The Cost of Westward Expansion

"Hey Americans, what nothing better to do?/Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant too!"
--Jack White

When Frederick Jackson Turner's book "Significance of the Frontier in American History" came out, it was just another not-exactly brilliant book that hade a huge impact, hardly rare in American history. However, the message that was eventually extracted out of it, the concept of "Manifest Destiny," was perhaps a severe twist.

When Charles Darwin first wrote "the Origin of Species" and talked about natural selection, people assumed that meant that only the best and brightest survived, and the concept of "Social Darwinism" arose. This is not what Darwin meant at all--natural selection favored the best adapted in an environment, not the smartest or strongest, just whomever had favorable genetics. This is sort of the turn Turner's ideas took. Manifest Destiny became the solution to the problem with the Natives. It was their God-given right to take the land out west.

In the back of my mind, I have always wondered whether Americans would take all of this cruelty back. If it meant that Mexico included about half of the modern day US, would people be ok with that? Would they overlook the total slaughter of Native Americans?

Turner's ideas suggested economic independence and an agrarian republic, which are some major concepts that our country was founded on. The reality was much, much more ugly. I left the post short so people would comment more; would you take it all back?