New and Old Manifest Destiny in American History

The United States of America had been an expansionist country since the colonial era. Americans had been expanding their borders up until the Civil War, which brought a temporary stoppage to the expansion. After the Civil War, however, Americans were looking to expand again. This time the expansion turned out to be in the form of Imperialism, which was the acquiring of land possessions in order to extend the power of the nation. This new expansion was to an extent, a continuation of the old expansion in the terms that the old expansion did not have any specification about how far to expand, but it was more of a departure from the old expansion, in the economic, and international aspects that fueled the extension.

New Manifest Destiny, which is a term given to the Imperialistic expansion in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, is in some ways a continuation of the Old Manifest Destiny. The Old Manifest Destiny was an idea that America had to expand its borders because of God and history. At the time when John L. O'Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny, the advocates of the expansion of America's borders were divided on how far to expand. The idea was that Americans should expand in North America, but it was not limited to just North America. Americans tried to buy Cuba from Spain, before the Civil War, through a private document called the Ostend Manifesto. This purchase failed because of the sectional crisis at the time, but after the Civil War the United States continued putting attentions on Cuba, and virtually controlled it with the Platt Amendment. Hawaii was ready to be annexed as well in 1854, but due to the sectional problems the treaty died, but after the war, Hawaii was the target of annexation once more.

However, the New Manifest Destiny departed away from the Old Manifest Destiny, in the economic sense. The old Manifest Destiny was done to acquire more land for farming and agrarian economics. The new imperialism was based on the need to increase American industry. One way that imperialism was an answer was that it helped America obtain more natural resources for more production. Foreign trade was becoming increasingly important to the United States' economy, so the search for new markets was an important economic factor of imperialism. Albert Beveridge in his speech to 56th Congress stated that the United States must keep the Philippines in order to gain access to China's "illimitable" markets, and that the Philippines gave the United States the power to control the trade in the Pacific. American diplomacy had also changed for these new markets, where United States had created the open door policy in China, which exemplified a new form of imperialism, and this policy had given Americans an opportunity to have a share in trade with China with the rest of the world.

Another motivation of the New Manifest Destiny that departed from the Old Manifest Destiny was the competition between the nations in that time period. The United States needed to become a world power, because the rest of the European countries were expanding their influence by gaining possessions outside of their nations. Alfred Mahan insisted that the growth of the naval powers of other countries was a justification for the United States to increase its own naval power so that it may dominate the seas and foreign trade as well. Theodore Roosevelt felt that it was America's duty to uphold the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere and interfere with any of its neighbors who were displaying "impotence." This type of competition was America trying to strengthen its position in the Western Hemisphere, like the liberation of Cuba from Spain, or when America threatened Britain with war if it did not settle its border dispute with Venezuela through arbitration. This aspect of New Manifest Destiny is a departure from Old Manifest Destiny in that it required America to have a great deal more contact with foreign countries and move away from the old isolationist policies.

Ultimately, the imperialist expansion of America in the late nineteenth century was a slight continuation of the old expansion, but was to a greater extent, a departure from the old expansion. The feature of new expansion that was a continuation of the old was that the old expansion had never really finished what it had started. The attributes of new expansion that demonstrated a departure from the old were the economic motivations and the international motivations that led to the imperialistic expansion. These attributes have shaped the way our nation is today, namely in the addition of two states to the nation and the world power status we have today.

Sources: American History: A Survey by Alan Brinkley