Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was a belief in early American history that westward expansion was either a constitutional or God-given right to Americans. Manifest Destiny is made up of three principles, or “claims’: first, the values of Americans were enough to justify aggressive westward expansion, as Americans were destined to have leadership on the land; second, the land covered by the westward expansion was destined to have an agricultural and political revolution led by the American people; third, people believed that the Constitution and God’s word was proof that the aggressive westward expansion was destiny, so the idea of it being immoral was quickly dismissed.

    With the illusion of aggressive westward expansion being the American destiny, the movement gained a lot of power, and it caused one of the worst events in American history, Native-American removal. Native-American removal is the act the relocating Native Americans to other lands (or kicking them off of the land). This removal was not peaceful or kind in the least. In some places, Americans would force Native-Americans to surrender with superior weaponry on their own land, so that the Native-Americans would have to endure a very long, harsh journey to other lands, where some did not even live to see. As these Native-Americans are taught to live in a certain area (example being fisherman on a coast), they did not know how to live in another unknown area with a different climate, animals, and plants. This caused many of the Native-Americans who were “relocated” to die anyway, even if the journey to new land was survived.