Question

Why is the Louisiana Purchase treaty an important document in the study of Manifest Destiny?

Answer 1

The Louisiana Purchase treaty is an important document in the study of Manifest Destiny because it shows the extent to which the United States was claiming land westward.

Answer 2

Answer:

The Louisiana Purchase treaty is an important document in the study of Manifest Destiny because the Louisiana Purchase expanded the American territory westward, just as the Manifest Destiny proposed to do.

Explanation:

Manifest Destiny is an American doctrine of the 19th century. It states that the US has a divine mandate to expand, particularly through the mid-19th century Western Frontier to the Pacific.

Manifest Destiny was never just a definite policy or ideology; it was a general term that combined elements of American exceptionalism, nationalism, and expansionism into a broad sense of mission.

Many American pioneers argued that the ideals of freedom and nation were of far-reaching importance and needed to be brought to the new lands by extending the reach of the nation (and its borders). Two centuries earlier, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop had claimed his colony was the city on the hill and would demonstrate to the rest of the world the way of life of a free, godly society. In continuation of this idea, many argued that it was a divine mandate to extend the US throughout the North American continent.