Was The Nazis' Concept of Lebensraum Pretty Much The Same As America's Manifest Desitny??

Question

The only real difference being that the Nazis tried to conquer and exterminate people at a time when there were cameras and radio, while when Americans did it there weren't.

Another difference being that the Nazis tried to conquer and exterminate people who like them, had tanks and airplanes, while the Americans did it to people who only had bows and arrows.

Answer 1

You have brought up a very good analogy.

There are many similarities in the practice of "Lebensraum" and "Manifest Destiny".

But if we look closely we find that both are "European" manifestations.

The first interaction between Native Americans and Europeans came at the hands of the Spanish. There was no official terms used other than to call the Natives "heathens" or "heretics". The action came in the direct form of conquest and seizure of property. The Central and South American Natives were the first to experience the wrath of European greed and lust for wealth.

The King of the Inca's was held by the Spanish for ransom after being captured and having several thousand of his soldiers slain in one of the most one sided battles in history. It was the largest ransom ever paid by anyone in history. The Spanish demanded that the Inca's to completely fill a room 10'x20'x60' long with gold. After the Inca's did this the Spanish killed their King anyway.

But even with the advanced weapon technology that the Spanish possessed, the real threat to the Native Americans came from exposure to the germs and bacteria that the Europeans carried with them. It's estimated that 65-75% of the Native Americans died from disease that the Europeans spread that the Natives had no resistance to. (They had no anti-bodies to combat the disease's)

The early Europeans that came to America,( The Spanish, British, French and Dutch) did so without giving thought or reason to their actions. They were arrogant and the race was on for control of "The New World". The Native Americans were simply "in the way". They hampered expansion and development. A case example of this is the British control of Canada. The British fearing the United States would take over Canada along with everything else, signed treaties with Native American tribes across Canada giving them legal ownership of nearly all of Canada so that the tribes would not slow the British construction of a railway from east to west. But do the Native Americans have any say in what takes place in Canada? They still have to fight the Canadian Government to stop the construction of golf courses on sacred burial grounds.

On the other hand you had President Jackson and company running the United States worried that the British or Spain might push into the western territories and set up shop. To ease the conscience of many citizen's of the United States, (European descendants had finally become concerned about the demise of Native Americans) policy makers came up with a phrase around 1845 called "Manifest Destiny" which was used until the early 20th century, (1900's) when it was taken out of usage. Manifest Destiny was an explanation or justification for expansion and westward movement. The U.S. Government also made land treaties and agreements with Native American tribes which were of no real value. The Native tribes were becoming extinct at an ever increasing speed. What disease and conflict did not accomplish, policy and the extermination of the buffalo did. It was a war of attrition set against Native Americans. Manifest destiny was just a phrase that helped the conquerors sleep at night.

But since we are today a nation of Native Americans, mixed races, non Europeans, Asians etc., I don't believe it would be correct to call manifest destiny an "American" concept. The principals of Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny are the same. But the ideology of both are European in nature.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I would like to correct one thing you wrote. You say that the Nazis tried to conquer and exterminate people who had tanks and airplanes. Yes, the USSR and the other Allies had all that and so Nazi Germany could be defeated and they couldn't conquer their "Lebensraum" for a longer period of time. But most of the people who were killed by the Nazis were far from having tanks and airplanes. The people that were murdered systematically by Nazis with the aim not to let one of them alive, the Jews, didn't have any army or anything like that at that time. The same can be said about all the other civilians who were killed in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany. So, millions of totally defenceless people were killed. They didn't even have bows and arrows. You should consider this.

Answer 4

There are a lot more differences then that. America did not use manifest destiny as an excuse to "conquer and exterminate people."

We acquired Texas in 1845 after the people that lived in that area had successfully fought to gain thier independence from Mexico and then asked to be annexed into America to make sure they remained free. This area was known as the Texas Annexation.

By us agreeing to this annexation, it led us to become involved in the Mexican-American War from 1846 until 1848 because Mexico considered Texas a "rebel state" and wanted to take it back as a matter of national pride. We paid almost fifteen million dollars in 1848 after the United States had marched all the way into Mexico City at the end of the Mexican-American War. This was the same amount of money we had first offered the mexican government at the beginning of the war that Mexico said no to. Instead we ended up with alot more land then we had set out to originally purchase. This land area was known as the Mexican Cession.

The last piece of land that was acquired under this political catchphrase was the Oregon Territory. That area was being claimed by both America as well as England. In the Oregon Treaty of 1846 we got Britian to agree to let us have it through diplomatic measures.

I don't know of Hitler making any monetary propsals or trying to use diplomatic methods for the land he acquired from Russia and Eastern Europe. I use the Treaty of Versailles to back up that theory given that all the nations told Hitler to give back the land the he had acquired from these countries.

So in closing, I say that Lebensraum was what the Nazis used to try and validate their attempt to conquer the world where as Manifest Destiny was used by America as a reason to keep the land it had already acquired.

Answer 5

There was never a policy or practice of enslavement or extermination of the Indians. Nor was there a policy of vast expansion of territory by invasion. Proof Canada and Mexico both exist as sovereign, independent nations.
The concept of Lebensraum meant the enslavement or extermination of the populace that was non-German, the extinction of the sovereign nation. The US is a conglomeration of different races, cultures and religions.
So they were pretty much NOT the same.
I would not claim that Jewish, Russian and Polish women and children as having tanks and airplanes.

Answer 6

Fluoride.......Interesting this. Normally, I wouldn't have touched this question with a barge pole because it sounds like something out of Dr.Strangelove. So I looked through the journals on sciencedirect. Unfortunately, the proof is incontrovertible, and it is apparent that as with heavy metal neurotoxins like lead, it is accumulated in the human body - particularly the brain tissues around the pineal gland. Small dose argument fails because it is an enzyme poison that the body readily accepts and accumulates - ie it's not processed and flushed out. It does indeed fight tooth decay, but as others have posted, it is a secondary consequence of an industrial process, and I don't know anyone who does not have access to toothpaste. When presented with medical and scientific evidence, I don't have a clue why people would willingly risk harm to themselves & their children. It seems counterintuitive to me. That's another one I have to add to the long list of grievances I have against the corporate state.

Answer 7

Living space for the German folk....their destiny to expand in the East...to conquor the sub-humans.

The European's right to expand in the west...all the way to the Pacific.....to conquer the heathens.

Both ideas are similar, people stood in the way of their destinies...i never heard that analogy before, but it does seem to fit. For the person above who said that there was no genocide against the American Indians must be reading a different history book than me. Maybe the people in the east coast looked at us as noble savages, but the westerners had bounties on our heads, stole our land, attacked helpless women and children, vermin infested blankets, ...shall i go on.

Answer 8

Interesting comparrison. I never thought about it like that, but y'know I think you have a point here. It won't be very popular of course because Americans like to point out the problems with others instead at looking at their own.

Answer 9

The idea that "we" have some justification to carry out ethnic cleansing aginst "them" is quite the same. Similar, too, is Isreali policy in the West Bank.

Answer 10

lebensraum living space ,Hitler tried to implement this concept to more cultured nations,so his idea failed.Americans did it to helpless Indians ,they established lebensraum.