The Great Nation of Futurity in 1939 and Manifest Destiny - Essay Example

Manifest Destiny April 8, 2008 2 The doctrine of Manifest Destiny was first broached by John O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, in his article entitled The Great Nation of Futurity in 1939. He referred to it as the boundless and limitless right of the Americans to go beyond its boundaries and expand its territory. In short, it was an exhortation to expansionism. O’Sullivan opined that the “magnificent domain” should include “its floor shall be a hemisphere – its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation a Union of many Republics comprising of many happy millions.”1 In 1845, O’Sullivan wrote yet another article entitled “Annexation” where he expounded the doctrine and used it to justify the annexation of Texas to the union and called it “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence.”2 Since then the ‘imagined’ divine right has been used to justify American expansionism to the west by American politicians. Despite the fact that O’Sullivan first coined the term Manifest Destiny, expansionism however was not his original idea but has already been in practice since the dawn of the country’s history. The English Colonies: The First Expansion English settlers first came to the New World, specifically along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent not as a divine right as O’Sullivan would have it but for more practical reasons. England was then at that time experiencing economic difficulties and settlers came to the New World for better opportunities, while others to evade political and religious persecution. The New World likewise became an imprisonment camp outside of England. 3 The first attempt of the English to establish a colony in the New World turned out to be a disaster. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh brought a company of soldiers and mercenaries to the outer banks of North Carolina to establish the first English colony in the New World. 4 3 In 1607, one hundred colonists established the first permanent settlement in the Chesapeake Bay and survived with the help of the Algonquians under the leadership of Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas. John Rolfe, an English settler who married Pocahontas, developed the tobacco Virginia became famous of – a hybrid of North American and Indian tobacco – and made the colony a success. However, the English colonists wanted more land from the natives, pushing the latter farther until the Algonquians revolted and launched an attack against the surprised colonists. The war dragged on for ten years but because of the success of the Virginia colony, more English settlers arrived augmenting its population.5 Meanwhile, English settlers in New England also drove away Indians from their lands to expand their territories. These settlers called Pilgrims left England for religious reasons. They used all kinds of strategies to make the natives give up their lands. When smallpox devastated Indians populating the inland areas, the settlers grabbed the opportunity and expanded their territories from the coastal region inward. When a group of Indians called the Pequot objected to this expansion, the English religious settlers attacked and killed them. 6 The efforts at expansion were gradual but constant. However, when the colonialist’s population grew they demanded more land from the natives. As Indians were pressured to relinquish more of their lands; they were forced to engage the English in a war. But before they could attack, the English burned their villages and killed the Indians. Metacomet, the Indian leader, fled inward and started the Indian-English war known as the King Philip’s War where towns in the New England region were razed down. Metacomet was eventually killed and the revolt broke down. The King Philip’s War was an instance of the use of the Manifest Destiny principle where God was used as a justification of killing the natives to expand territories.7 4 1700s: Expansion into the Interiors By 1700, the colonists numbered a quarter of a million and were growing fast. The Germans joined the stampede to the New World because of the poor farming condition at home, the war and the good news about the New World. The Scottish-Irish left Ireland because of religious differences with the Irish population. When these newcomers came to the New World, they sought the interior as the eastern seaboard was becoming congested with settlers. The Scottish-Irish settlers went even further in to the edge of the Appalachians, in the Shenandoah Valley, once again, displacing Indians who were now pressed against the Appalachian walls. 8 The North American continent was then being disputed by the English and the French, with the French putting obstacles to a westward English expansion by building a fort along the Ohio side. Several attacks by the English all failed until Prime Minister William Pitt of England, an advocate of colonialism helped the colonists by committing several thousands of the English army. In 1785, Fort Duquesne, a key western fort was taken over by the English and named it Pittsburgh. This victory by the English over the French was likewise reflected all over the continent and in 1759, the French was finally defeated. The subsequent Treaty of Paris ceded all French possessions west of Mississippi except New Orleans to the victor. Spain gave up Florida to the British in exchange for some Caribbean and Pacific colonies.9 In 1763, the British Crown issued a royal proclamation reserving the Appalachian region and westward as Indian country promising to keep off settlers from going westward. This did not sit well with the settlers who could not be contained from expanding to the west: New England settlers started to move to Vermont; and others over the Appalachians to West Virginia and eastern Tennessee. Indians had no choice but to give up Ohio and Tennessee to the settlers. 