"Here, then, is a country, which is not only of vast extent, but which is also of unparalleled fertility and beauty, and which is destined, at no distant day, to become the theater of a great and prosperous people... It is the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race to possess this entire continent, to cultivate its soil, and to establish the principles of civil and religious liberty."
— Lansford Hastings, *The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California*, 1845
The excerpt best reflects which of the following mid-nineteenth-century beliefs?
- The belief that the United States had a divinely ordained mission to expand its territory and democratic institutions westward.Answer
- BThe goal of establishing a defensive military alliance with Latin American republics to contain European power.
- CThe plan to rebuild mercantilist networks that favored European manufacturing over domestic production.
- DThe belief that the executive branch had the constitutional authority to decide the slave status of new territories.
Answer
The belief that the United States had a divinely ordained mission to expand its territory and democratic institutions westward.
The correct answer is correct because the excerpt emphasizes a 'destiny' to 'possess this entire continent' and spread 'civil and religious liberty,' which directly describes the ideology of Manifest Destiny that drove territorial expansion in the 1840s.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion
Hints
1
Look for words in the passage like 'destiny,' 'possess this entire continent,' and spreading 'liberty' to identify the dominant ideology of the 1840s.
Estimated Time:45s