Social Reasons Anglos believed that they are bringing civilization, democracy and technology to the west. Americans associate land ownership with wealth, individualism, political power and independent “self-rule.” The United States population has grown dramatically due to European immigration.

Explanation: Manifest Destiny was the belief that American expansion was destined to expand across the continent. Because of this attitude, Americans invited Texas to join the US as the 28th state in 1845. President polk also wanted the land of California for America, but Mexico refused to sell it to them.

O’Sullivan, a New York newspaper editor, introduced the concept of “manifest destiny” in the July/August issue of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, in an article titled, “Annexation.” The term described the very popular idea of the special role of the United States in overtaking the continent—the divine …

Suggested Teaching Instructions

• Gold rush and mining opportunities (silver in Nevada)
• The opportunity to work in the cattle industry; to be a “cowboy”
• Faster travel to the West by railroad; availability of supplies due to the railroad.
• The opportunity to own land cheaply under the Homestead Act.

One of the groups affected by Manifest Destiny was lower and middle class white American farmers, tradesmen, and adventurers, who recognized the opportunity of acquiring a better life by settling on cheap land in the west. These were the people who were best poised to take advantage of the doctrine.

The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion.