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DNA : Imagine taking a 500-mile trip by wagon over unpaved roads and by raft down rivers. What are your thoughts about such a trip? What might you encounter? Are there any dangers? Record your thoughts and feelings in a brief journal entry.
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DNA: Imagine taking a 500-mile trip by wagon over unpaved roads and by raft down rivers. What are your thoughts about such a trip? What might you encounter? Are there any dangers? Record your thoughts and feelings in a brief journal entry.
You will be taking notes today…so open your notebooksand get the pencils ready! ATTENTION!!!
Manifest Destiny • Manifest- clear or obvious • Destiny- something that is sure to happen PLAY
Manifest Destiny The roots of this expansion go back to the beginning of the 19th century. The United States was less than three decades old at the time and confined to a cluster of east coast states. That changed in 1803, however, when the Louisiana Purchase was finalized under Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. And the very next year, the Lewis and Clarke Expedition set off to find an overland route to the Pacific Ocean. Both events were pivotal. They gave the United States a glimpse of its immense territorial possibilities: the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country giving it its future middle, while the Lewis and Clarke expedition seeded the idea of a nation stretching “from sea to shining sea”.
The Idea is born • “The world has to accept the idea of…the continent of North America as our proper dominion. From the time we became an independent nation, it was as much a law of nature that this would become our claim as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea.” • John Quincy Adams 1819
Reasons for Western Expansion: • Manifest Destiny • Population • Economics • Indian Removal
1. Manifest Destiny: • Americans saw their culture and government as the best in the world. • Believed that the U.S. had the right and the duty to spread its rule all the way to the Pacific Ocean. • Believed that they were better than the Native Americans and Mexicans. • Racism justified taking lands belonging to Indians and Mexicans whom they considered as inferior.
2. Population: • The U.S. was experiencing a high birth rate due to immigration. • Large families were encouraged because agriculture was the primary economic activity of the U.S. • U.S. population grew from 5 million in 1800 to more than 23 million by 1850.
2. Population continued… • There was a need to expand into new territories to accommodate this rapid growth. • Nearly 4,000,000 Americans moved to western territories between 1820-1850.
3. Economy • The U.S. suffered two economic depressions. • 1818 • 1819 • These drove some to seek a living in the frontier.
3. Economy continued… • Frontier land was inexpensive, and some cases free. • Expansion into frontier areas opened opportunities for new commerce and individual self-advancement. • Land ownership was associated with wealth and tied to: • Self-sufficiency • Political power • And independent “self-rule”
3. Economy continued… • Maritime merchants saw and opportunity to expand and promote new commerce by building West Coast ports leading to increased trade with countries in the Pacific
4. What about the Native Americans? • As settlers moved west and gold was discovered in many places, dozens of tribes were swindled of their lands. (An article needs to be written on just how many tribes there were, if only to dismiss the common perception that the land was empty). Treaties were broken at will. The term Manifest Destiny was used to justify settlement. • To justify these violations of the ‘permanent Indian frontier’, the policy makers in Washington invented Manifest Destiny, a term which lifted land hunger to a lofty plane. The Europeans and their descendants were ordained by destiny to rule all of America. They were the dominant race and therefore responsible for the Indians – along with their lands, their forests, their mineral wealth.
The Ghost Dance Movement • The belief was simple: that Native Americans should dance to emancipate themselves and regain their past glory. • Essentially, the Ghost Dance was an Indian version of the religious movements so popular with settlers on the frontier. • It didn’t work!
Spotted Tail (1823-1881), a famous Sioux leader • “There is a time appointed for all things. Think for a moment how many multitudes of animal tribes we [the Sioux or perhaps Native Americans] ourselves have destroyed; look upon the snow that appears today – tomorrow it is water. Listen to the dirge of dry leaves that were green and vigorous but a few moons before! We are part of that life and it seems our time has come.”
Remember…“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself." -- John Adams
