Manifest Destiny Research Paper

Words: 560
Pages: 3

Manifest Destiny was like a fever that everyone had caught in the late-1800s and early-1900s. It was a belief that Americans had the god-given right to expand all the west to the Pacific Ocean. Many people believed in it, but others did not, and thought that this would cause a lot of destruction. Now, why did most people catch this fever? To answer that question, we first have to understand Manifest Destiny.

To understand Manifest Destiny, we first have to look at the definition of it. The word “Manifest” based on Dictionary.com and Merriam Webster means, "easily understood or recognized by the mind” and "readily perceived by the eye or the understanding” On the other hand, the word “Destiny” based on the same two sources means,” "a predetermined course of events” and "something that is to happen and cannot be prevented.” So with all the definitions we can guess that manifest destiny means that it is an understanding about something, in this case moving west, that can not be prevented, or taken away from people.
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First, for the positive effects, thanks to Manifest Destiny there became new room for settlers to come, people were able to farm more land, we became stronger and got more area for trading. For the negative effects, Manifest Destiny caused many people to die while they were trying to travel west, there was a lot of extra land in the east, because everyone was moving west, and then boundaries had to be made on where and where not slaves could be. Another thing to consider with this is how it made people feel, and what did they see in moving west? They believed that it would be better to move west because they would get more land for their families, or they would escape the religious persecution they were facing, or even to start a new life. The West was portrayed as an amazing place that would be the best for