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In elementary school, I remember learning the concept of Manifest Destiny was that the US was, in a way, “destined” to possess and inhabit all of the land from Maine to Florida to California- “from sea to shining sea”. I never considered the implications of the concept of Manifest Destiny on islands in the Caribbean, until now. Also, I was unaware of the total picture that Manifest Destiny encompasses; simply owning and inhabiting the land is not the primary principle. In the reading on pages 77 and 78, the goal is outlined as, “…North America is destined to go on until every land on the earth’s surface that is not already the seat of an old civilization shall become English in its language, in its religion, in its political habits and traditions…” I find this statement ironic because the very things that the English were escaping from in England by establishing a colony in the US are the very things they plan to impose on these other countries.
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