How many people were in manifest destiny?

Answer 1

Since Manifest Destiny is the expansion of the U.S A LOT of people were involved. Basically everyone that moved to America during the Lewis and Clark time. I can't give you an exact number but it is a lot!!

Answer 2

It depends on how you define "Manifest Destiny" In the broadest terms it can mean that the United States of America has a duty to lead the world to a more perfect state. Such sentiment can be traced from earliest colonial days to the present. Exactly why it has such a duty, how it is to lead the world, and what a more perfect state is varies from time to time, person to person , and place to place. Some see it as a duty derived from a "better life" in America which was "given" to us by sacrifice of others or a Divine gift; some see the "duty" as a Divinely given "right"; some see it as leading by example others, especially those who see it as a right, see it as forcing it upon the world; some see a better state as a world wide democracy protecting individual rights, others with America supreme over other nations. Indeed when the term first came into use, many, if not a majority, of Americans envisioned, and used the term an Empire,

with America controlling all North America, if not the Hemisphere, with the other countries not having the same rights as full states in the Union.

But Manifest Destiny is most closely associated with the expansion of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific. The term itself first appeared in print in 1845. Soon after, with the conclusion of the Mexican-American War and the settlement of the Canadian border issue, the US did own the territory between Mexico and Canada all the way to the Pacific.

How many people were actively involved in the settlement of the West is impossible to say, and political proponents of expansion or explorers, were part of Manifest Destiny too. The US Census Bureau declared the "end of the frontier" in 1890. Between 1846 and 1869 at least 400,000 people crossed the continent on the Oregon trail alone. The end of the Mexican War added over 70,000 citizens in the Southwest, California gained over 80,000 people between the end of the war and 1850, most of them after 1849!

The Great Plains were the last large area to be settled, earlier settlers crossed it on the way to somewhere else. Census data from the "frontier" before areas became states is unreliable and scanty, populations boomed and busted overnight then boomed again. In 1845 the population of Nebraska was practically zero, ( not counting Indians and one facet of Manifest Destiny was the subjugation, and removal, if not the elimination of the Native Tribes) in 1900, 10 years after the frontier ended, it was over a million. From 1861 when Kansas became a state to 1912 with the admission of Arizona the area between California and the Mississippi became 14 states, with populations going from zero to a few hundred thousand or over a million in a few years.

I'm sure a diligent Google search would reveal some figures on population growth from first settlement to the end of 1890, but they would be estimates at best. No doubt there are figures on the census bureau site.

I'll post two links for population growth by states from 1790 to 1900, and a list of states by date of admission for a quick over view. But it is impossible to say how many people were involved with Manifest Destiny. The Gild Rush caused a rapid massive growth in California, but many left for Gold Rushes elsewhere, Arizona, Colorado, Alaska. Best we can say is millions of people from all over the world went West, and then produced millions of off spring.