American Expansionism

To what extent was late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism a continuation of past United States expansionism and to what extent was it a departure?

The causes and effects of the American Expansion in the 1800's were Manifest destiny, business, and they needed access to the Mississippi River. Some of the effects were that the natives rebelled against each other, the native Americans fought against each other with the whites. Two other reasons were assimilation and Death. The multiple deaths soon became the trail of tears.

While the United States would flip between isolationist and interventionist, the Cold War not only solidified America's interventionism, but helped change the economy to a more government controlled military-industrial complex capable of assisting the U.S. in times of war and being able to assist foreign intervention in an

After World War II, during the Cold War, the United States started acting more multilaterally by forming treaties and joining groups such as NATO and the UN (Gaddis 67). This was all in an attempt to stop the spread of communism and combat the influence of the Soviet Union. The United States intervened in countries to deter them from becoming communist. They

The United States developed into a world super power following World War II. Many of the Allies were deeply affected by the war financially and were struggling, thus leaving a vacuum that needed to be filled. The United States was thrust into the position of “policing” and assisting nations around the world. The Cold War was in many ways a psychological illusion however there were many factors that led to this illusion which were well founded. The Cold War stemmed from a multitude of factors, the difficult war against Nazi’s and Japan, Stalin behaviors were not trustworthy, Berlin blockade, Poland puppet government, the fall of China, the build up of arms and the birth nuclear weapons all fed fear-based anti-communist policies. In

The major American aspiration during the 1790s through the 1860s was westward expansion. Americans looked to the western lands as an opportunity for large amounts of free land, for growth of industry, and manifest destiny. This hunger for more wealth and property, led Americans conquer lands that were rightfully someone else's. Manifest destiny and westward expansion brought many problematic issues to the Unites States verses the Indians that took the Americans to the Civil War.

During the early 1900s, America’s reputation as a world power prospered by possessing the third largest navy in the world and a significant domain over smaller countries. It was able to acquire superiority internationally due to its intervention in the intense colonialism of the time, including fast extension, colonization, and rivalry. However, America’s colonial power did not suddenly develop. Though the United States expansionism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was an explicit continuation of cultural and social factors that had powered the country’s past expansionism, it was more of a departure from the strategies for the past in which financial and political motives were sought.

Following the Second World War, the United States had gotten involved in the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union had become the two superpowers, vividly proving their strengths in the most recent war. These strengths, however, caused a rivalry to form between the two, and would affect the United State’s domestic policy and American society throughout the Cold War. Communism and the threat of war were the most prominent aspects which affected the United States both economically and socially.

Although the Soviet Union and the United States fought together during World War II against the Axis Powers, the relationship between the two grew bitter going into the 1950’s Cold War. The Cold War left a dominant impact on the U.S. and American living throughout the 20th century. The fall out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created various issues that United States dealt with (Suddath). The United States was a capitalistic country, while the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, was lead by a strong communist influence. The expansion of Soviets into Eastern Europe fueled most of the fear the U.S. had of Russia, that they would attempt to influence many more countries.

Throughout history as well as in modern times, revolution, imperialism and colonialism have played part in the rise and fall of governance and power structures in the world. Wars have occurred to gain power over a government or society. Colonialism benefits the motherland by sending citizens into a new territory and securing raw materials for the economic benefit of the mother country. King James l, in 1604 granted The Virginia Company, a group on entrepreneurs, a land grant in the Chesapeake Bay of North America to establish a colony. Captain John Smith headed up the colony and the expedition was launched in hopes of finding a trade route to the Orient, as well hoping to find gold. The Virginia Company selected the Chesapeake area because it was uninhabited by Native Americans.

The Spanish war gave the United States an empire. At the end of the Spanish war the United States took Spanish colonies such as Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and many other islands. The creation of the American Empire leads to the end of the Spanish Empire. The United States wanted to build up the countries so that markets would open up and purchase American goods and to improve the American economy.

Before, during and after WWII, The United States were one of the most powerful countries on the face of the earth, and that may not always be a good thing. During the war, The U.S. did terrible things to other countries to gain success, take Hiroshima and Nagasaki for example. After WWII, the U.S. had far less casualties than other countries in Europe and Asia, because of the fact that The U.S. entered the war late, to ultimately shift the outcome of the war drastically. Some also say that The U.S. has some reported secret exchanges, plans, and strategies with other countries to expand with their many air bases around the globe. The United States was responsible for The Cold War because there is evidence to support that The U.S. strategically entered the war at a later time to shift them into postwar power and wanted world supremacy.

From its inception, America has been in a continual state of growth and expansion. Influenced by their grandfathers’ westward expansion in the early 19th century, expansionists in the turn of the 20th century expanded American influence and control worldwide. Various sources brought American desire of faraway land, through both individuals and through developments of the period. However, this Manifest Destiny didn’t always result in positive development, as shown with later problems incurring from the U.S. occupation of Cuba and the Philippines.

The Cold War started in 1947 and “consisted of propaganda battles, economic warfare, proxy wars, and arms race, the cold war touched virtually every corner of the globe in the years after World War II” (Etheridge 1). This wasn’t like any kind of war the U.S. had been involved with in the past because there was no real fighting in this “war.” This was between two former Allies who teamed up to take down Germany, Italy, and China in World War II. It’s the United States vs the Soviet Union. It’s safe to say that “the relationship between the U.S. and its former wartime ally had deteriorated considerably” (Weaver 1). This put the country on alert because they weren’t sure what to expect after coming off a big four-year war. The United States got involved in the Cold War because the Soviet Union was trying to influence other Eastern countries to turn to communism as their primary government. They didn’t want the world to be overrun with a Communist government so the U.S. had to step in to try and put a stop to the madness of the communist influence. The “American participation in the cold war represented a sharp break in the history of American foreign relations” (Etheridge 1) because many U.S. presidents followed George Washington’s advice and “avoided political and military participation in the world” (Etheridge 1). This led to “the Soviet Union [overthrowing] the democratically elected

The dominance of world by the United States started by the end of World War II. The dominance marked the beginning of the cold war which dominated the world affairs up to the early 1990s.The United States and its partners faced the Soviet Union and its allies. The war was marked by a lack of global wars but a persistent regional proxy war. From this time, the U.S administration has pursued a single grand strategy, deep engagement. However, with the endless debate on the promotion of democracy and liberal economic order, the differences have emerged on which policy best suits the country.