5 The Thirteen Colonies: The American Revolution By 18th century the settlers have established thirteen colonies in the New World divided into three regions: New England which included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; Mid-Atlantic which included New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, and; Southern which included Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.10 Led by George Washington, the thirteen colonies declared war against the British in 1775, chief among the reasons of which is the implementation of the English Acts of Trade which obligated the colonies to manufacture goods that were allowed only ynder the said Act and that all goods to be exported must first go straight to England.11 In 1783, the thirteen colonies got their freedom along with vast tracts of lands to the west. Operating under the theory that the victor had the right to seize all lands of those who fought against them, the Americans forced Indian tribes to cede vast tracts of their lands to them.12 The Louisiana Purchase When the war between France and the British ended in 1759, with the latter as the victor, Louisiana was one of the colonies not ceded to England in the Treaty of Paris but was given to Spain to reimburse the latter for its losses during the Seven Years War. In the early 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte successfully cajoled Spain in giving it back to France which alarmed the Americans. The Louisiana area was strategic to American trade because of the New Orleans port which served the Mississippi River for the passage of the goods westward. The Louisiana. news therefore bothered the Americans which found the French more formidable as a potential enemy. It promptly sent emissaries to France to buy off New Orleans. It turned out however that Bonaparte, who was preparing for war against the British saw it wiser to sell the whole of 6 Louisiana for $15 million to the Americans to raise money and to earn the latter’s friendship. Thus, Louisiana became another acquisition of the Americans.13 The Florida Purchase and Oregon Compromise Under the so-called Perdido claim, both Spain and the US contested ownership of Florida. Spain’s ground was that the area was a Spanish colony as part of the West Florida and the US claimed that Florida was a part of the Louisiana boundaries which Spain had ceded to France under the Treaty of Ildefonso and bought by the US under the Louisiana cession. It was not until 1819 that Spain acceded that Florida belonged to the US.14 The US paid Spain $5 million for the transaction called “The Florida Purchase”15 In 1818, the British and the Americans agreed to a joint occupation of Florida in the Anglo-American Convention 1818 since both have territorial and commercial interests over the region. In 1844, when the expansionism fever was high among the Americans, they sought a compromise over the territory with the British. Several attempt at negotiations failed thereafter. However, in 1846, Britain finally agreed to a compromise which awarded Oregon to the US but gained it the Vancouver Island with the 49th Parallel serving as the boundary. 16 The Texas Annexation/Mexican Cessions The Republic of Texas, which won its independence from Mexico, voluntarily agreed to become a US territory in 1845. The reason for this was it had amassed a large amount of debt and the US agreed to shoulder the debt in exchange for its annexation. Included in the annexation were the Texan-claimed territories of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming. The Texan annexation was largely justified by the doctrine of Manifest Destiny.17 7 Bibliography Allatson, Paul & Gutiérrez, Laura. Key Terms in Latino/a Cultural and Literary Studies. Blackwell Publishing (2007) p. 151 Harrell, David Edwin Jr.& Harrell, Edwin & Gaustad, Edwin & Boles, John B & Griffith, Sally Foreman, & Randall, Miller & Woods, Randall B Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. (2005) pp 247-248 Hartnett, Stephen J. Democratic Dissent & the Cultural Fictions of Antebellum America. University of Illinois Press. (2002) p 123 Hine, Robert V. & Faragher, John Mack Frontiers: A Short History of the American West. Yale University Press.  Kellogg, William O. American History the Easy Way. Barron’s Educational Series. (2003) p 26 McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the Houghton Miller Books. (1997).p 77 Outline of US History. USInfo.State.Gov. 10 November 2007. Sato, Shosuke. History of the Land Question in the United States. Adamant Media Corporation, pp 310 Zinn, Howard. The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy. Seven Stories Press. (1997). p 315   Read More