Ömer BozkurtProf.

Dr. Arda ARIKANIDE 229 The History of American Culture28 December 2017Manifest Destiny in the American HistoryManifest Destiny is a term utilized to portray the reason behind the US expansion into the West.The Americans in the 1800s accepted that it was the noteworthy obligation of their nation to expand to the Pacific Ocean. They accepted that the land was legitimately theirs, given by Providence to the United States. They disregarded the reality that the land was already occupied and they began to move west. They did not recognize the Indians as individuals; they saw them as possible slaves, so they basically murdered them and took their land.

The thought of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny had positive and negative impacts on the legislative issues, society and the financial matters of the United States and the Local Americans living there at the time. Approaches that were made and Presidents that were chosen favored the individuals of the United States and the Local Americans had no choice but to endure from the changing and expanding development. There were numerous political impacts of Manifest Destiny that formed the entirety development westward.Expansionists were decided to get land either through war or arrangement. In spite of the fact that it was assumed to be intentional for the Local Americans to take off, numerous Local Americans who were living there denied and were in this manner constrained out of their homes and off their land. Andrew Jackson, in his second State of the Union Address in 1830, spoke about the “benevolent” arrangement in which the United States government will pay for the resettlement of the Local American individuals.The arrangement was not truly benevolent; tribes were obliterated and land titles were taken.

In spite of the fact that Jackson needed reasonable trade, the Local Americans were not eager to be expelled from their land. When Polk heard this news, he ordered U.S. troops into the terrority between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River that the United States claimed as its own. This political impact was that America pursued war with Mexico in endeavor to take control of Texas. The Mexican-American War was a characterizing point of the Polk Organization.

President James Polk, who was exceptionally pro-expansion, felt it was vital to send military staff into Mexico due to the danger of attack into Texas by the Mexican strengths. Mexico had made this risk exclusively since Texas was to be attached into the United States. Polk sent a strategy emissary into Mexico and they rejected it and went advance to attack US region and then individuals were slaughtered. Polk said in his war message that he felt he had no choice in securing US citizens and boundaries since both issues were entwined.At the time, pundits of Manifest Destiny and the war with Mexico felt that Polk affects the Mexican War since he really wanted the land from Mexico.American troops in Mexico, led by U.S. generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, scored one military victory after another.

After about a year of fighting, Mexico conceded defeat. On February 2, 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.Under the arrangement of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which came at the conclusion of the war, the Rio Grande was settled as the Southern border of Texas. Also, for 15 million dollars, the US obtained land that is nowadays the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico Utah, Nevada, and parts of the Colorado and Wyoming.

” Five years later, in 1853, President Franklin Pierce authorized James Gadsten to pay Mexico an additional $10 million for another piece of territory south of the Gila River in order to secure a southern railroad route to the Pacific Ocean. Along with the settlement of the Oregon boundary and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Gadsen purchase established the current borders of the contiguous 48 states” (137).Manifest Destiny and the laws and arrangements created to support the idea, had numerous negative social impacts on the Local Americans.

Clearly, there was a requirement for their land as individuals moved westward but the Indians endured.President Jackson arranged to take over most, in the event that not all, Indian land whether the Indians be eager to it or not. According to Chief John Edge in 1826, the Cherokee nation was totally encompassed by Tennessee, Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and the Creek Nation. He was not cheerful about this since the white populace brought slaves with them and this caused a blend of African and Cherokee blood which he considered a misfortune and disrespect. He was too disturbed about the ministers that were sent to attempt and change the Cherokee to their convictions.By the time the westward travel finished, four thousand Cherokees had passed away since the whites needed their land. The Cherokee sent an emissary to Jackson to which Jackson proclaimed that all of their land must be given to the white people. In addition to the social and political changes that effected the Indians, there were changes pointed at the economy which moreover contrarily influenced the Indians.

One act that contrarily influenced the Indians was the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. This act was made to offer assistance the development of a railroad and transmit lines from the Missouri Waterway to the Pacific Ocean. Permit was given to the company making the railroad that they can take away any land touching that of which the railroad is to be built on inside 200 feet in width. In spite of the fact that the railroad was an extraordinary affect of Manifest Destiny since it permitted for speedier transportation of products and individuals to and from the west, it legitimately permitted for Indian land titles to be extinguished. However, there were numerous positive financial aspects for American citizens who were moving westward. The Homestead Act of 1862 was an motivation for individuals to move west.The Homestead Act expressed that any citizen who was 21 years old or more and had been obedient to America was entitled to public land in the West at a very low price.

The first Homestead Act required the settler to pay twenty-five cents an acre for his land and was passed by Congress in 1860; however, the bill was vetoed by President Buchanan. The objective of the Homestead Act was to support individuals to settle out westward in the recently acquired Louisiana Region since of the thought that the United States would populate the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Sea. Without individuals, moving and living in the land, the United States would not fulfill its destiny.The land of California was another financial motivating force that justified Manifest Destiny and the development westward.California held financial preferences such as abundant resources including mineral, rural, commercial and manufacturing and a good vantage point to exchange with nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.

In President Polk’s State of the Union Address in 1847, he defended the right of the United States to procure California by saying that the Mexican government would not be able to legitimately control the land over the distance in between.Besides, in case the United States would give up control over it, a European power would attempt to claim it by either force or purchase.Briefly, Manifest Destiny was the thought that the United States was entitled to all of the North American land. Pro-expansionists utilized this thought to take over land either by purchase or by war. The thought of privilege fueled westward expansion and there were laws made to accomplish control over all of the land.

.WORK CITIEDJulius W. Pratt, “The Origin of ‘Manifest Destiny’,” The American Historical Review (July 1927).Kathy Weiser. “The Homestead Act – Creating Prosperity in America” Retrieved from legendsofamerica.com , https://www.legendsofamerica.

com/ah-homestead/ Accessed Web. May, 2017Littell, McDougal. The Americans. New York: Holt MCDOUGAL,2012. Print.

The Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. “A Brief History of the Tail of Tears.” Cherokee Nation. Retrieved from http://www.cherokee.

org , http://www.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/History/Trail-of-Tears/24496/Information Accessed Web. 26 Mar, 2012