“We will pursue our Manifest Destiny to the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes [da bandeira da América] not planet Mars”
Donald Trump is back in the White House and has opened the divine door: . God did not speak on this day of the inauguration of the 47th American president, but Trump himself did: he announced that he will make the USA “a growing nation” that “expands territories”, promising to follow “Manifest Destiny”, an ancient ideology that defended the annexation of territories such as Canada and Mexico. But he also wants to expand beyond Earth and wants to place the US flag on Mars.
“The USA will be considered a nation on the rise. One that increases our wealth, expands our territories, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag to new horizons. We will pursue our Manifest Destiny to the stars , launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes [da bandeira da América] not planet Mars,” he promises.
The doctrine of Manifest Destiny was a very popular ideology in the United States in the 19th century, which is based on the belief that North American citizens have the moral right and divine mission to expand in the territories of North America, from the Atlantic to to the Pacific. This ideology is considered by historians as one of the first expressions of North American imperialism.
Initially used by John L. O’Sullivan, an editor of a magazine linked to the Democratic Party, in 1845, the term was coined to express the inevitability of North American expansion and the need to annex Texas, which would result in a war. between the United States and Mexico.
Defenders of the doctrine argue that North Americans have a moral and spiritual responsibility to bring values to other peoples and regions. Originally, the doctrine was based on the idea that American culture, its religious practices and its political system were superior to those of the indigenous populations and Mexicans who lived in the territories into which the Americans wanted to expand.
In 1845, Democratic President James K. Polk used the doctrine of Manifest Destiny as justification for the annexation of Texas and used it again a year later to launch a war against Mexico to expand North American possessions to the Pacific, conquering California, Nevada and Utah. Other states, such as Oregon and Alaska, were purchased with Manifest Destiny as justification.
But many of the most fervent defenders of this doctrine argued that the North American destiny was not limited to the conquest of the territories that connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Known as “continentalists”, defenders of this variant believed that the American Manifest Destiny should include territories such as Canada or Mexico.
On January 7th of this year, Donald Trump opened the door to the military annexation of territories such as the Panama Canal or Greenland and opened the door to the use of “economic force” to make Canada the 51st American state. Despite not naming Canada or Greenland in his inaugural address, Trump did not miss the opportunity to suggest that Trump’s America will “expand its territories” and pursue “Manifest Destiny.”
During the time when the doctrine of Manifest Destiny was popular in American politics, several people argued that democracy and American values should be expanded to regions other than the continent, such as Cuba, the Pacific, and Latin America. Despite all this, Donald Trump insists he wants to be known as a peacemaker and a “unifier” – but he has issued serious threats to Panama.
“The Panama Canal was given to the country of Panama after the US spent more money than on any other project and lost 38,000 lives to build the canal. This gift should never have been made. American ships are be severely mistreated”, he stated, guaranteeing that “we will recover it”.
In 1861, with the outbreak of civil war in the United States, American politics turned inward to domestic issues and began to focus on resolving issues such as slavery, states’ rights and the preservation of the union. The devastation created by five years of war would end up taking away space for expansionist rhetoric, which lost space for the debate around the reunification and reconstruction of the country. With the acquisition of the state of Alaska in 1867, the Americans began to consider the mission of territorial expansion in North America as “completed”.
Still, this ideology was controversial, even in its time. Today the doctrine is highly criticized for justifying imperialist practices through a notion of moral and even divine superiority.
