Manifest Destiny

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American Progress, chromolithograph print, c. 1873

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Manifest Destiny

Q: What was Manifest Destiny?

Propounded during the second half of the 19th century, the concept of Manifest Destiny held that it was the divinely ordained right of the United States to expand its borders to the Pacific Ocean and beyond. Before the American Civil War the idea of Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas , New Mexico , and California . Later it was used to justify the purchase of Alaska and annexation of Hawaii .

Q: When was the term Manifest Destiny coined?

The term Manifest Destiny was coined in the July–August 1845 issue of The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review by its editor, John L. O’Sullivan. He expanded the idea in the New York Morning News in December, invoking “the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”

Q: How did Manifest Destiny lead to the growth of the West?

The idea of Manifest Destiny arose in response to the prospect of U.S. annexation of Texas and to a dispute with Britain over the Oregon Country, which became part of the union. With its triumph in the Mexican-American War , the United States seemingly realized its Manifest Destiny by gaining an immense domain (more than 525,000 square miles [1,360,000 square km] of land), including present-day Arizona , California , western Colorado , Nevada , New Mexico , Texas, and Utah .

United States history

Written by Jeanne T. Heidler, David S. Heidler•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 20, 2024 • Article History

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Date:: August 1845 - c. 1853

On the Web:: Digital History - America's Manifest Destiny (Dec. 20, 2024)

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What was Manifest Destiny?

When was the term Manifest Destiny coined?

How did Manifest Destiny lead to the growth of the West?

Manifest Destiny, in U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond. Before the American Civil War (1861–65), the idea of Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas, New Mexico, and California. The purchase of Alaska after the Civil War briefly revived the concept of Manifest Destiny, but it most evidently became a renewed force in U.S. foreign policy in the 1890s, when the country went to war with Spain, annexed Hawaii, and laid plans for an isthmian canal across ...(100 of 1823 words)

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