Essays on Manifest Destiny

August 1845 - c. 1853

The term "Manifest Destiny" was coined in the July-August 1845 issue of "The Democratic Review" by its editor, John L. O’Sullivan. later, he explained it as “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.”

In the mid-to-late 19th century, Manifest Destiny was the idea that the United States had the divine right to expand westward—meaning that U.S. expansion was the will of God. The purpose of the philosophy was to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. Manifest Destiny was used to validate the Indian Removal Acts. Manifest Destiny continued as a key American philosophy until after World War I.

The United States had entered into war with Mexico, driven by the spirit of Manifest Destiny. Territorial expansion and Manifest Destiny resulted not only in war with Mexico, but in the dislocation and brutal mistreatment of Native American, and fueled the growing debate over slavery, that eventually led to the Civil War.