MANIFEST DESTINY INTRO NOTES
Manifest Destiny--Definition
 The popular idea in the United States in the ________ that the country must ______________ its boundaries to
the Pacific Ocean.
 Manifest comes from the Latin word that basically means it is _________________.
 Destiny, in this case, meant that it was ________________________.
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When Did It Begin?
The idea of expanding westward was really always a part of the American ________________.
Remember when the king of England had to put limits on the colonists from going too far west for their safety?
(Proclamation of 1763)
But you can probably start the timeline of Manifest Destiny going at around ________ with the
___________________________________.
After doubling the size of the country and the excitement over the Lewis and Clark Expedition, there was no
stopping it.
New states and territories began popping up on maps every few ____________.
By the 1840s, Manifest Destiny was at its peak and was going full speed!
Justification
Question: How do you think Americans were able to justify taking land from Native Americans?
Americans and Native Americans saw land very _____________________.
Native Americans did not divide land up and fence it in in neat little farms…they did not see land as something to be
____________. Tribes claimed large areas that all people lived on and shared together.
Americans saw this as “___________” or “______________” land. They did not think the Indians were truly using the
land and therefore, they thought it was going to waste.
Americans wanted to “improve” the land…that means divide it up, fence it off, and farm it, mine it, build industries and
towns, or whatever other uses they could think of.
This fundamental difference in the way people viewed the land was at the __________ of all of the troubling parts of
Manifest Destiny.
Was it a Good or Bad Thing?
 That is a _________________ question…it all depends upon your perspective.
 It depends who you ask…
 Some will tell you that it was necessary to make the United States into a __________________ world
________________ and that, in the end, that was the most important thing because the world ___________ a
strong U. S. A. to protect freedom.
 They will also say that people living in America today have more __________________ than most of the rest of
the world.
 Native Americans will tell you that they were robbed blind and will sometimes use the word
“_________________”
Genocide = the deliberate and systematic _____________________ of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
 Some African-Americans will tell you that Manifest Destiny was just a vehicle to expand ________________.
 Mexican people will show you what the map of their country _________ to look like, before Manifest Destiny…