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Lecture 5
Manifest Destiny: Concepts
this lecture to some extent predates an impartial media

A: Macro Forces
1) Natural Growth
-seen as 'organic and vital
-necessary part of the 'youth' of a country
-america was seen as a country in adolescence
-two forces spur this
-internal growth- large childbirth rate
-external growth- lots of immigration
-american population is booming during this time
-there was an 'irresistable tide' of american expansion, threefold process
-overflow of population
-americanization
-incorporation
-the entirety of north america is very fluid, borders are very ill-defined, people expand first, the country comes in later
-americans believe that past the western border of their country is 'uninhabited'
-important because it shows that the americans dont feel like indians or spanish have legit claims to the land
-indians were forcibly removed from their territory, sent farther west
-essentially a state-sponsored form of ethnic cleansing
-most of the reason that americans didnt go farther south is that they'd have to take mexicans with the land
-mexicans were too white to be slaves, but not quite white enough for citizenship rights
-just easier not to take it at all

-emerson puts it this way
-'young america'
-at every age of the world there is a leading nation, it's america's term
-america follows the path of least resistance in expansion
-they failed at invading canada over and over again
-much easier to go against spain, whose empire was already faltering and failing
-another idea was that america's growth was limited by continuity
-continentals made this point
-america can only expand insofar as its territory is continuous
-america should not suffer 'petty rival republics'
-most obvious example of this is texas
-but america should still limit itself to contiguous land

2) Self Defense
-example to be used here is the carribean
-case study here- Danish West Indes
-in 1916, US sec of state contacted the danes and informed him
-in the event that germany forced the danes to hand over the west indes, america would conquer and annex them
-even if the danes voluntarily gave up the islands, the US would invade
-on jan 1917, the islands were sold to the US- are now the US virgin islands
-LAST TERRITORIAL ACQUISITION OF THE UNITED STATES
-self defense vs possible injury as a possible consequence of a possible action against a possible enemy
-wow
-america is in a quest for ideal security
-'america invulnerable'
-this is the idea of the 'no transfer' doctrine of 1811- prohibiting the transfer of spanish florida to any european power because it would be a threat to the US

to sum it up, american expansion was due in large part to the lack of substantive competition
-most expansionary action taken was due in large part to imagined or manufactured threats
manufactured threats used as justification for expansion:
-possible attack by enemy
-possible quarrels with powerful enemy
-possible weak neighbor (who could be conquered by a strong enemy)
-possible imperial rivalry
-possible political interference by strong enemies

B: Micro Forces
3) Technology
-industrial revolution introduces whole bunches of things
-steamboats
-railroads
-telegraphs!
-now, america doesnt have to worry about breakaway republics due to lack of communication or transportation
4) Mission
-america has a sense of obligation and mission
-leads to sense of superiority over the cultures of other societies
-also, trend towards infantilization of other cultures, especially indians

5) Geography
-america decided that it wasnt just going to have isolated settlements, like the french trading posts
-it was going to be actually settled
-especially applied to california
-californians though they had huge potential which wasn't being realized under mexican rule

6) Partisan Politics
-expansion was a 'safety valve'
-slavery got expanded, as did free states
-allowed parties to expand without real opposition from inside the states.