Manifest Destiny Wars
God is useful.
America preaches to the world about human rights. The irony is that it lacks transparency about its own historical actions. This inconsistency undermines the credibility of American advocacy for universal values and raises questions about moral hypocrisy in international relations. It has no explanation for:
Genocide of Native Americans under religious propaganda
Slavery lasting 250 years after declaring “all men are created equal”
Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
CIA overthrow of democratically elected governments
Support for brutal dictators when convenient
Russia points to American treatment of Native Americans when criticized about Ukraine. China mentions slavery when lectured about Uyghurs. Iran brings up Japanese internment when discussing minority rights. ** America's past destroys its present credibility.**
Every time America claims moral superiority, the world remembers the Trail of Tears. Let’s revisit these Manifest Destiny Wars of the USA.
The Expansion
America's territorial expansion from the 1840s through 1860s reshaped the continent through warfare and diplomacy. But here's the stunning hypocrisy nobody talks about.
The same people who fled Europe to escape religious control suddenly claimed God personally wanted them to steal Native American land. These weren't devout believers following divine commandments. These were practical politicians and newspaper editors manufacturing religious excuses for conquest. They couldn't just say “we want their territory.” That sounds like greed. So, they invented a holy mission.
John L. O'Sullivan, the journalist who coined “Manifest Destiny” in 1845, wasn't a preacher. He was apolitical operator who understood how religious language could sell expansion policies. He argued Americans had a divine right to “overspread the continent allotted by Providence.” This became the most successful propaganda campaign in American history.
The ideology masked brutal realities of conquest and displacement. Native peoples faced genocide, forced removal, and cultural destruction. Mexican citizens lost their homeland through aggressive war. European powers yielded territory to avoid military conflict.
Manifest Destiny achieved its geographical objectives by 1867. America stretched from Atlantic to Pacific with secure northern borders. But this growth planted seeds of civil war over slavery's expansion. The human cost was staggering for conquered people.
The religious justification was pure fraud that worked perfectly.
God's Real Estate Plan
Here'show the scam worked. People who rejected church authority when it limited them embraced “divine will” when it justified conquest.
The colonists had fled Europe specifically to escape religious control. They didn't want bishops or kings telling them what God wanted. They created their own churches with local control. But suddenly they became God's chosen agents of progress when Native Americans had valuable land.
Manifest Destiny required removing Native Americans from coveted territories. The U.S. government justified genocide as necessary for progress and civilization. God apparently wanted democracy to spread from sea to shining sea.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized forced relocation of south-eastern tribes. President Andrew Jackson signed this legislation despite fierce opposition from congressmen and Christian missionaries. The law aimed to clear valuable agricultural lands for white settlement. Notice the contradiction. Christian missionaries opposed removal. But politicians claimed God demanded it.
The Cherokee Nation fought removal through legal channels. They hired white lawyers and appealed to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that states couldn't regulate tribal affairs. Jackson reportedly said “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”
The ** Trail of Tears** began in 1838 when federal troops forced Cherokee removal. About 16,000 Cherokee were marched over 1,000 miles to designated Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. The journey took place during brutal winter months.
Approximately 4,000 Cherokee died during the forced march. Disease, starvation, exposure, and exhaustion killed men, women, and children. Families were separated and traditional social structures collapsed under the brutal displacement. This was God's plan according to American politicians.
Other south -eastern tribes faced similar forced removals. The Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole were also relocated to Indian Territory. Combined casualties from all removals totalled around 15,000 Native Americans who died during or shortly after the journeys.
The Seminole Wars demonstrated fierce Native resistance to divine expansion. Seminoles and escaped slaves fought guerrilla warfare in Florida's swamps and Everglades. The U.S. military spent $40 million and seven years trying to defeat them. God's army was having trouble with the heathens.
Western expansion brought new conflicts with Plains Indians. The California Gold Rush disrupted traditional hunting grounds and migration patterns. Wagon trains and military posts threatened indigenous ways of life across the Great Plains.
Armed resistance occurred throughout the western territories. The Sioux Wars included famous battles like Little Bighorn where Lakota and Cheyenne forces destroyed Custer's command. These victories were temporary against overwhelming American military and economic power.
The Sand Creek Massacre exemplified American brutality toward Native peoples. Colonel John Chivington's Colorado militia attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp in 1864. They killed and mutilated over 150 people, mostly women and children. Chivington was a Methodist minister. He called it a glorious Christian victory.
There servation system confined surviving tribes to marginal lands. Government agents-controlled food distribution, trade, and movement. Children were forcibly removed to boarding schools designed to “kill the Indian, save the man” through cultural assimilation.
Missionary efforts accompanied military conquest. Christian organizations sought to convert Native Americans and destroy traditional religions. Sacred sites were desecrated and ceremonial practices banned under federal law.
Buffalo extermination destroyed Plain’s Indian economies. Professional hunters killed millions of buffalo for hides and tongues. The U.S. military encouraged this slaughter to force tribal dependence on government rations. This systematic destruction was called bringing civilization to the wilderness.
Native American resistance demonstrated remarkable courage against impossible odds. Leaders like Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, and Geronimo inspired their people's struggles for survival. Their defeats reflected American technological and numerical advantages rather than moral superiority.
