By the mid-19th century, the United States grew from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, and in the late 1800s the United States began conquering foreign lands. What are manifest destiny and expansionism, and what role did these concepts play in this growth?

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Cory Miranda

History

24 March, 09:01

By the mid-19th century, the United States grew from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, and in the late 1800s the United States began conquering foreign lands. What are manifest destiny and expansionism, and what role did these concepts play in this growth?

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Brielle Randall · Answer 1

Both concepts are interrelated.

Manifest Destiny is a doctrine that believes that United States has the right to expand accross the continent toward the west, toward the Pacific Ocean, as a design of Providence. Expansionism is a set of policies and actions of territorial acquisition and aggrandizement. These ideas or conceptions drove many of the USA actions and policies in the 19th century, and they were pursued with consistence by different administrations throughout the century. The USA finally reached its goal of extending its territory to the Pacifc shores after defeating Mexico in 1848 and forcing it to cede a huge territory that included California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado.