"Justifying the War with Mexico: Manifest Destiny." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014.
Events are often driven by ideas. One idea, labeled Manifest Destiny, proved to be extremely powerful
throughout the 19th century. This notion allowed Americans to feel entitled to take territory that they did
not own or occupy, and that was claimed and occupied by others. Manifest Destiny provided the
intellectual framework for westward expansion.
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Americans, most of whom were Protestants1, interpreted their success in breaking away from England in
various ways. Many believed that their victory over their former master had been made possible only
through the intervention of God. The belief arose that God intended Americans to be his new "chosen
people" and had set aside the North American continent for them so that they could demonstrate their
superiority to the rest of the world. It did not matter to them that other nations and peoples already
occupied parts of the land—they believed it was preordained that they should have this land and others
must surrender or be pushed aside in the drive to the Pacific.
The idea of Manifest Destiny appears in the writings of many American political figures, including Thomas
Jefferson. It was not until 1845, on the eve of the Mexican-American War, however, that the idea received
its name when John L. O'Sullivan, an editor for the Democratic Review, summed up his beliefs about the
American republic's mission and bright future. O'Sullivan wrote: "[America] is destined to manifest2 to
mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the
worship of the Most High—the Sacred and the True." Thus, Manifest Destiny supplied the ideology that
fueled territorial expansion and helped justify the Mexican-American War..
Christians
make clear
Questions:
1. Part A: Which statement best describes the author’s main purpose in this passage?
a. To provide an explanation of how the Mexican-American War began.
b. To explain how the idea of Manifest Destiny helped rationalize the Mexican-American War.
c. To analyze the religious events of the 19th Century in American history.
d. To suggest God intended for Americans to expand their territory over the entire continent.
Part B: How does paragraph 2 best help develop and refine the author’s ideas?
a. Paragraph 2 helps the reader to understand how Protestant Americans were proud of their victory over
Britain and believed it made them God’s “chosen people.”
b. Paragraph 2 reveals how American political leaders used Manifest Destiny to demonstrate their
superiority over other nations and peoples.
c. Paragraph 2 demonstrates that ideas of Manifest Destiny developed from a belief that God had intended
for Americans, the “chosen people,” to take all the land in North America.
d. Paragraph 2 describes how North America was already occupied by different people when the American
people moved west towards the Pacific.
2. Part A: What is the meaning of the word “divine” in the third paragraph?
a. earthly
b. architectural
c. philosophical
d. godly
Part B: Which three phrases from the text best help the reader understand the meaning of divine?
a. republic's mission
b. territorial expansion
c. worship of the Most High
d. American political figures
e. noblest temple
f. bright future
g. the Sacred and the True
Black, Brian. "Conservationists' Success: The Enduring Success of Conservationism." American
History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. (Excerpted)
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In the 19th century, innovation and new technologies combined with an overriding spirit of expansion to
create an American nation that, in the 20th century, entered the world stage and came to be a leading
global power. Not all influential thinkers, however, promoted unfettered expansion: by the late 1800s,
some of these alternate perspectives coalesced into the movement we know today as "conservation."
Although its definition varied from one era to another, conservation continued to grow over the course of
the 20th century to become modern American environmentalism, one of the world's leading—and most
successful—movements to protect the environment.
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Hunting was one of the first aspects of American life to be influenced by this new ethic of environmental
restraint. By the late 1800s, hunting had become unnecessary for most urban Americans to feed themselves;
however, it remained culturally important for many wealthy men. The trademark species of the continent,
the American bison, became a symbol of the expansion westward and then of the gluttonous use of natural
resources. By 1900, the estimated 30 million bison of 1850 had been reduced to 2,500. The first impulse to
conserve the bison population came from zoologist William T. Hornaday, who worked with President
Theodore Roosevelt and others in 1905 to establish the American Bison Society. Bird species also were
managed and conserved through the work of George Bird Grinnell and the Audubon Society, which he
established across the nation, as well as the magazine Forest and Stream. This ethic of restrained use had a
clear effect on saving species such as the bison, while others such as the passenger pigeon could not be
saved.
Just as scientific management moved into factories in the late 1800s, forests became the focus of careful
oversight that became known as conservation. It was at this point that a fissure began to rend between
advocates of conservation, such as Progressive politician and forestry pioneer Gifford Pinchot, and
preservationists, including Roosevelt. The approach of each group underscored a fundamental difference in
their views of resources, with preservationists calling for certain areas to be placed beyond the reach of
development or use, while conservationists such as Pinchot approached resource use from an
"environmental" perspective that expected that resources would be used wisely.