1. Manifest Destiny
manifest: clear or obvious
destiny: future or fate

2. John Gast, American Progress, 1872
Question to students: What do you see in this painting? 3 4

3. Manifest Destiny
American belief in the 1800’s that the United States was meant to expand across the continent

4. First Use of Term
“The American claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence [God’s blessing] has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march?” -John O’Sullivan, New York Editor

5. Events of Manifest Destiny
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Indian Removal (Trail of Tears)
Texas Independence
Mexican-American War
49ers
Oregon Trail
Pioneers
Treaties and Purchases

6. Map of the United States, 1872

7. Contemporary Map of the 1816 United States

8. John Melish, Map of the U. S
John Melish, Map of the U.S. with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions,1816

9. Melish’s comments on his 1816 map of the United States
To present the country this way was desirable . . .
The map shows at a glance the whole extent of the United States territory from sea to sea.
In tracing the probable expansion of the human race from east to west, the mind finds an agreeable resting place on its western limits. The view is complete and leaves nothing to be wished for. It also adds to the beauty and symmetry of the map.
Source: John Melish. Map of the United States with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions. Philadelphia, 1816.
Question for class: How does John Melish justify drawing the map as if the country stretches from sea to sea?