Manifest Destiny, Explained [APUSH Review]

Well, all right. It's time to kick off Unifi with an absolute banger. Because, in case you don't know, America's destiny ain't going to manifest itself in this period.

That's right. It's time to set up the pieces that are going to lead us into the Civil War. And it begins with Westward expansion.

So, if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, let's get to it. Okay, so the time period for this unit is 1844 to 1877. And 1844 is significant because it marked the election of President James K.

Pulk. Now, I'll talk more about him in the next video, but for now, you just need to know that Pulk's whole campaign was an appeal to US expansion into the West. And that's the major theme of this unit because it's going to cause all kinds of problems that the US, as it turned out, could only solve through a great cataclysm of violence known as the Civil War.

But listen, I need to begin by telling you that westward migration has always been written deep in the code of Americans DNA, even since the colonial period. Now, remember that the British imposition of the proclamation line of 1763 prevented American colonists from migrating west into the Ohio River Valley, which, you know, big mistake. Yeah, it turned out that set off a firestorm of colonial grievances that led to the American Revolution.

And that's why Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "George didn't let us go west up, so he about to get messed up. " I mean, that line didn't make it into the final draft, but you know, the spirit was there. Anyway, after the Revolution, Americans got all that territory for themselves and got their migration on quick, fast, and in a hurry.

Then in 1803, the Louisiana purchased double the size of the United States and provided millions of acres of land for yman farmers to migrate and establish their homesteads. And westward migration was especially important to southern cotton farmers who were always hungry for fresh soil on account of their cotton crops sucked all the nutrients from the ground. And that meant that they always needed more acreage to keep up with the fantastic demand for export in domestic and international markets.

All of which of course was facilitated by the market revolution that we talked all about in the last unit. Okay. Of equal importance, the west served as a kind of social safety net as well.

Remember all the way back to the debates over the ratification of the constitution. Now, one of the biggest gripes of the anti-federalist was that a nation as big as the United States, both in population and land mass, would be too unwieldy for a central government to effectively manage. But Federalists argued back that whatever problem sprang up in the most populated places, they would always have a ready solution, namely westward migration.

It was seen as a kind of pressure release valve for the tensions that built up in the most populated areas of the country. So all that to say, the western frontier always held something of a mythological quality for Americans. And in many ways, the possibility of westward migration had always been a key ingredient in the American identity.

However, in this period, the push for westward migration reached its absolute height. And why is that says you? Well, says I.

We can break it down into two categories. Ideological reasons and practical reasons for migration. Before we get to those reasons, let me just say that if you believe your destiny is to get an A in this class and a five on your exam in May, then I got just the thing to help you manifest it.

It's my A pushheimler review guide and it's got everything you need to study for your exams as fast as possible. It's got whole unit review videos that are not here on YouTube, practice questions, fulllength practice exams, and a sassy Himler bot that's going to answer any of your questions. So, you know, if that's something you're into, check that link in the description.

Okay, so first, let's consider the ideological reason Americans got their westward expansion on during this period. And for that, it's time to talk about manifest destiny. So, this term was popularized by a conservative newspaper editor named John O Sullivan.

Essentially, it was the nationalistic idea that God had blessed the United States and given it a mission to spread itself over the whole of the North American continent from sea to shining sea. And hey, that sounds nice. But as we're going to see, this ideology of manifest destiny is going to cause two wars.

The MexicanAmerican War and the Civil War. And manifest destiny is going to cause endless conflict and violence with American Indians living in those western territories. So, my dear O Sullivan, do you per chance have any evidence that the Almighty has indeed tasked the United States with this mission?

Well, as it turns out, he does have some evidence, and I'll let him say it in his own words. And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. Okay, did you hear it?

Like the reason why the United States has been tasked by God to claim the whole North American continent is because they are the ones with liberty and self-government. Okay, so according to manifest destiny, American freedom and its forms of government are so superior to any institutions found in the West that it's worth whatever blood and money it cost to spread it as far as the Pacific Ocean. And Americans were increasingly convinced that it was necessary to aggressively acquire more indigenous land because they were seen as a barrier to progress.

Not to mention, many Americans believe that American Indians didn't use their land in the proper manner to begin with. And so ultimately with that kind of thinking, American expansion west would be kind of like a favor to the backwards people who were already living there. Okay, so now let's consider the practical reasons for the big push for westward migration during this period.

And there are no less than four that you need to know. First, Americans migrated westward to access natural and mineral resources and to find new economic opportunities. And the territories that would provide such opportunities were Texas, California, and Oregon.

Now, Texas would become a US state right at the beginning of this period, namely 1845. And that act would ultimately set off a war between the US and Mexico. And my next video is going to be all about that.

But for now, all you really need to know is that the vast plains of Texas were highly desirable for southern planters who needed new soil. and the fact that they brought slavery with them into Texas would cause its own problem. Okay.

