Wednesday, April 15, 2009

What law ended the belief of manifest destiny?

I remember learning about a law that ended manifest destiny and "swore" that America was done trying to expand. Anyone remember what it was called and when it was passed? Thanks so much.


There was no law, as such (unless you count the laws making all of the western territories states). Manifest Destiny was an idea that the USA had a God given right (destiny) to control all of the land from the eastern seaboard to the west coast. So making the western territories states would've fulfilled that requirement, but there was no document saying that the US was done expanding. In fact, it didn't. We went on expanding beyond the west coast to Hawaii and territories beyond (won during the Spanish-American War).

Manifest destiny was the beliefy that the U.S. had the right to extend its sovereignty throughout North America. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and set the boundaries between the U.S. and Mexico. The Treaty of 1846 set the northern boundaries by compromising the Oregon territory and the "fifty-four forty or fight" goal concerning that boundary with Canada.

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