Historians have for the most part agreed that there are three basic themes to Manifest Destiny.
1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions;
2. America's mission to redeem and remake the world in the image of America;
3. A divine destiny under God's direction to accomplish this wonderful task.
~Robert Miller~
1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions;
2. America's mission to redeem and remake the world in the image of America;
3. A divine destiny under God's direction to accomplish this wonderful task.
~Robert Miller~
Essential Question:
- What opportunities and conflicts emerged as Americans moved westward?
Vocabulary:
Key People:
Videos and Summaries:
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Manifest Destiny:
Expansion westward seemed perfectly natural to many Americans in the mid-nineteenth century. Pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean. Independence had been won in the Revolution and reaffirmed in the War of 1812. The spirit of nationalism that swept the nation in the next two decades demanded more territory. Now, with territory up to the Mississippi River claimed and settled and the Louisiana Purchase explored, Americans headed west in droves. The religious fervor spawned by the Second Great Awakening created another incentive for the drive west. Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American nation. The Native Americans were considered heathens. By Christianizing the tribes, American missionaries believed they could save souls and they became among the first to cross the Mississippi River. |
Pursuit of economic opportunity led settlers westward where they confronted Native American cultures. The major western conflict was the dispute between Native Americans and Western settlers over the concept of property rights.
At the heart of manifest destiny was the pervasive belief in American cultural and racial superiority. Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been widespread since the days of John Smith and Miles Standish. The Hispanics who ruled Texas and the lucrative ports of California were also seen as "backward." DAWES ACT (General Allotment Act) of 1887, the Dawes Act authorized the president of the United States to subdivide tribal reservations into private parcels of land that would then be "allotted" to individual members of each tribe. Designed to detribalize Indians and assimilate them into mainstream white society by transforming them into selfsupporting farmers and ranchers, the Dawes Act became one of the most far-reaching and, for Native Americans, disastrous pieces of Indian legislation ever passed by Congress. By the time the allotment process was stopped in 1934, the amount of Indian-held land in the United States had dropped from 138 million acres to 48 million acres, and, of the remaining Indian-owned land, almost half was arid or semiarid desert. |
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Economic motives were paramount for others. The desire for more land brought aspiring homesteaders to the frontier. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, the number of migrants increased even more. Homesteaders who persevered were rewarded with opportunities as rapid changes in transportation eased some of the hardships. Six months after the Homestead Act was passed, the Railroad Act was signed, and by May 1869, a transcontinental railroad stretched across the frontier. The new railroads provided easy transportation for homesteaders, and new immigrants were lured westward by railroad companies eager to sell off excess land at inflated prices. The new rail lines provided ready access to manufactured goods and catalog houses like Montgomery Ward offered farm tools, barbed wire, linens, weapons, and even houses delivered via the rails.
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A People's Party grew out of agrarian unrest in response to low agricultural prices in the South and the West. The Farmers' Alliance formed and achieved widespread popularity in the South and Great Plains. By the late 1880s, the Alliance had developed a political agenda that called for regulation and reform in national politics, most notably an opposition to the gold standard to counter the high deflation in agricultural prices in relation to other goods such as farm implements.
Terence V. Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, helped pave the way for a series of reform conferences held |
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between December 1889 and July 1892 that resulted in the formation of the national People’s (or Populist) Party.” The drive to create a new political party out of the movement arose from the belief that the two major parties Democrats and Republicans were controlled by bankers, landowners and elites hostile to the needs of the small farmer.
The party's platform called for the abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, civil service reform, a working day of eight hours and Government control of all railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. The party flourished most among farmers in the Southwest and Great Plains, as well as making significant gains in the South. Quite separate from the Populists were the Silverites in the western mining states, who demanded Free silver to solve the Panic of 1893. In the next presidential election, the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, who focused on the free silver issue as a solution to the economic depression and the maldistribution of power. One of the great orators of the day, Bryan generated enormous excitement among Democrats with his "Cross of Gold" speech, and appeared in the summer of 1896 to have a good chance of winning the election, if the Populists voted for him. The Populists had the choice of endorsing Bryan or running their own candidate.They decided to endorse Bryan but with their own vice presidential nominee, Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. They lost to Republican William McKinley, and lost again in a rematch in 1900. |
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TEKS for Unit 1:
2A- identify the major characteristics that define an historical era;
2B- identify the major eras in U.S. history from 1877 to the present and describe their defining characteristics; 2C- apply absolute and relative chronology through the sequencing of significant individuals, events, and time periods; 3A- analyze political issues such as Indian policies, the beginnings of Populism; 3B- analyze economic issues such as industrialization, the growth of railroads, the growth of labor unions, farm issues, the cattle industry boom; 12A- analyze the impact of physical and human geographic factors on the settlement of the Great Plains, the Klondike Gold Rush; 12B- identify and explain reasons for changes in political boundaries such as those resulting from statehood and international conflicts. 13A- analyze the causes and effects of changing demographic patterns resulting from migration within the United States, including western expansion |
14A- identify the effects of population growth and distribution on the physical environment;
14C- understand the effects of governmental actions on individuals, industries, and communities, including the impact on Fifth Amendment property rights. 15A- describe how the economic impact of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act contributed to the close of the frontier in the late 19th century; 15B- describe the changing relationship between the federal government and private business, including the costs and benefits of the Interstate Commerce Act. 27B- explain how specific needs result in technological innovations in agriculture 28A- analyze how scientific discoveries, technological innovations, and the application of these by the free enterprise system, including those in transportation and communication, improve the standard of living in the United States |