Second, the Oregon territory was highly desirable for its fertile soil as well. Now, as a result of a treaty signed in 1818, this massive swath of land was jointly occupied by the US and Great Britain. But during this period, the Americans manifested their destiny all over this territory by migrating and settling there in far greater numbers than did the British.

And the whole reason American migrants were crazy to move there is because news of the magnificently fertile soil in the Willilt Valley reached the east along with stories of farmers who had already met success in planting. And so that sparked what became known as Oregon fever and attracted around 350,000 American settlers by 1860 who traveled along the famed Oregon Trail. And therefore claiming Oregon for the US became a central tenant in James K.

Pulk's campaign platform. The slogan was 5440 or fight and referred to the northern border of the Oregon territory way up in Canada and suggested that the US was willing to go to war with Britain yet again if they couldn't get their greedy hands on that juicy Oregon soil. And then the third territory Americans desired for economic opportunity was California.

Now, for the first half of the 19th century, California, which was Mexican territory, attracted relatively few Americans. But in 1848, gold was discovered in them bar hills, and thus began a massive migration to the region known as the California Gold Rush. And in only a few years, the sheer numbers of American migrants who occupied settlements in Mexican California seemed to communicate that like Texas, California too would soon be in the grasp of the expansion-minded United States.

Okay. Now, let's move on to the second practical reason for the flurry of westward expansion during this period, and that was new government policies encouraging settlement of the West. This effort had deep roots in the old Jeffersonian vision of the United States as an empire of liberty for the yman farmer.

So first in 1841, Congress passed the preeemption act which granted squatters the right to buy up to 160 acres in the western federal territories before they went up for sale publicly. Now a squatter by definition was somebody who established a homestead on a piece of land which they did not own. So this law granted squatters the right to purchase the land on which they lived at a very low price on the condition that they would live there and improve the land for at least 5 years.

And so the passage of this law led to a big wave of migrants who would now be able to own a parcel of land at a price that many of them could now afford. In fact, most of the Nebraska and Kansas territories were organized and settled as a result of this provision from the federal government. And then things got even wilder in 1862 when Congress passed the Homestead Act.

Now, at this point, the Civil War had already begun and that meant that the southern states had seceded from the Union. And now that all southern representatives had departed Congress to form their own Confederate legislature, the federal government seized the opportunity to weaken future southern claims in the West, especially their desire to spread slavery across the continent. Dirty move, but hey, respect.

So, the Homestead Act was very similar to the Preeemption Act in that it offered Americans 160 acres in western federal territory on the condition that they lived there and improved the land for at least 5 years. But the big difference is that under the Homestead Act, the land was free. Excuse me.

Did you just say that the federal government was giving away 160acre plots to Americans for free? That is indeed what I said. And so it's not hard to imagine that farmers migrated west by the metric buttload at this offer.

And as a result, most of the remaining western territory of the United States was organized and settled by 1890, at which point the frontier was declared closed. Now, don't get the idea that when Americans got to their plots in all this western territory that they found a pristine, vacant tract of land on which nothing but happy deer and contented squirrels frolked their days away. No, you always have to remember that Americans migrating west is going to cause conflict with the people already living there, namely various groups of American Indians.

Like in many cases, land west of the Mississippi River was designated by a federal treaty as Indian territory. But the congressional policies that I just mentioned that encouraged US migration unilaterally broke those treaties and further displaced American Indians living in the west. Now, some groups like the Comanches living in southern Texas retaliated violently to westward migration, but eventually all such indigenous resistance was conquered by the spreading empire of the United States.

Okay. Now, the third practical reason for westward expansion during this period was a desire for religious refuge. And the poster boys and girls for this were, of course, the Mormons.

So, after their founder, Joseph Smith, was murdered in Illinois, Mormons set their sights on migrating to the Utah territory in order to practice their religion without, you know, getting murdered. Therefore, in 1847, they launched a massive exodus led by Smith's successor, Brigham Young, traveling thousands of miles west and settling near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, which at that point was still Mexican territory. In fact, over the course of only a few years, something like 16,000 Mormon migrants had settled in Utah.

And finally, the fourth practical reason Americans had for westward expansion during this period was a growing interest in trade with Asian countries. Now, US trade with China had declined around the middle of the 19th century. And so, the US government turned to Japan.

And here's where I tell you that Japan had been closed to trade with foreigners for about 200 years by this point on account of they really didn't like Westerners. So, the US took cautious, respectful, diplomatic steps to persuade Japan to open their ports. Wouldn't [laughter] it be hilarious if that's what they did?

No. In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry arrived at Japanese ports with a fleet of warships, threatening war if Japan did not agree to open trade with the United States. And ultimately, Japan agreed to the terms of the American tantrum.

And as a result, two ports were open to limited trade with the United States. Okay, click here to keep watching my other videos for unit 5, and click here to grab my Himler review guide, which is going to help you get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May. And I'm glad you came around, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop.

I'm lur out.