5.1 Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the guiding ideology of American expansion in the mid-nineteenth century, embodying a synthesis of nationalism, racial superiority, and divine providence. Coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan (1845), the phrase captured the conviction that the United States had a sacred mission to extend its democratic institutions and civilization across the continent. This belief reflected both the optimism and the arrogance of the age. For many Americans—particularly white settlers—expansion was not only inevitable but righteous, an expression of God’s will.