The Manifest Destiny is the 19th-century principle or belief
that the development of the US throughout the American continents was both right
and inescapable. The idea of Manifest Destiny influenced the American’s
Westward Migration because it made that migration more probable to expand
territorially. The idea of this philosophy held that Americans were greater to
most other people in a number of ways. They were said to have a superior form
of government – superior culture and religion. For these explanations, it was
said, they were predestined by God to expand their territory. This attitude led
to the westward migration. First, it helped lead to the growth of US Territory.
It helped lead to the Mexican-American War because it endorsed the attitude
that America deserved all the land more than the Mexicans did. America’s
God-given destiny made it acceptable to take the land from Mexico. The same
attitude applied to the Indians as American settlers moved west. The idea was
that the Indians were so lesser that they did not deserve the use of the land. They
were to be relocated and the land was to go the Americans who deserved it and
would use it well.
