Image by Maria Thalassinou.

The Panama Canal, Greenland, Canada, Gaza. Each time Trump hints at taking over a territory, he taps into an American myth synonymous with violence and self-righteous entitlement: Manifest Destiny.

Early in the nineteenth century, John Quincy Adams wrote: “The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation.” [1] In 1832, Massachusetts Congressman Francis Baylies argued for pushing America’s borders out to the Pacific Ocean. “To diffuse the arts of life, the light of science, and the blessings of the Gospel over a wilderness, is no violation of the laws of God,” Baylies proclaimed. “The stream of bounty which perpetually flows from the throne of the Almighty,” he added, “ought not to be obstructed in its course.” [2] As Adams and Baylies saw it, America’s expansion was in accordance with God’s work and God’s will; it was destined.

A decade later, in the July–August 1845 issue of the Democratic Review, editor John L. O’Sullivan published an unsigned article about the annexation of Texas. It was in this article that the phrase “manifest destiny” first appeared in public. The article spoke of America’s “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” [3] This time the concern was not spreading civilization, science, or Christianity, but providing the American population with land for unrestrained growth and development. Again, it was justified as a task God given, God driven, and God blessed.

Writing in the New York Morning News in December 1845, O’Sullivan advocated for the acquisition of the Oregon Territory on the same basis: “Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, contiguity, etc.” he wrote. “To state the truth at one in its naked simplicity. . . our claim to........

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