Advantages Of American Imperialism

The United States didn’t feel the need to enter imperialism. Unlike the Europeans, United States didn’t feel the constant tension like the European nations. “For a time even Americans were, it appeared, not immune to currents stirring older nations (Roberts, 102).” They felt safe with their new strong military. United States imperialism differs greatly from Europeans because of the way the countries were formed. Unlike the European countries, United States was colonized before it became independent nation. United States became a nation because the Americans felt they were mistreated and oppressed from Britain therefore they rebelled. “The very creation of their country had been by successful colonial rebellion (Roberts, 103)” Imperialism in the United States was a lot smaller and shorter than European imperialism. It also differs in

The Spanish-American War began as a humanitarian effort to free Cuba from Spain’s colonial grasp and ended with the United States itself acquiring territory overseas and fighting a dirty guerrilla war with Filipino nationalists who, like the Cubans, sought independence. Behind the contradiction stood the twin pillars of American foreign policy: The Monroe Doctrine made Spain’s presence in Cuba unacceptable, and U.S. determination to keep open the door to Asia made the Philippines attractive as a stepping-stone to China.

The American people sided more towards the Cubans then with Spain within during the war. There was a big difference between the Cubans and the Spanish people. The Cubans were very poor people who did have much, while the Spanish controlled everything and had everything. This upsetted many people from the poor to the rich, and the Spanish just wanted to do what was right. The War with Spain was ultimately suppose to help the other people and the government. And this War with Spain started to include the Blacks which was gonna end up making things more peaceful and an “era of good feelings”. All Spain wanted was a perfect sound of unity among the people around them without the issues of racism, etc. (document 1) As a step to fix this, the American government try to adopt a policy of neutrality to help with this issue. The Americans reached out for help, but got little in return. McKinley just wanted to help the Philippines. They were unfit for self-government as I said above, and soon as time went on, they would have an “anarchy” and would soon be misruled for so many things. According to Document 3, McKinley just wanted the Philippines to be involved in the church and one night after speaking to God, he figured it all out. He decided that all he could do was to educate them and to provide them with everything he possibly could. (document 3) A lot of the Americans were starting to believe that all the people were ready to start accepting peace and neutrality, that was still yet to come in the years to follow. (document 4) The Spanish-American War had a big effect on a lot of things throughout the 19th and 20th

century, the outcome of the Spanish-American war divided Americans into those for and against the annexation of the Philippines. The masses supporting it saw the islands as a strong foothold for the country in Chinese markets, compared to the minority which believed the United States was founded to escape oppression and should not lead to doing the same upon others. America becoming an imperial power shifted the world stage, and opened opportunity in trade on the other side of the world. Annexing the Philippines changed how other countries saw the United States, but more importantly it changed how Americans feel about their country; citizens rallied around the flag after defeating Spain because surpassing the empire’s navy gave them something positive to think of after all the turmoil over the past hundred years (and still at the time over working/living conditions and inequality between races/genders). It gave the public a reason to be patriotic. If the United States did not annex the Philippines when it did, it would not have had the ability to become the strongest government in the world and increase exports throughout Asia, but at what cost? American leaders decided it would be a good power move, but did

After the Civil War, the United States struggled to keep up with other countries in the world. While figuring out how fix the corruption in the American government, the other countries were practicing imperialism. Imperialism is a policy by which strong nations extend their political, military, and economic control over weaker territories. Realizing that we needed to make a change, the United States started working towards the goal of practicing imperialism as well. To do this, our first few targets were Hawaii and Alaska. In 1867, we sought to buy Alaska because they had resources that we wanted, such as lumber and minerals. This was known as Seward’s Folly after the Secretary of State William Seward. In 1898, our desire of Hawaii was fulfilled when they agreed to annexation. However, this was not without struggle. King Kalakaua of Hawaii wanted the white planters to vote, but when he died, his sister, Queen Liliuokalani reversed his decision. She took away the power of whites, which eventually led to her being overthrown with the help of the United States Marines. The Hawaiian people opposed annexation, but when Mckinley became president, Hawaii was declared American territory. Sanford B. Doyle, a white plantation owner who asked for the annexation, became the first governor of Hawaii. This addition into American territory drastically influenced our economy.

The Spanish-American War in 1898 was a point where American’s demonstrated their power and true colors. America wanted to free the Cubans from Spain, but it was not purely out of the interest of the Cubans. America was in it for the Philippines. Spain had control of the Philippines, and the Philippines were located in close proximity to China. The issue here was that the Philippines was not interested in having the U.S. around and rebelled against the American forces (47) .The U.S. wanted to capitalize on the economic struggles in China and the Philippines was

America's short war with Spain in 1898 was the nation's first step on the pathway to becoming a world power. The U.S. victory brought with it the unintended possession of the Philippines and a vested interest in the politics of the Pacific region that would ultimately lead to conflict with Japan. As an immediate outcome of the war, America found itself embroiled in an insurgency in the Philippines that closely mimicked the conflict in Vietnam over 60 years later.

1899 marked the year when America set its sites from the Spanish to the First Philippine Republic plunging American into yet another war ending with the temporary annexation of the Philippine Islands spreading American imperialism to the Far East. Within one year of winning their independence from

Imperialism, the policy of extending a country’s power and influence by taking over land and establishing colonies through military force or diplomacy was one of the many ways that Europeans displayed their wealth and power to the world. Across the Pacific, European powers were steadily extending their control over Asia and establishing their military strength. As a result, despite a previous bad experience under imperialistic policies, America opted to follow imperialism in the early 1900s. After the Spanish-American war, America had freed Cuba and was given Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam. With these new additions to American territory, many questioned if imperialism was a proper/legal policy for the United States. On the other

The Filipinos had been fighting the Spanish prior to the arrival of the U.S. Aguinaldo knew he needed a major power to help him with his struggle. Aguinaldo met with Dewey in Hong Kong and sailed with him to the Philippines. After Dewey’s naval victory in the Manila Bay, Aguinaldo believed he could begin Filipino independence so he formed his government based on the U.S. Constitution. However, the U. S. turned against him when they annexed the island nation. McKinley justified his position saying it would take them 100 years to understand what true freedom means (book, p.672).

Initially considered by most Americans as a struggle to free Cuba, the Spanish-American War quickly took an expansionist direction with the acquisition of a sizable, populated, foreign and distant islands known as the Philippines. Since the Philippines was a strategic

Before the Spanish American war occurred, the Philippines were under the control of Spain; after, they were at the mercy of America and their decision on whether or not to annex them. Unfortunately, America decided to annex them because it would be dishonorable to give the Philippines back to Spain and it would also open up a trade route between the two nations. However, America should not have annexed the Philippines as Americans and Filipinos could have still traded if they became allies instead, and while annexing the Philippines they got rid of their culture and customs. Additionally, Americans feared that annexing the Philippines was a step towards creating an American Empire.

Gerardo Piedra Justin Baker U.S. History 06 December 2017 Philippines American War The Philippine American War was an armed conflict between the first Philippine Republic and the United States that lasted 3 years from 1899 to 1902. At the beginning of this war Emilio Aguinaldo was in pretty much in control and had the american soldiers in control and had them beat but that was only in the first part of the war. Sooner rather than later the advantages the american military had came to show when they showed their dominance.

• The United States first became involved with the Philippines as a result of the war with Spain.

In 1898, after a mock battle at Manila Bay, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. Although there was also a bloody but short-lived Philippine-American Revolution, it took a shorter time for the Americans to pacify and befriend the Filipinos. Unlike Spain's strategy, America's means of attack and assimilation was not religion. It was mass education.