How did the concept of Manifest Destiny influence the expansion of the United States?
Popular during the early nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans had the God-given right—even duty—to extend the borders of the United States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the century, the United States acquired territory by several means. In 1803 the government bought the Louisiana Territory (present day Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Louisiana, and parts of Oklahoma, Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming east of the Rocky Mountains) from France. The United States also acquired Florida and the southern strip of Alabama and Mississippi through a treaty with Spain in 1819. In 1845 the United States annexed (incorporated) Texas, which had been declared a republic by settlers who did not want the territory to remain a…
