The history of America's territorial expansion is fascinating. For each addition, the cost was relatively low or none at all.
The source of America's blessings
Looking back on its history, some say America has been amazingly "lucky!" Others say that the evidence strongly points to divine intervention—that God was handing the nation's pioneers a new promised land!
Time after time enormous portions of land seemingly fell into America's lap! One enormous asset of the United States is its abundance of fruitful land in ideal and strategic locations.
But if God has time and again so blessed America, what was His purpose? Before addressing that question let's consider a simplified summary of the territorial expansion of the United States.
U.S. acquisitions
The Revolutionary War that officially began in 1776 concluded with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. That treaty gave the United States far more land than the colonies along the Atlantic coast. It defined the nation's territory as all the land between British Canada to the north, Spanish Florida to the south and the Mississippi River to the west!
Then in 1803 the size of the country virtually doubled with the massive Louisiana Purchase from France! The cost was $15 million, about $18 per square mile.
With a treaty in 1819, the United States acquired more prime real estate when Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. for about $5 million.
The Republic of Texas, having gained independence from Mexico in 1836, was annexed in 1845. At that time, the territory included not only the present state of Texas but also territory that now is part of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming.
From coast to coast
Beginning in 1818 "Oregon Country" from the Rockies to the Pacific was jointly controlled by the United States and the United Kingdom. A treaty in 1846 divided the territory at the 49th parallel, giving the United States the area that now includes Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
At the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico ceded an enormous area to the U.S. for about $18 million. The region includes all of the present-day states of California, Nevada and Utah, and portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming—completing the nation's expansion from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
Three more acquisitions
With the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, the U.S. purchased from Mexico a strip of land now in New Mexico and Arizona for $10 million.
Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7,200,000—about 1.9 cents per acre. Some Americans thought this was a wasteful purchase—that Alaska was just a big icebox!
Hawaii, a republic since 1894, was annexed in 1898. Although there are eight main islands, Hawaii actually has hundreds of islands spread over 1500 miles. Other islands around the world have also become territorial possessions of the United States through a variety of circumstances.
Is God responsible?
Now to the fundamental question: Did God plan and announce long in advance the blessings and mushrooming expansion of the United States? Both the historical and biblical evidence emphatically say yes!
That is not to say that America's earliest settlers personally earned or deserved these blessings. Instead, it's a result of God fulfilling His specific territorial promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is ample historical evidence that the earliest settlers in America came mostly from peoples in Britain who descended from the biblical tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, direct descendants of Jacob's son Joseph.
God promised the biblical patriarchs that because of their obedience and steadfast faith, He would greatly bless their descendants and someday make great nations of them. And He did as He promised.
But He also warned that He would withdraw His blessings from them or any nation or people if they turned their backs on Him. Both the British and American people are rapidly abandoning their biblical roots. What will their future be?
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