DBQ 1 Jacob Haire

The U.S. had not always been a huge country stretching across North America. It took

time for the U.S. to expand its boundaries to what it is today. Many of the U.S.’s actions in the

1800s was based on the idea of expanding. Many military actions and treaties were made during

this time for the ultimate goal of expanding the U.S. border from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This

idea was known as Manifest Destiny and this term was coined by John O’Sullivan in the 1840s.

Manifest Destiny was used as justification for the expansion of the United States of America

across North America and was embedded in almost every American's heads’.

Land was an ultimate goal and a very greedy goal among many Americans. Manifest

Destiny “justified” many of the moves the U.S. made to acquire more land in North America.

The Annexation of Texas was almost seen as the start(not exactly the start) of Manifest Destiny.

It brought Texas into the Union and expanded the US territory in North America. The sole

purpose of this was really just gaining land. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 was also one of the

earlier moves made by America to receive more land. It gave the U.S. the Oregon territory

ending on the 49th parallel without joint occupation with Britain. This was a major step into

clearing out the British from most of America and supported the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Gaining Oregon gave more ideas of getting more land out west like California, Mexico and

Canada(D3). Document 3 is significant because it showed how the whole U.S. thought of

acquiring new land. Caleb B Smith was a member of the House and for a large political figure

like him to believe this represents America very well. Americans thought North America was

their land to gain by just the principle of Manifest Destiny. After the Civil War even more new

land was to be occupied. Americans wanted these unoccupied lands to be settled upon by more

Americans and think they deserved it(D6). Manifest Destiny pushed the US to gain new land in

North America as if it was destined for them to own it.

 Not only did the US just gain new territory by treaties but if they didn’t get what they

wanted initially they would go to war or use force. The sole purpose of many of the wars

between 1830-1905 was land with the exclusion of the Civil War. But early on in the 1830s

when Manifest Destiny was not a coined term America still had the idea in their mind. Andrew

Jackson forced the Cherokees out of their land in Georgia and forced them into a harsh

journey(The Trail of Tears) to Oklahoma with no sympathy for them as it was just destiny(D1).

This idea coming from Andrew Jackson is extremely important because he was the president of

the United States and represented how the US thought of relocating people. Andrew Jackson has

also had a history of malice intent toward Indians so he is heavily biassed. The Cherokees of

course opposed this as they had owned this land for a while and it was already recognized by the

US government(D2). The Cherokees' point of view during this relocation was that they were

mistreated and lied to by the US. The US couldn't care less because of their greed for

expansion(Manifest Destiny) and destroying whatever lies in their way of expansion. Then came

the wars. The Mexican American War was a war between the US and Mexico from 1846-1848.

The justification for this war was of course “Manifest Destiny”. The only reason the US went to

war was for the land Mexico owned. The US defeated the much weaker Mexico army and

through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the US gained parts of California, Arizona, Texas,

Utah, Nevada and Colorado. The US also went to war with Spain much later in 1898. The

Spanish American War was caused by the explosion of a US ship in Cuba but was really caused

by America’s commitment to the Monroe Doctrine. The Spanish had been interfering with

Cuba’s independence and America intervened to prove themselves as the big country of the west.

It really eliminated the Spanish from North America and was really the cause of Manifest
Destiny. Very similar to how the Louisiana Purchase eliminated France as a threat in North

America.

The ideology that Americans were superior to everyone else and were destined to take

control of North America was in the heads of most Americans. They wanted more land for

economic reasons too. The California Gold Rush happened during the 1850s in which many

Americans traveled west to California in search of gold and fortunes. This was another showing

of how Americans thought they deserved all these rewards because Manifest Destiny had been

embedded into their minds. Traveling across the country required the need for a making of a

railroad from the east to west for social and commercial purposes(D4). Americans had the idea

that everyone else was inferior to them and for that they should conquer and “civilize”

foreigners. This was best shown in a poem called the White Man’s Burden. This poem showed

how America shall conquer more land because they were better. In today’s times it looks really

bad but back then it was normal to think this way and was the very foundation of Manifest

Destiny and expansion of the US. The U.S. was to take over many of the Carribean and Filipino

islands as a show of patriotism(D7). The importance of the “10,000 Miles from Tip to Tip'' was

that America wanted to expand even further than North America and this was “justified” by

Manifest Destiny. This political cartoon shows the advancement of US imperialism.

The US had expanded throughout the North American continent for many reasons but the

ultimate justification was this idea of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny made Americans feel it

was okay to feel superior to others and made people even more greedy. Many of the

government’s actions were based on expansion of the US. Without Manifest Destiny who knows

how the US would’ve justified their expansion or if they even would’ve owned the land in

present day America.