American Imperialism has been a part of United States history ever since the American Revolution. Imperialism is the practice by which large, powerful nations seek to expand and maintain control or influence on a weaker nation. Throughout the years, America has had a tendency to take over other people's land. America had its first taste of Imperialistic nature back when Columbus came to America almost five hundred years ago. He fought the inhabitants with no respect for their former way of life, took their land, and proceeded to enslave many of these Native Americans. The impact of the 1820's and 1830's on American Imperialism is undeniable. Although the military power was not fully there during this time period, their ideals and foreign
In the following decades, countless Indians died on forced marches to the newly established Indian Territory where they would be "permanently" free of white encroachments. As land-hungry white men pushed west faster then anticipated, the government's guarantees of this "permanent" frontier lasted for only fifteen years. These land hungry Americans had little to no regard for the lives of whomever was on the land they wished to gain. The term manifest destiny was first coined in 1845 by John L. O'Sullivan. He wrote, He wrote: "Our Manifest Destiny is to over-spread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." Americans believe that they were the only people in the world who had the right and blessing of God to settle land everywhere. Even the government believed in manifest destiny, President Polk tried to buy Cuba and Mexico but failed and started war instead. Manifest Destiny Ideology was contently upgraded to suit whatever economic opportunities were available on Native land. In fact, Manifest destiny was one of the leading causes for the implication of the "Indian Removable Act'. The discovery of gold in Georgia led to much propaganda of the Manifest Destiny idea, and so the Act was set into law. From the 1820's to the 1830's, the United States was developing itself even further as an imperialistic nation. With the Trail of Tears, Bank War, Manifest