In 1840, North America was home to three republics, two monarchies and dozens of distinct Native
American nations. Within less than a decade, most of it would belong to the United States.
Americans had been trying to expand throughout all of the nation's history - pushing beyond
Jamestown, plowing the frontier of Pennsylvania. Then they wanted to cross the Proclamation
Line, and of course, go into the Louisiana Territory. After the War of 1812, they turned
their attention to Oregon. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
both the British and Americans explored and claimed territory in the Pacific Northwest,
an area that came to be known to Americans as the Oregon Country. After the 1818 Rush-Bagot
Treaty reached a joint occupancy agreement, thousands of settlers crossed overland to
the new territory. Stretching 2,000 miles from Missouri to the Pacific Coast, the Oregon
Trail was blazed by fur trappers like John Jacob Astor as a footpath. But within a couple
of decades, the wagon trail included bridges and mountain passes, taking nearly half a
million people not just to Oregon but to many 'jumping-off points,' leading prospectors
to California, Mormon refugees to Utah and settlers anywhere there was fertile land,
displacing thousands of Native Americans in the process.
It wasn't long before many Americans began calling for the total annexation of Oregon
- and other territory, as well. In 1845, journalist John O'Sullivan defended America's claim on
the territory, saying, '�that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread
and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development
of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.' A lot of
people agreed with him. John Quincy Adams was one of America's first
and most ardent advocates for expansion. Back in 1811, he had written to his father, former
President John Adams, 'The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by
Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general
system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social
usages and customs.' Adams went beyond the idea of mere expansion;
his goal was called continentalism because he intended that the United States would not
just occupy the lands void of European settlers but encompass all of North America. President
James Monroe worked to achieve these ends, securing America's border with Canada at the
Rocky Mountains and with Mexico at the Pacific Ocean. He established the Rush-Bagot Treaty,
he purchased Florida and he wrote the Monroe Doctrine.
Why the push to take over the continent? There were a lot of different reasons. Clearly,
some people believed that extending America's borders from coast to coast was both a God-given
purpose (or destiny) and it was obvious and inevitable (in other words, manifest). Some
saw expansion as a matter of national defense - they were concerned about increased British
or Mexican influence in North America. Others wanted to occupy as much territory in North
America as possible for economic reasons and secure ports to Asia on the West Coast. Some
wanted to expand the reach and influence of slavery into new places.
Another motive was land. A baby boom plus dramatic increases in immigration more than
quadrupled the population between the turn of the century and 1850, and all those people
needed somewhere to go. Then economic downturns occurred in both 1818 and 1839. The frontier
offered people a second chance with new opportunities in business and cheap (or even free) land.
Land ownership represented freedom, wealth and political power. And new technology such
as steam power and the telegraph made the prospect of moving westward a little less
intimidating. About 4,000,000 people (more than the population of the 13 colonies during
the Revolution) moved west between 1820 and 1850.
At first, many people envisioned manifest destiny as a romanticized ideal: white Americans
would move in to desirable land and set up perfect societies that would soon petition
for annexation into the US. Of course, America could negotiate for more territory or buy
it outright. War was another option. Regardless of the process, many politicians adopted the
phrase 'manifest destiny,' and O'Sullivan's words came to symbolize America's driving
national purpose for half a century. Today, his phrase also represents an era in US history.
Some expansionists didn't want to wait for the US government to achieve manifest destiny.
Unauthorized soldiers known as filibusters or freebooters carried out private military
expeditions to secure land. The infamous William Walker attempted to colonize parts of Mexico
and Nicaragua. He was on his way to victory until he infuriated American millionaire Cornelius
Vanderbilt, who convinced the US navy to destroy his regime. Undeterred, Walker went into Honduras
just six months later. This time, he made the British navy angry, and they oversaw his
execution. With many options on the table for achieving
it, manifest destiny became unofficial government policy in the 19th century as America was
faced with the need, the desire and the opportunity to take more land. In the West, politicians
saw everything they needed to expand the prosperity of America's growing population: land, markets,
ports. In the 1840s, President James Polk negotiated with Britain for most of the Oregon
Territory and set the United States on a course to control the land from sea to shining sea.
And it didn't really matter who was in the way.
Let's review. Since its founding, America had been spreading out. Starting in 1818,
American settlers set their sights on the Oregon Territory. Half a million people followed
the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Ocean and many jumping-off points along the way. Though
the Rush-Bagot Treaty stipulated joint occupancy, many Americans wanted the United States to
annex the Oregon Territory. In defense of this idea, journalist John O'Sullivan said
that America had a manifest destiny to overspread the continent, but it was far from a new concept.
John Quincy Adams and James Monroe both believed in this goal, and much of the population agreed.
But the people had many different motives for expansion and many different ideas about
how to achieve it. William Walker tried to do it himself! By mid-century, the presidents
were using all means available to spread American influence from coast to coast.