Manifest Destiny was a phrase and ideology coined in 1845 that represented the idea that the United States was destined by God to expand its territory. [1] This belief led to the United State’s territorial expansion throughout the 19th century. [2] Spurred by the idea of Manifest Destiny the United States had entered a war with Mexico from 1846-1848 known as the Mexican-American War. [3] From this war, the United States gained 525,000 square miles, including California. [4]

Manifest Destiny also justified the brutal genocide and forced removal of Native Americans, violence against Mexicans and non-white people. [5] In the Santa Clara Valley of Northern California, white American settlers celebrated new family famers and small towns while seizing Valley resources from previous Indigenous and Mexican inhabitants and redistributing them to other arriving white Americans. [6]

Boosters created advertising campaigns that were widely popular from the 1860s to early 1920s. [7] During the late 1800s, these campaigns looked like little booklets filled with lengthy advertisements and elaborately printed images. [8] Like advertisements today, the purpose of boosters were to urge people to buy their product by creating an enticing fantasy, taking advantage of consumers’ hopes, aspirations and self image and lure them into buying their product. [9]

As author and historian Cecilia Tsu points out in her book "Garden of the World", many boosters were aimed to specifically attract white Americans to newly founded Californian cities and towns. [10] Within these boosters "authors of promotional literature drew on white middle-class American apprehensions about the strength of the family, gender roles, and racial identity at the turn of the twentieth century"[11]. Through the utilization of these apprehensions, and this media, the Spanish Fantasy Heritage myth, and Virgin Land myth were formed.