Manifest Destiny And The Mexican War Of 1846

Textbook:

Keene, C. & O’Donnell (2012). Visions of America: A History of the United States (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Reading:

Chapter 11: To Overspread the Continent: Westward Expansion and Political Conflict, 1840—1848.

Chapter 12: Slavery and Sectionalism: The Political Crisis of 1848—1861.

Assignment:

How did the ideology of Manifest Destiny contribute to the Mexican War of 1846? Why did the Mexican War of 1846 take place? Was the war necessary? Was it beneficial to the United States? What does this war tell us about this period of American history? Was its God’s plan that the United States extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or were imperialists looking for a way to defend what they planned to do anyway?

Please cite and reference from textbook and at least 1 scholarly reference (outside source).

Lesson:

“In the 19th century US, Manifest Destiny was a belief that was widely held that the destiny of American settlers was to expand and move across the continent to spread their traditions and their institutions, while at the same time enlightening more primitive nations” (History.net, 2018, para. 1). American settlers felt that all Native American Indians and Hispanics were inferior to them and wanted to spread this ideology as they were moving across the western continent. The settlers believed in the Puritan way of life and that it was their mission to make America an image of what they believed in (History.net, 2018).

Reference:

Manifest Destiny: Facts, information and articles about Manifest Destiny, an event of Westward Expansion from the Wild West. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.historynet.com/manifest-destiny.