Describe the concept of Manifest Destiny and its effects. How did it affect territory expansion? What did it have to do with the Mexican-American War? Write your response in a complete paragraph with topic sentence and a minimum of 8 - 10 sentences.

Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States is destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. The philosophy drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion and was used to justify the forced removal of Native Americans and other groups from their homes. The rapid expansion of the United States intensified the issue of slavery as new states were added to the Union, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Explanation:

Louisiana Purchase

Thanks to a high birth rate and brisk immigration, the U.S. population exploded in the first half of the 19th century, from around 5 million people in 1800 to more than 23 million by 1850.

Such rapid growth—as well as two economic depressions in 1819 and 1839—would drive millions of Americans westward in search of new land and new opportunities.

President Thomas Jefferson kicked off the country’s westward expansion in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, which at some 828,000 square miles nearly doubled the size of the United States and stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. In addition to sponsoring the western expedition of Lewis and Clark of 1805-07, Jefferson also set his sights on Spanish Florida, a process that was finally concluded in 1819 under President James Monroe.

But critics of that treaty faulted Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, for yielding to Spain what they considered legitimate claims on Texas, where many Americans continued to settle.

In 1823, Monroe invoked Manifest Destiny when he spoke before Congress to warn European nations not to interfere with America’s Westward expansion, threatening that any attempt by Europeans to colonize the “American continents” would be seen as an act of war. This policy of an American sphere of influence and of non-intervention in European affairs became known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” After 1870, it would be used as a rationale for U.S. intervention in Latin America.

effects:

Manifest Destiny greatly impacted the country, it was the push behind America's expeditious expansion into the West. Some examples of it's impact on the country are that it helped fuel western settlement, and pushed many Native American out of America.

the beginning of the iditarod trail sled dog race. the iditarod trail sled dog race first ran to nome in 1973.   the trail they used is today known as the iditarod trail, first surveyed by the alaska road commission in 1908 and now one of the national historic trails as so designated by the congress of the united states.

what inspired

the children of nome were dying in january 1925. infected with diphtheria, they wheezed and gasped for air, and every day brought a new case of the lethal respiratory disease. nome’s lone physician, dr. curtis welch, feared an epidemic that could put the entire village of 1,400 at risk. he ordered a quarantine but knew that only an antitoxin serum could ward off the fast-spreading disease.the nearest batch of the life-saving medicine, however, rested more than 1,000 miles away in anchorage. nome’s ice-choked harbor made sea transport impossible, and open-cockpit airplanes could not fly in alaska’s subzero temperatures. with the nearest train station nearly 700 miles away in nenana, canine power offered nome its best hope for a speedy delivery.sled dogs regularly beat alaska’s snowy trails to deliver mail, and the territory’s governor, scott c. bone, recruited the best drivers and dog teams to stage a round-the-clock relay to transport the serum from nenana to nome. on the night of january 27, 1925, a train whistle pierced nenana’s stillness as it arrived with the precious cargo—a 20-pound package of serum wrapped in protective fur. musher “wild bill” shannon tied the parcel to his sled. as he gave the signal, the paws of shannon’s nine malamutes pounded the snow-packed trail on the first steps of a 674-mile “great race of mercy” through rugged wilderness, across frozen waterways and over treeless tundra.even by alaskan standards, this winter night packed extra bite, with temperatures plummeting to 60 degrees below zero fahrenheit. although every second was precious as the number of confirmed cases in nome mounted, shannon knew he needed to control his speed. if his dogs ran too fast and breathed too deeply in such frigid conditions, they could frost their lungs and die of exposure. although shannon ran next to the sled to raise his own body temperature, he still developed hypothermia and frostbite on the 52-mile leg to tolovana before handing off the serum to the second dog team.