Effects Of The Frontier On American Imperialism

American imperialism has undergone varying transitions through its developmental stage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and it was interpreted to be many things, including controversial to the original colonial beliefs. The United States rapidly took up the sport of becoming involved with foreign nations, and it was clear that through influence on these nations, the United States would grow in both territorial size and power in the global sense. America helped many Polynesian, Latin American, and Asian nations during this period, and most of the conversed issues was trade and foreign relations. The desire of territorial expansion was also in response to the blossoming ideal of Social Darwinism, where expansionism was justified if the United States was aiding struggling nations with their foreign and domestic policies. Although justified, Social Darwinism was an unethical approach to world power, and many perceived this step in American Imperialism as corrupt. The Panama Canal also held a large part in building American Imperialism. Creating this canal would determine which nation dominated the sea, and the United States was more than eager to pounce on the opportunity to increase their global influence. The United States dipped its hand into many global issues during and following the Gilded Age, and these hold the honor of molding American Imperialism, but its change over time was held up to debate by scholars in the Gilded age and by contemporary

Intervention in Latin America, mainly Cuba, also led to the Spanish-American War. When the American naval ship, the USS Maine, exploded in the Havana Harbor, President McKinley immediately decided to go to war after being labeled a coward by yellow journalists. This is a prime example of how incidents in Latin American countries forced presidents to act rapidly and without much thought, causing America to form a bold and aggressive foreign policy.

In his address, Washington states, “The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.” Washington is advising to avoid political relations with foreign nations. He warns not to accept foreign influence of any nation. Washington wants to preserve the free self-government that began under him. The procedures addressed in the Monroe Doctrine are consistent with Washington’s advice. Monroe wants to avoid relations with foreign countries, just as Washington did. He declares that the United States should not get involved in the internal government of any other nation. This is parallel to what Washington suggested in his address. Both leaders wanted to focus mainly on the United States and avoid excessive interaction with other nations. Monroe’s manner is consistent with Washington’s from thirty years prior.

During the 1890’s, the United States began building and advancing their economy, as well as focusing more independently on becoming an even more powerful nation. Not only did the Americans begin to create a stronger national military and navy, they also began to look overseas towards the Pacific Ocean for resources and territories; this is when America began to look less like a national power and more like an imperial power. There were many reasons as to why the United States began to expand between 1880-1929, two of which include the military opportunities countries abroad had to offer, such as Pearl Harbor, as well as the domestic and political objectives the U.S. felt obligated to fulfill. Although, there were many important reasons for the United States to began to expand, the most significant reason for the expansionist foreign policy was the economic resources and opportunities other foreign countries had to offer the U.S.

The Spanish-American War was known as the beginning process to the United States establishing itself as a world super power. This would be the beginning to becoming a strong and powerful Empire. This process to building a powerful Empire is something that America has built up for hundreds of years.

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

1. Washington’s Farewell Address- an essay George Washington wrote to stay neutral from foreign affairs. “We need to stay focused on well-being of U.S. since we are a new country.” For the next 150 years, the U.S. didn’t sign an alliance. Isolationism formed from this address. Twice however, the US got involved in the European struggle. 1) in 1798 in opposition to France & 2) in 1813 in opposition to Great Britain. He basically said he was totally for the Neutrality Act & he also said to avoid political parties. IT will only cause disagreements. He made this address because he didn’t want to serve his 3rd session and made the tradition of 2 per president.

In the 19th century the scramble for control was under way when the Americans, Japan, and the Germans entered, other countries struggling with their empires. In the late nineteen century became a new age of imperialism in where technology and communications brought empire’s within reach. Many counties were joining the hunt fort new colonies, Americans preferred an indirect imperialism. The concept was first popularized during James K. Polk presidency, where he led the United States into the Mexican-American War of 1846. America’s version was that to “export products, ideas, and influence”, they viewed it as a “pure” version so they can share their values of democracy, and Christianity.

The post spanish american war period was a time of many changes in the US physically and mentally. During this time period the United States showed many examples of expansionism like they had earlier in the creation of the country but it also showed that the country was attempting to depart away from imperialism somewhat. The mindset of the American government and public was similar to the mindsets of those that were before them after the revolutionary war. For example, we attempted to gain more land and resources such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and The Philippines these actions were close to how we pushed and took all the land of those who were in the area but it was also different because we did not force people out of the area we were attempting to control we just wanted more influence and control of that area.

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) have been at the top of the social hierarchy ever since they arrived to America in the 1600s. The first wave of immigration consisted of the Germans, Irish and Chinese. The WASPs created a way to measure the success of each immigrant group. They acknowledged four factors of success that would show them whether an immigrant group was successful or not. The first factor of success was how much money an immigrant had when they came to America. The more money they came to America with, the more successful they were. Another factor of an immigrant’s success was how large the group they came with was. The larger the group, the less respect and

Until the end of the nineteenth century, American foreign policy essentially followed the guidelines laid down by George Washington, in his Farewell Address to the American people: “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is—in extending our commercial relations—to have with them as little political connection as possible.” By avoiding

two major tribes were the Ostrogoth’s and the Lombard’s where power shifted several times, And the

At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other

Through the strong foundation of Isolationism and the policies enacted such as The Monroe Doctrine, the United States played a largely neutral role in foreign affairs. The Monroe Doctrine passed in 1823 was to forbid European nations from colonizing any territory in the Western Hemisphere. Although the United States didn’t have the authority or firepower to back this up, it resulted in almost four decades of compulsory US involvement in any foreign affair. After the Civil War, Isolationistic practices grew stronger as the government had to find a way to re-unite the torn nation. President Grover Cleveland promised to avoid committing the nation to form any alliances with other countries while also opposed to the acquisition of new land. The climate of post Civil War US prevented us from deep involvement in foreign affairs. Our navy was also weakened by the war. Our natural resources were scarce and our diplomatic relations with other countries had been neglected. With the attention of our government focused solely on our nation, we proceeded to develop our interior. One of the biggest reasons for growth in US land mass was the public idea of Manifest

It took a very imperialistic approach to foreign policy, as evidenced by several incidents during the twentieth century, including the Spanish American War, which involved U.S. occupation of the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Cuba. World War I had the U.S. controlling the government of Haiti, using paternalism to their benefit in this situation. Also, the Vietnam War involved the United States intervening in the Vietnamese Civil War, attempting to prevent the spread of Communism and increase the prevalence of Democracy in the world. The Spanish American War was one of the first examples of America’s