and the eastern part of America was getting over populated. Americans also wanted to help spread the fruits of their democracy to the less fortunate such as the Native Americans and other non-Europeans. If manifest destiny did not exist in the 1800’s, then we Americans and our land would not be what it is today, and people would not be living the way we are today. America would definitely not have the land that it all has today if it wasn’t for manifest destiny; therefore the map of the U.S would look completely different.
It's funny, as we have been looking at photographs from the settling of the american west, we often talk about photographers like Timothy O'Sullivan as being one of the first people to visit a place (like the Colorado River) and completely ignore that people had lived in the area for centuries. Nice post.
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