Although the movement was named in 1845, the philosophy behind Manifest Destiny always existed throughout American History. For example, in 1818 Andrew Jackson, while taking a broad interpretation of vague instructions from President Monroe, led military forces into the Floridas during the Florida crisis. The very first people who embraced it was the first people to settle in America, the puritans. Manifest Destiny means they believed they had the right to keep on acquiring more and more land because it was their right given to them by their divinity
