how was Manifest Destiny any different from Hitler's Lebensraum?

It is not. In both cases, you have one group of people killing the occupants of land they desired. You could debate this to death but the outcome remains the same; death, destruction of culture, and perpetual enslavement. 

It isn’t different in concept, the only difference really was that Native Americans were less advanced, not urbanized (low population in proportion, though there was a few million) and had little to no interaction with the rest of the world. The Germans intentionally starved the Poles and Jews to death, the US did too with Native Americans (killed buffalo to near extinction so the plains tribes would starve to death, “battles” with women and children to make them move their settlements, etc.) 

Tell us how giving the land back to Native Americans works. This I have to hear. Certainly, because you asked "why not". you have a plausible way to do this (here's NYC, give us the $24 back ... lol). 

When I lived n SD, the nearest casino was an Indian reservation. Every member of the tribe got a check for $800 every month for being in the tribe.

As it relates to warring for land, why stop there? I want to see you rewrite what history would look like if that never happened ... lol. Some of those conquerors enslaved losers ... makes a casino reservation look mighty good.

The very concept of Native American genocide is completely false. The so-called "Trail of Tears" never happened. The term "Trail of Tears" was never coined until years later and it was about something else entirely.

The removal of the Native Americans from the East was by mutual consent. The white population was expanding and it was feared that they would encroach into the Native American hunting grounds and disrupt their way of life.

The government paid the Native Americans well (even by today's standards) and helped them relocate. Very few died along the way - some chose to stay in North Carolina (Cherokee) - which kind of negates the claim of "forced movement", don't you think?

As for Lebensraum, this too was a lie. It supposedly was designed to open up living space for the German people in the East at the cost of the population of those countries - including "extermination". But after 5 years, what was the extent of German colonialism? How many Germans were relocated through "Generalplan Ost"?

I've looked and can find no record of a single one.

However, the same concept of "Lebensraum" is, in fact, being practiced in Israel against Palestine. The political Zionists encroached on Palestine, to begin with, but were "given" approximately half of the state after which they proceeded to expand to include all of Palestine and committing genocide on any Arabs that oppose them.

(The world is okay with this, though. It seems "Lebensraum" has a one-way application despite the fact that it is not an accurate event.)

lol, to be the devils advocate...

inre "2. There are still Native Americans here, many of them living in worse conditions than they were previously. How is that fair or just to them?"

It isn't fair.   Why can't they move to a 'better' place?  What is preventing them from making a choice we sure would.

I found this old answer on Yahoo Q&A to be quite excellent.

lwhhow's avatar

lwhhow

Lv 7

7 years ago

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Whether there was a difference 'morally' might be debatable (I don't really think so) but as far as by 'history fact'....there were huge differences.

Manifest destiny being the American 'movement to the west' (in the 1800's), and 'Lebensraum' being the German 'movement to the east' (1700's-1900's) were by their facts very different.......

1.) The US manifest destiny involved moving into lands 80% empty, 2 million sq. mi. occupied by at most 400,000 Native people by 1800.

2.) The US and Native civilizations were completely different and the Native civilization 1000 years behind the US in what the Western World calls 'development'.

3.) For US manifest destiny in the Native lands to be moved into there was....no concept of the private ownership of land, no borders, no states, no united countries, no common leadership, no unity of command, no common language, no roads, no cities, no significant farming, no writing, no printing, no technology etc. and land 80% empty/ 80% of the time.

4.) Manifest destiny at no time ever called for the Natives to be wiped out in a genocide and.. 'expressly'...by law forbid their enslavement.

Lebensraum 'the march to the east' for Germany was completely opposite in every one of these areas.

1.) The 1 million sq. mi. the Germans were to move into were not empty at all but 100% occupied by some 60 millions population (as big as the Germans themselves).

2.) They were of the exact same civilization as the Germans, the same religion, their states/ nations were as old as the German, their states unified/ united, they of course had the concept of land ownership, borders, cities, roads, writing, printing, were as 'developed' as the Germans and long settled farmers.

3.) The lebensraum plan specifically called for their 'genocide' by mass execution of millions and or their enslavement.

As you can see neither the circumstances...nor facts were the same at all.

P.S. In the end 'manifest destiny' did work for 50 million Americans taking over an 80% empty land from 400,000 'undeveloped' Natives....but 'lebensraum' did not work for 60 million Germans trying to take over a 100% full land from an equal population of 'developed' fellow European countries next door.

The German attempt led in the 2 'world wars' to the genocidal murder (1914-1945) of 25 million civilians in East Europe including at least 6 million Jewish people. The different American attempt to... the 'Indian Wars' (1865-1890) and the deaths of maybe 100,000 Native Americans, to the 'reservation system', but also to the preservation of Native American culture/ heritage, 5% of their former lands and their continued existence as the '1st Nation Peoples'.

Should Celts get back all the land that Angles, Saxons and Jutes took?

Should Angles, Saxons and Jutes get back all the land Normans took?

How far back do you want to go?

A. Because I did not take any land

B. Because there are no Native American's alive who we did take it from

Hitler failed, that's about the only difference, and it wasn't about living space, it was about the natural resources he needed to wage is war. Coal, Steel, Iron, Copper, Petroleum

you cannot make reparations to dead people