Question

Which sentence describes the main idea of manifest destiny?

a) "The expansion of the United States was inevitable."
b) "Westward expansion was controversial."
c) "The Native Americans resisted the westward movement."
d) "European settlement was not welcomed by the indigenous population."

Answer 1

The main idea of Manifest Destiny is that the expansion of the United States throughout the continent was considered inevitable and destined. It was associated with the belief that the country's borders would extend 'from sea to shining sea', under the guise of spreading freedom and Americanization.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sentence that describes the main idea of Manifest Destiny is "The expansion of the United States was inevitable." The concept of Manifest Destiny was a widely-held belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. This expansionist movement justified its actions with a sense of mission and purpose, considering the American expansion as unavoidable, righteous, and divinely sanctioned.

Manifest Destiny included several ideas: that the United States would expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific ("from sea to shining sea"), that the residents of newly acquired territories would be Americanized, and that the spread of freedom was tantamount to the physical expansion of U.S. boundaries. Hence, option "a" encapsulates the main ideological thrust behind Manifest Destiny.