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Manifest Destiny
United States: Manifest Destiny
Comment on the relationship seen in the growth of U.S. borders against the backdrop of the siege of native people's land. Was this siege of native land at the expense of native people survival and identity? Is this a justified price for progress?
Although the United States never had a formal empire, like England or Rome, it could be argued that the doctrine of Manifest Destiny was a kind of imperialism, as the native people living in what became the U.S. Western and Southwestern states saw their culture systematically eradicated by the military and political power of the U.S. federal government. Ironically, the faith in the right of the United States to acquire new territory, regardless of who was living it on before, was expressed in the language of freedom and the U.S.'s special quality, in contrast to past, European systems of government: "our national birth was the beginning of a new history...we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement (O'Sullivan, 1839)
But this belief that America's unique democratic spirit was used to justify colonizing the Mexican province of Texas with North American populations, because of American "enterprise and intelligence," in the words of Stephen F. Austin ("Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny," Digital History, 2007). "Aggressive nationalists invoked the idea [of Manifest Destiny] to justify Indian removal, war with Mexico, and American expansion into Cuba and Central America" ("Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny," Digital History, 2007).
On one hand, Manifest Destiny did allow poorer persons to migrate West, farm land, and make their fortunes with hard work -- but it also marked the end of a vital and unique culture, that of the Native American tribes and it also justified the United States flagrantly violating international laws and borders. Although some Americans called Manifest Destiny 'progress' at the time, in retrospect the American leadership's inability to locate America as one great nation part of a community of great nations, rather than a nation that can do as it please, seems jingoistic, illegal and cruel.
Works Cited
O'Sullivan, John L. "Manifest Destiny." 1839. Excerpted from "The Great Nation of Futurity," the United States Democratic Review, Volume 6, Issue 23, pp. 426-430. [18 Feb 2007] Excerpt at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/osulliva.htm
Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny." Digital History. Updated 18 Feb 2007. [18 Feb 2007]
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=311
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