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Essay on Manifest Destiny & the Mexican War of 1846
Manifest Destiny is the xenophobic principle holding that territorial development of the United States is not only foreseeable but also magnificently predestined. The phrase was first used by the American journalist and diplomat John Louis O'Sullivan, in an editorial supporting annexation of Texas, in the July-August 1845 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a magazine that featured literature and nationalist opinion. Expansionists in all political parties to justify the acquisition of California, the Oregon Territory, and Alaska later used the phrase. By the end of the 19th century the doctrine was being applied to the proposed annexation of various islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
The westward migration of U.S. citizens was encouraged by Manifest Destiny, a belief that territorial expansion by the United States was both inevitable and divinely ordained. Those who believed in Manifest Destiny also believed that the culture of the United States was superior to other cultures and that republican forms of government and democracy should be expanded in order to “civilize” other peoples. Even though some people as deliberately racist criticized Manifest Destiny, it enjoyed support among U.S. citizens and politicians in the mid- and late 1800s.
Mexican War was the clash between the United States and Mexico, lasting from 1846 to 1848. The war resulted in a decisive U.S. conquest and forced Mexico to give up all claims to just about half its national territory. Mexico had already lost control of much of its northeastern territory as a result of the Texas Revolution (1835-1836). This land, combined with the territory Mexico ceded at the end of the war, would form the future U.S. states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, as well as portions of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Mexico’s territorial losses signified......
