Westward Expansion Justification

Justification of Manifest Destiny America growing as a nation has been rapidly expanding due to increased rate of birth and immigration from Europe and Asia. It is to no surprise that America had to gain more land than they already had in order to sustain their growing population and to give people the option of self advancement and technological advancement. Land was not only what was being sought after, people went out and tried to spread their Protestant religion with others. The final major outcome for the Americans for claiming this land was that they were able to gain a lot of profit when it comes to agriculture, trading across the Pacific and mining for gold. The US population in the early 18th century was about five million people but during the mid 18th century, this number sky rocketed up to twenty three million people. Without gaining land for themselves, America as a nation wouldn’t be able to supply the people with the essentials they need like food, water, and shelter without gaining more land to grow on. The idea of expanding land for new immigrants and emigrants to the west was a great idea because the US had recently went through two economic depressions and the economy was not doing that well. Land out west was usually very cheap and/or in some cases free and people had to be able to sustain themselves with what they produced themselves but this task seemed near impossible with the land that was already claimed by the US. Religion was one of the most important and the biggest driving force behind moving out west with the idea of, “Manifest Destiny”. The US realized that they were put on a mission by God to expand their lands to spread their ideas of Protestantism, and their ideas of the democratic government system to those capable of self-government. Americans only wanted to help neighboring countries and other groups of people to show them the benefits of adapting to their idealistic ways of both