manifest destiny
cultural belief of 19th-century American expansionists
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American Progress (1872) by John Gast is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Columbia, a personification of the United States, is shown leading civilization westward with the American settlers. She is shown bringing light from east to west, stringing telegraph wire, holding a school book, and highlighting different stages of economic activity and evolving forms of transportation. On the left, Indigenous Americans are displaced from their ancestral homeland.
Manifest destiny was the expansionist belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand westward across North America, and that this belief was both obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). The belief is rooted in American exceptionalism, romantic nationalism, and nascent ideas of white chauvinism, implying the inevitable spread of republicanism and the American way. It is one of the earliest expressions of American imperialism. According to historian William Earl Weeks, there were three basic tenets behind the concept:
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1840s neologisms1840s quotations1845 establishments in the United States19th century in the United StatesAmerican exceptionalismAmerican imperialismAmerican nationalismAmerican political catchphrasesGeopolitical terminologyHistory of North AmericaHistory of United States expansionismInternal migrations in the United States