History Essay#1- How did the U.S. Fulfill the Idea of the Manifest Destiny and Was It Worth It?

The idea of the Manifest Destiny when it was first thought of is now very difficult to process. What was the meaning of "just" back then? The Manifest Destiny was the rightful destiny of the United States to expand and move from coast to coast.

How did we fulfill this idea? Many acts of the U.S. before the Manifest Destiny contributed. Like, the Louisiana Purchase where the U.S. gained a very large amount of land.The Mexican American war where the U.S. gained almost 1/3 of Mexican territory. And lastly the Treaty of Paris which set the Canadian border to where it lies now.

It all started when James Monroe shared this idea in the Monroe Doctrine. This idea spread across the U.S. until it eventually became a popular philosophy. Some agreed and some did not with this idea. For example many believed that it was Americas divine providence while others had expected it was American domination. James O' Sullivan said,

".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self government entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."

In my opinion, it was not just of Americans to come on over and take other peoples territory because they thought they were better than them. More importantly America created great acts of violence to gain this land. They claimed they were bringing God, technology, and civilization to the west. Little did people know they also brought death, disease, and war.

In the end, was it worth it? The pros: It gave Americans a sense of freedom, it created more land which led to more crops, and it allowed the nation to expand its territory. The cons: property was taken away from a large group of people, it manipulates the idea of religion for personal gain, and also shows that they used death promoting religion. In this case, the cons overrule the pros so i don't think it was worth it. I'm sure it was great for Americans to gain so much land but when you are hurting the lives of others and promoting death and war its just not okay. Some may agree with me and some may not but think about the definition of just/ justice in the 19th century. They probably thought death was okay if they were to gain something out of it. But currently the Manifest Destiny was not "just"