Discuss the racial stereotypes of Mexicans that underpinned Manifest Essay

Discuss the racial stereotypes of Mexicans that underpinned Manifest Destiny - Essay Example The American people held a superior position and felt that their motive to apply their expansionist policies was religiously justified for their God chosen race. In this regard, the presidential candidate embraced the Manifest destiny, whose optimal goal was to ensure that the American territory spans across the seas. In reality, the race stereotypes of the Mexicans underpinned Manifest destiny during the implementation of the expansionist policy by the Americans. Even before the existence of the term Manifest Destiny, the notion of American inferiority was already looming and the Mexicans were already anticipating wars from the American people. In the year 1803, the president of America, Jefferson, acquired the Louisiana territory and the American slowly drifted towards the west becoming among the most dangerous neighbours of the Mexican people. By the time president Poll was getting into power, Mexico was the country that was standing between the United States and the Pacific Ocean . When Poll got into power in 1845, he raised the spirit of Manifest Destiny and the effort to expand USA further west via Mexico was revived. Being a democrat, Poll felt that there was need to develop this political culture across the territories to make a dominant culture (Litke, 2012, p. 198). To the American, the underpinning thrust of the expansionist policy was the urge to democratize the entire of North America and Mexico was a barrier to this legitimate expansion. Shane (2009, P. 10) points out the notion of Americans that Catholics were an inferior religious race. The American’s were obsessed with the motive to grow and develop their countries to become exemplary to the countries that were â€Å"religiously inferior.† This was a stereotypic reference that American used to refer to the Mexican’s who American’s regarded as inferior for the reason that they were catholicists, a religion that was inferior to the protestant group. American’s fe lt that they were the anointed race and that their motive to expand was just a fulfilment of one of the promises that God had made to them. This religious superiority was a source of conflict that intensified the tension between American and the Mexican’s that were already familiar with the intention of President Poll to expand his territories beyond the Mexican boundaries. From this perspective, American’s stereotypical reference of Mexican as a religiously inferior race was a trigger pin that culminated into the war between the two countries. From the US History Guide Book (2010, p. 6), the American leaders were obsessed with the notion to create an admirable city that would be unique from those of the inferior nations. The proponents of expansionism reflect to the idea of Puritans who were the first people to settle in the northern Atlantic, and who, under the inspiration Governor Winthrop, came to believe that their settlement was equivalent to â€Å"a city on a h ill.† Horsman (2009, p. 116) makes a connection between this city on a hill and the term that was later used by Ronald Reagan later in 1980 to describe a different perspective of expansion in America. Reagan referred to America as a â€Å"shining city upon a hill† in his endeavour to paralyse communism and create a country that embraced pure democrats, what he perceived to the