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Was American Imperialism Beneficial To The United States?

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From the dawn of man, the different civilizations of mankind have been out to dominate and conquest the globe. To spread his/her’s power, authority, and culture across as vast an area humanly possible. Only in the last century have these ideals been diminished, but for the U.S. during the turn of the 20th century it faced a choice on this path. Was the U.S. to remain to the domain of the contiguous United States? Or was it destined to take foot on the global stage and claim land far from it’s shores? William Graham Sumner, an American sociologist and Albert Beveridge, a U.S. senator from Indiana both disagreed as to whether imperialism was right for the country. Beveridge argues that imperialism is beneficial to the U.S. by giving access to raw materials, while Sumner fears that imposing rule on someone who does not want to be ruled makes us the exact people that we declared our independence from. This is just one example from their different views on American Imperialism.
An empire, by definition, is a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority. But why have a vast empire of land that is hard to govern? As Beveridge puts it, we can exploit lands such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines of their natural resources. Natural resources such as lumber and iron are great sources of income as developed nations need them to fuel industrialization. What Beveridge proposes is that these

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