Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny, jingoistic tenet holding that territorial expansion of the United States is not only inevitable but divinely ordained. The phrase was first used by the American journalist and diplomat John Louis O'Sullivan, in an editorial supporting annexation of Texas, in the July-August 1845 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a magazine that featured literature and nationalist opinion. The phrase was later used by expansionists in all political parties to justify the acquisition of California, the Oregon Territory, and Alaska. By the end of the 19th century the doctrine was being applied to the proposed annexation of various islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.