Log inSign up for FREE
Library

Manifest Destiny: Progress and Change

Last updated almost 3 years ago
7 questions

Manifest Destiny

American politicians felt it was the United States' destiny to expand across the continent. Over a 34-year period, nearly 400,000 people traveled from east to west on the Oregon-California Trail.
-----In the 1800s, many politicians wanted to see the United States span from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Some believed it was a God-given right. They believed settlement would prevent conquest from foreign nations. This idea was called MANIFEST DESTINY. For many Americans, land represented opportunities and potential wealth. It was believed there was a great deal of land to be acquired in the West.
-----Americans also took pride in their form of government and saw it as synonymous with freedom. The desire to take this freedom west was also part of Manifest Destiny. But this idea ignored the rights of the Native Americans who were already living on the land.
-----Manifest Destiny was not only a political idea. Millions of ordinary Americans believed that their best opportunities lay in the West, where land was cheap. In the first half of the 1800s more than four million people followed this dream west.
Art can sometimes reveal a society's biases and perspectives. For example, the idea of "Manifest Destiny" was depicted in the 1872 painting "American Progress" by John Gast. He was a European immigrant who lived in New York. Gast painted the artwork for the magazine Crofutt's Western World. Its publisher, George Crofutt, told Gast he wanted "progress" to be symbolized by a woman. She would float through the air to the West, and on her forehead would be what he called the "Star of Empire."

Crofutt also gave these directions:
"In [the woman's] right hand she carries a book...while with the left hand she unfolds and stretches the slender wires of the telegraph."
Required
1

Look at the ways people are traveling west in this painting. What is the simplest mode of transportation? What is the most technologically advanced method?

Required
1

Why do you think Crofutt wanted Gast to include a book and telegraph wire?

Required
1

What do you think the dark area might tell us about Gast's idea of the effect of Progress on American Indians, or animals like the buffalo?

Required
1

Do you think John Gast or George Crotuff gave much thought to how American Indians might view this painting? Explain your answer.

Required
1

A "stereotype" is an oversimplified but widely-held idea. Stereotypes exist for types of people, concepts, or other things. What kinds of stereotypes can you see in the painting?

Required
1

In your opinion, what was it about Manifest Destiny that Americans found so appealing?

Required
1

Do you think "American Progress" is mostly Gast's vision, or does the painting reflect more of Crofutt's ideas? Give reasons for your opinion.