Austin ("Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny," Digital History, 2007). "Aggressive nationalists invoked the idea [of Manifest Destiny] to justify Indian removal, war with Mexico, and American expansion into Cuba and Central America" ("Westward Expansion: Manifest Destiny," Digital History, 2007).

On one hand, Manifest Destiny did allow poorer persons to migrate West, farm land, and make their fortunes with hard work -- but it also marked the end of a vital and unique culture, that of the Native American tribes and it also justified the United States flagrantly violating international laws and borders. Although some Americans called Manifest Destiny 'progress' at the time, in retrospect the American leadership's inability to locate America as one great nation part of a community of great nations, rather than a nation that can do as it please, seems jingoistic, illegal and cruel.

Works Cited

O'Sullivan, John L. "Manifest Destiny." 1839. Excerpted from "The Great Nation of...
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