Thomas Paine's Reasons For Expansion

Improved Essays
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the idea back in the day that the US was destined to spread coast to coast. During history there is also been times where we expanded for different reasons. Although expansion during Manifest Destiny was for the virtue of the American people, their mission to spread their institution, and the Destiny under God, expansion after Manifest Destiny was for trade, natural resources, religion, and national defense.
One reason that we expanded during Manifest Destiny was the virtue of the American people and their institutions. The book Common Sense by Thomas Paine is an example of the American people's virtue. Many Americans agreed with Paine. They came to believe that the virtue was a result of its special experiment and freedom and democracy. Thomas Jefferson
…show more content…
Clinton Rossiter, who was a scholar, was a big part of this movement. he said that God had called forth certain hardy souls from the old and privilege ridden nations and that in bestowing his grace he also granted a peculiar responsibility. This made Americans presuppose that they were not only divinely elected to maintain the north American continent but that they were also to spread abroad the fundamental principles in the Bill of Rights. The destiny under God to do his work was one of the three reasons for expansion during Manifest Destiny.
One of the four reasons for expansion after Manifest Destiny was trade. The United States expanded looking for new markets. They searched for these new markets out west. They had to expand to look for these markets because it would get them closer to the markets so it was easier to get there and trade. This also saved them money. It was cheaper to get to the markets because they didn't have to travel as far. Trade was one of the main reasons for expansion after Manifest

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    More trade meant more money and more jobs too. More people were needed to sail, and make goods, and new goods were supplied to the country. This opened up a lot of diversity, economic, and navigational…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Empire Dbq

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the U.S. became a true world power for the first time in history. There were four major reasons for the U.S. to develop an empire in the late 1800's, which were the closing of the American frontier, economics, religious and moral reasons, and geopolitics (Schultz, 2013). The idea behind manifest destiny was that the U.S. was destined by God to control all of the lands between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. After the all of that land was conquered, many believed that the U.S should continue to conquer and explore overseas and into other continents. Economically speaking, the need to develop an empire was that many businesses needed new areas in which to sell their goods and products in order to increase…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Manifest Destiny is defined as the belief that God wants America to expand, which is exactly what happened (Kinsey Notes). The widespread assumption that pioneers had the divine right from God to expand from the east to west coast of the United States was motivation to explore new terrain and territories. The concept of Manifest Destiny had aided the westward expansion (Doc. 3), thus resulting in the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The government and those who held a higher power had a large say on the idea of Native Americans abiding in the United States. Because of Manifest Destiny and the westward expansion, our country received the shape and size it is today.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 19th century, America was still expanding and growing stronger every year. People of the states used manifest destiny to justify their expansion and used it to acquire all land, from coast to coast. Manifest density is the believe or ideal that America was destined to expand to all the land between the two coasts. This drove the American people to fight for land and to take it from other countries. The Mexican-American War started with the American President, James K. Polk using manifest destiny to obtain a declaration of war from the Congress to go at war with Mexico.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Manifest Destiny is a 19th Century belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American Continents was both justified and inevitable. Several people in the 1800s and 1850s believed in Manifest Destiny. During Westward Expansion vast amounts of land was open the further west the Americans traveled no one knew where it ended. Americans had fought hard for America and were not going to give up on their country. Expanding west was no doubt America's fate.…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One way Congress and the presidents responded to the political issues raised by United States westward expansion is through Manifest Destiny. They believed that it was their right to go out and make the country America. They justified the westward expansion because they thought that it was their God given right to do. Jefferson called it an Empire of Liberty.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 1800s, the Manifest Destiny was a special role in America. It was America's destiny to expand their territory all the way to the Pacific, stated by John Quincy Adams ( specified by John O'Sullivan ). The Manifest Destiny included the Trail of Tears, Indian Removal act, Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation, Westward expansion, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. During the 1800s, the people thought that America's role was to extend its boundaries as far as the Pacific ( page 474 ). In which caused the Manifest Destiny to begin.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It is manifest destiny" (Wilson, 2000, p. 523). The American government wanted to expand its territory in order to gain more power and revenue just as it had when expansions were made in the…

    • 1809 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Manifest Destiny Change the Americas In the nineteenth century, the average American believed in the popular slogan Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the belief that God had predestined the people of America to expand across the continent of North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. In the eighteenth century, the belief in Manifest Destiny no only made a way for physical expansion but also political, social, and economic aspects of the early United States as well. The physical changes in the 1800s consisted of the geographical growth in which they tripled in size.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal in 1803 made between France and the United States that resulted in America expanding further into the New World and doubling their land size. This real estate deal resulted in the mass acquisition of land made under Jefferson’s presidency and later fueled Polk into wanting to expand further through the mid-19th-century idea of Manifest Destiny. This idea, made by John L. O 'Sullivan, was that it is America’s god-given right to expand from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. The synthesis of the Louisiana Purchase and the later idea of Manifest Destiny helped spur many debates over newly gained territories through territorial expansion. These debates arose from issues on whether or not land from the Louisiana…

    • 1755 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jadyn M. Foster Mr. Harris History 7th Period 1/23/2018 Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny The Westward Expansion was a big story in the U.S. It began along the East Coast and continuing until it got to the Pacific. Before the Americans won the battle against the Britain, some settlers were already moving west into what today is called Tennessee and Kentucky. And some parts of the Deep South and Ohio Valley.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Slavery has been one of the most talked about subjects in history. It is a significantly important in our history. The Antebellum period was known for many reform movements. Slavery supported the economy of the United States, the nation went from underdeveloped farmers to becoming a driving force financially. It influenced important leaders, which eventually lead to war.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From 1776- 1900, the United States was largely regarded as the “land of opportunity”. The main contributor to this ideal opportunity was the vast frontier the United States acquired which is seen as the land of the wild with no rules in which you can make new ideas, beginning with the Louisiana Purchase that allowed many minority groups to settle west and make their own towns and farms without being persecuted. This ease expansion west eventually led to the belief in Manifest Destiny which is the ideal that the United States has the divine right stretch from the east to the west coast. These later expansions allowed many minority groups to escape persecution, and gave the common man the ability to own land and rise above their station.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Manifest Destiny is the ideology that the United States had the right to expand west by permission by God. This concept was the justification for westward expansion and was the cause of multiple conflicts between indigenous people and other countries. Most notable of these conflicts was the Mexican-American war. American settlers in Texas did not feel they had to abide by Mexican laws and ideas because God said they did not have to because the rules given to them are not from the United States, and thus not from God. The conflict between the Americans and Mexicans led to war.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Great Move (My opinion of why manifest destiny was a turning point in American History) American history has been debated time and time again. Everyone has a favorite time in history and often hold their own opinions about the events that take place. From the Declaration of Independence and the birth of America to the Revolutionary War that brought forth the great American dream, many things were innovated and changing. A new task, the task of moving west, started with Lewis and Clark and the great expedition that proved that moving west was in fact safe.…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays