Manifest Desitny

Today I will be writing about an event in history called Manifest Destiny, which took place around 1845-1860.  Basically what Manifest Destiny was that the people who were expanding into America felt that taking the land from the people living there was justified and that the US was meant to own that land. Historians say that manifest destiny was an idea mostly adopted by Democrats. The Whigs were against the fighting conquest of America.

            I found the whole idea of manifest destiny quite fascinating actually. The idea that somehow, by living where they were born, the Native Americans were keeping the settlers from having land that was “rightfully theirs.” In my opinion I don’t think that what the American settlers did to take over the land was justified at all. Looking back it’s hard to say whether it was inevitable or not since we now have taken over all of the land. At the same time, expanding and concurring is part of being a growing country. So I don’t think there is particularly anything wrong with going to war for a piece of land because you want to expand. The problem comes from killing people for being on land that you think should be yours and say that it gives you the right to control in before you’ve won it.