American Progress painting by John Gast – destiny made manifest (public domain image)

(8) MANIFEST DESTINY

Yes, manifest destiny is something that might seem unique to the American territorial expansion, westward across the continent (and beyond across the Pacific) for which the phrase was coined by its advocates.

“Manifest destiny was the expansionist colonial belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand westward across North America, and that this belief was both obvious (“manifest“) and certain (“destiny“).”

However, I consider that a belief in the “manifest destiny” of imperial claims or territorial expansion, divine or otherwise, is common to most empires, if not all of them. After all, from the point of view of the imperial nation, if empire or expansion weren’t its manifest destiny, then it wouldn’t be in a position to be made manifest but instead on the receiving end of being someone else’s manifest destiny.

Admittedly, a belief in manifest destiny is perhaps highest for settler colonialism, particularly by adjoining territorial expansion or annexation. After all, it takes a strong sense of your destiny to move or settle into someone else’s territory and claim it as your own by right.

Ironically, the closest parallel to American belief in manifest destiny by territorial expansion is that of Russia eastward across the Eurasia (and beyond across the Pacific).