The Second Period of Aggressive Continental Expansion and the Concept of Manisfest Destiny.

This was a period of peace in Europe that left the US alone as a power on the American continent. A lot of activity was happening simultaniously as Americans rushed westward and flexed their muscle, unrestrained by Europe that now recognized them a regional power.

The US experienced the most explosive population growth the world had ever witnessed. Settlement of the west was underway, and a Eurocentric and belligerent attitude was the mark of the times.

With its new presence on the West Coast of the continent, the US began coming into contact with the nations of Asia, societies that were totally different in race, language, culture and religion. The way the US dealt with these peoples was not so different from the way it dealt with the Native Americans.

The Concept of Manifest Destiny

The term manifest destiny was coined in 1845 by John L. O'Sullivan. It referred to the Anglo American's manifest destiny to possess the whole of the continent that providence had given it.

Facilitating Factors

Population Growth

About 3% annually, doubling the population every 25 years.

Transportation and Communication

Construction of roads and canals, the use of steamboats, and the later development of railroads all made mass transportation possible and even easy. The invention of the telegraph provided almost instant communications.

This revolution in transportation and communications made outlying areas an integral part of the economic life of the nation. Going west was suddenly not very difficult.

Rationale

They had a lot of ways to justify what they were doing.

Emptiness of the Land

They saw vast lands with almost no population. Very inviting. After all, what right did so few people have to own such vast territory?

Better use of the Lands

It would be morally wrong to let such vast lands lie. It was man' responsibility to use Gods creation for constructive purposes. Since the natives were not, it was the Anglo's responsibility to do so.

Democracy

Extablishment of the Empire of Liberty. They wanted to bring Democracy to the primitive people's of the west.

The Cosmopolitans (Whigs) vs. The Localists (Jacksonian Democrats)

Cosmopolitans encouraged slow, peaceful expansion, allowing the growth of the population to do the work, expanding and overwhelming the natives, inculcating the natives into the life of the nation slowly and without aggression.

The localists were teritorially aggressive farmers who wanted land. They were aggressive expansionists who used armed forces to displace locals.

The Right of Geographical Predisposition

The idea that National boundaries would define rational boundaries of the Nation. The Greater Nation's right to expand.

Deterents

Slavery

The Conflict of Free States Vs. Slave States

Dense Foreign Population

They had to decide what to do with the populations of the annexed territories.. They had a choice of two uncomfortable situations:

• Incorporate the populations of the annexed territories and create a multicultural and multi-racual society. This very concept was offenseive to the Anglo-Saxon Christians of the time.
• Conquer the populations and withold citizenship, making them subjects. But how could a democracy justify this kind of action?

They chose to do neither, removing the alien native populations to the westward frontier to open their territory up for settlers and put off the problem until later.

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