Manifest destiny

• Key words and terms

  • Migration
  • Emigrant
  • Immigrant
  • Push factor
  • Pull factor
  • Manifest destiny
• Migration


  The movement of people from one place to another
• Emigrant


  Someone who moves away from somewhere
• Immigrant


  Someone moving into an area
• Push factor

  A reason that forces or encourages someone to leave
• Pull factor


  A reason attracting someone to somewhere else
• Manifest destiny


  The belief that God wanted white people or Europeans to take over the whole of the North American continent to make it civilized like Europe
• The painting "Westwood Home" or "Westwood: The Course of Empire Takes Its Way" is a piece of American expansionist propaganda
• The painting suggests that there is a better life in the west for migrants
• The painting represents the eagerness of Europeans to move west and fulfill the idea of manifest destiny
• The painting shows men, women, and children traveling west to a new life
• The painting includes mountains, plains, and forests to represent the diversity of landscapes in North America
• The painting includes guns, suggesting potential violence
• The painting includes a cross, symbolizing Christianity moving west
• Push factors for moving from east to west

  Cities in the east becoming crowded and disease-ridden, too few jobs in the east
• Reasons for moving from east to west

  • New work, new opportunities
• Tens of thousands of people moved along the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to the U.S. territory of Oregon
• The Oregon Trail was an arduous and dangerous journey
• Push factors

  • Cities in the east becoming very crowded and disease-ridden
  • Too few jobs in the east
  • 25 percent of people were unemployed in 1837
• Pull factors

  • Cities in the west were quiet and cleaner
  • People were needed to do jobs in the west
  • People believed in the idea of manifest destiny
  • Gold was discovered in the west in 1849
  • Safe routes found to help people make their way west
  • Government gave people money to encourage them to move west
  • Government reports made the west look manageable to get to
• Both push and pull factors influenced people to move from east to west
• Financial crisis in the USA

  1836
• Oregon Trail survey


  1. Commissioned to survey the Oregon Trail in 1837 by Fremont

  2. First migrants reached Oregon in 1841

  3. Positive reports about the Oregon Trail convinced large groups of people to migrate west
• Gold discovered in the Sierra Nevada


  1848
• A hundred thousand people traveled to California during the gold rush of 1849 by land
• Manifest destiny convinced white Americans that they had a god-given right to colonize the whole North American continent
• Westward migration increased due to a variety of push and pull factors
• The Oregon Trail was established, making westward migration a more practical and possible exercise