Manifest Destiny
Westward-ho ideology
Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century American belief that the United States was destined—by God and history—to expand across the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The doctrine justified territorial acquisition, displacement of Native peoples, and the Mexican-American War.
It shaped American identity and foreign policy for generations. (Lowercase manifest destiny uses the phrase more broadly.)
Spreading in sunset's direction
- frontierEdge of settlement
- annexationAbsorbing territory into jurisdiction
- Louisiana Purchase1803 territorial acquisition
- CaliforniaWest coast megastate
land grab · homesteading · transcontinental railroad · Oregon Trail · gold rush · pioneers · settlers · wagon trains
Systematic annihilation of a people
- dispossessionDeprival of property rights
- Trail of Tears1830s forced indigenous relocation
- reservation systemSoftware managing advance bookings
- cultural erasureDestroying group identity markers
indigenous resistance · displacement · assimilation · forced relocation · boarding schools · revisionist history · decolonization · commemorations
Policy of territorial growth
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- settler colonialismOccupation displacing native peoples
- divine rightGod-granted ruling authority
providence · nationalism · ethnocentrism · superiority · entitlement · preordained · inevitability · civilizing mission
westward expansion
Spreading in sunset's direction
- frontierEdge of settlement
- annexationAbsorbing territory into jurisdiction
- Louisiana Purchase1803 territorial acquisition
California · land grab · homesteading · transcontinental railroad · Oregon Trail · gold rush · pioneers · settlers · wagon trains · surveying
genocide
Systematic annihilation of a people
- dispossessionDeprival of property rights
- Trail of Tears1830s forced indigenous relocation
- reservation systemSoftware managing advance bookings
cultural erasure · indigenous resistance · displacement · assimilation · forced relocation · boarding schools · revisionist history · decolonization · commemorations
expansionism
Policy of territorial growth
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- settler colonialismOccupation displacing native peoples
divine right · providence · nationalism · ethnocentrism · superiority · entitlement · preordained · inevitability · civilizing mission · white supremacy
- 1800s AmericaOregon Trail, Trail of Tears, transcontinental railroad, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln
- AmericanaAmerican flag, Fourth of July, bald eagle, Thanksgiving, apple pie
- Westernscowboys, western, outlaws, sheriffs, western novels
- Wild Westcowboy, howdy, sheriff, giddyup, lawmen
- conquestwar of conquest, capture, invasion, domination, subjugation
- frontierfrontier, pioneer, pioneers, settlers, settler
Manifest Destinyisolationism
Policy avoiding foreign alliances
non-interventionism · anti-imperialism · neutrality · America First · retrenchment
Manifest Destinyself-determination
Control over one's fate
anti-colonialism · anti-imperialism · cultural relativism · decolonization · indigenous rights
Manifest Destinyindigenous sovereignty
Native peoples' self-governance rights
tribal sovereignty · indigenous rights · land back · decolonization · anti-colonialism
destiny, manifest, manifold, manifestation, manifests, destinies, manifesting, predestination, manifested