Manifest Destiny Research Paper

In the 1840s, the rise of western expansion was imminent which led to the term “Manifest Destiny” to be coined by John O’Sullivan in 1839. The purpose of ‘Manifest Destiny’ was to feed the minds of the American people who were hungry for land and sell the idea that it was manifest that the United States was destined by God to expand ‘from sea to shining sea’. Though John O’sullivan was the first to use the term ‘Manifest Destiny’, it was President John Tyler who was the first to start the westward expansion process by signing off on the annexation of Texas. President Tyler was first to enact on the hunger for land, but it would ultimately be President James Polk who would finish the job. It was Polk who brought the ideology of ‘Manifest Destiny’ to reality and it was Polk who won the United States the lands that Americans prosper in today. Though Manifest Destiny first started as a simple political term, it grew into a practiced ideology and shaped the platform of James Polk’s Presidency and would inevitably lead to the Mexican American War.
John O’Sullivan, a pro-expansionist advocate used the term, ‘Manifest Destiny’, as propaganda to convince the …show more content…
His driving force, along with the rest of America, was the idea that God himself wanted the American people to expand their culture and their opportunity across the continent. That idea started as a simple political term and was called Manifest Destiny, but it quickly became a widespread practiced American ideology. Negotiating with a strong British Empire and fighting a war with an angry Mexican government, James Polk held his faith in manifesting the United States’ destiny. Though Manifest Destiny first started as a simple political term, it grew into a practiced ideology and shaped the platform of James Polk’s Presidency and would inevitably lead to the Mexican American