Americans later appropriated Tecumseh's name for commercial purposes. Even Native American heroes became marketing tools. The pattern was clear. A former colony did to natives in America exactly what European colonizers did to natives everywhere else. The only difference was better religious marketing.
Divine Diplomacy
America's continental expansion reached completion through diplomatic negotiation rather than military conquest. But even peaceful expansion required religious justification.
The Alaska Purchase and Oregon Treaty secured the nation's northern and western boundaries. These agreements demonstrated America's growing international influence and territorial ambitions under divine guidance.
Russia's decision to sell Alaska reflected its strategic vulnerabilities after the Crimean War. The territory was difficult to defend from Russian population centres. The declining fur trade made Alaska less economically valuable than initially hoped.
Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase Treaty in March 1867. Russia agreed to sell all its North American territories for $7.2 million. Critics mocked the acquisition as “Seward's Folly” and “Seward's Icebox.” The purchase price equalled about two cents per acre for 586,000 square miles. This massive territory doubled the size of the existing United States. Alaska contained vast natural resources including gold, oil, and fish that later justified the investment many times over. Alaska's purchase completed America's continental vision of expansion from sea to shining sea. The nation now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific with secure northern borders.
But God's plan created problems for Alaska Natives. The treaty classified them into problematic categories. “Civilized groups” became U.S. citizens but lost special political relationships with the federal government. “Uncivilized groups” were subjected to Indian law and policies designed for continental tribes.
This classification system created confusion and legal disputes lasting decades. Alaska Natives lost traditional land rights without gaining protections typically extended to tribes in the lower states. The disruption exposed indigenous communities to disease, cultural destruction, and economic marginalization. Apparently, God's plan didn't include protecting Native Alaskans.
The Oregon Territory question had threatened war between Britain and America. Both nations claimed the entire Pacific Northwest from California to Alaska. “Fifty-four forty or fight!” expressed maximum American territorial demands. Numbers referred to the latitude line of ** 54°40′** , which was the northern boundary claimed by the U.S. for this territory, extending to the south of Canada.
President Polk initially supported these extreme claims but accepted a compromise to avoid simultaneous wars with Britain and Mexico. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 extended the existing 49th parallel boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
This peaceful resolution prevented armed conflict between the world's leading naval power and America's expanding republic. Britain retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights on the Columbia River. America gained the present-day states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
The boundary settlement established the longest undefended border in world history. Canadian-American relations generally remained peaceful despite occasional disputes over fishing rights, trade policies, and territorial boundaries.
The acquisition demonstrated America's emergence as a major world power capable of global territorial expansion. European nations recognized American strength and ambition in negotiating these complex international agreements.
Manifest Destiny had achieved its geographical objectives through war and diplomacy both. All according to God's plan.
Holy War for Mexico
The Mexican-American War exposed the full fraud of religious justification for conquest. Americans claimed God wanted them to spread democracy and civilization. What they really wanted was Mexican land.
Annexation of Texas in 1845 triggered immediate conflict with Mexico. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern boundary while Mexico insisted on the Nueces River. This dispute placed American troops in contested territory that Mexico considered its own.
President James K. Polk wanted war with Mexico. He needed a religious excuse for naked aggression. Manifest Destiny provided perfect cover. The immediate cause was manufactured. The U.S. sent troops under General Zachary Taylor to the disputed area between the rivers. Mexico considered this an invasion of its territory. After a skirmish between Mexican and American troops in April 1846, Polk declared that Mexico had “shed American blood on American soil.”
This was American blood on Mexican soil. But religious propaganda doesn't require accuracy. Congress declared war on Mexico in May 1846. The conflict lasted two years and demonstrated American military superiority. Mexican forces couldn't match American equipment, training, or naval power.
American forces captured Mexico City in September 1847. This victory forced Mexico to negotiate peace terms. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war in February 1848. The treaty transferred enormous territory to the United States. Mexico ceded present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. America also gained undisputed control of Texas with the Rio Grande boundary. The total ceded territory accounted for roughly one-third of the current land area of the continental United States.
The United States paid Mexico $15 million for this massive territory. This payment provided legal justification for what was essentially conquest through manufactured war. Mexico lost nearly half its national territory in the settlement.
God's plan was expensive but profitable.
The Mexican Cession raised intense debates about slavery's expansion. Northern states opposed allowing slavery in the new territories. Southern states demanded equal access for slaveholders. These conflicts pushed the nation toward civil war.
Apparently, God hadn't clarified his position on slavery in the new territories.
California's Gold Rush accelerated westward migration and statehood. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 attracted hundreds of thousands of fortune seekers. California's population exploded from 14,000 to over 300,000 in just two years. Divine providence included mineral wealth in the stolen territories. How convenient.
The pattern was complete. Religious settlers who fled church control, used religious propaganda to justify conquest. They manufactured divine missions to cover territorial greed.
This play-book would be used again. In the Philippines, “White Man's Burden” would replace “Manifest Destiny.” Same scam, different marketing. The hypocrisy was breathtaking. And it worked perfectly.
The founders' hypocrisy about slavery while declaring equality. Manifest Destiny's religious fraud. This is not ancient history. These are current strategic liabilities of America.
The hypocrisy had just begun. It will continue for at least another century. Let go back to the present day in 2025 where a war in Europe has shaken the world. It is the war in Ukraine.
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