Notes on Colonialism and Imperialism

The thirst for new markets was one reason for the imperialistic era. We bought Alaska for 7.2 Million from the Russians, which provided us with oil, timber, and minerals. “Critics called Alaska “Seward’s Folly,” but he paid only about 2 cents an acre for a mineral-rich territory twice the size of Texas” (2008, p. 615). “The battle of the Pacific highlighted the need for naval bases and coaling stations. On July 7, McKinley signed a joint congressional resolution annexing Hawaii, as planters wanted for nearly a decade” (2008, p. 622). This lead to the annex of Hawaii, Pearl Harbor naval base being built and after the Spanish-American War we received Guam and Puerto Rico. During this period, we gained territories, resources and our military was expanding forces in areas of the world where we had not gone in force before.

Throughout the history of the United States, America had a desire to expand its boundaries. The United States acquired most of it's land during the nineteenth and early twentieth century with a brief break during the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, the way America went about graining new lands drastically changed from non-aggressive means in the beginning to extremely aggressive means towards the end. This essay will depict the extent to how late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism was a continuation

After the Spanish-American war in 1898, America attained much power. The defeat of Spain led the U.S. to broadening their horizons through international expansion. Seeing how the U.S. rivals had already established overseas empires, the U.S. wanted to emulate. They jumped into action and produced a ‘foreign policy’, giving America the right to build empires in areas such as the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The American foreign policy of imperialism was unjustified due to geographic greed for resources, unjustified subjugation, and cultural oppression through white washing.

During the 19th century the United-States, already a regional power, slowly emerged as an imperial one (Slater, 2010; Steinmetz, 2005). Up until the 20th century, the country was mainly focused on fulfilling its ‘manifest destiny’ and centred its foreign policy on Latin America (Kissinger, 1994). It was of great importance for the Americans not only to differentiate themselves from the colonialist Europe but also to assert their

It was an age of empire, and by the 1900s Europe’s powers had taken control of more than 10 million square miles and 150 million people. In the closing years of the nineteenth century, foreign policy assumed a new importance for Americans. Political and business leaders have been preoccupied by internal matters and began to look outward in order to advocate a more activist approach to world affairs. Not wanting to be left behind, the United States emerged as a great power exercising imperialism; two of the countries which experienced this exercise was, Hawaii and Cuba.

For a brief period of time, America became the exact thing it once strived to defeat: an imperialist.  The moment the Treaty of Paris was signed on February 6, 1899, America became an imperialist.  America was divided on the issue of imperialism.  Some said that imperialism was wrong because it was against everything our nation was founded upon.  Others saw imperialism as a chance to exploit people and land to earn power and prestige.  The following paragraphs will explore America’s experimentation with imperialism in the Philippines.

Why was the United States interested in expansion in these areas? Why was America building a global empire? The America Imperial aimed at the extension of political, economic, and cultural control nation boundaries that were weak. I was four ways for it to be accomplished by military conquest; by treaty or simply lending money to a weak country or recipient country that are unable to pay. The United States engaged these activities to get higher authority. They required a good will and good retentions and expand markets through out the east and west hemisphere. But, was not efficient enough to be successful because, of the intervention they had caused among the affected countries caused by resentment and bitterness. “Imperialism grew in America because of three major reasons- the first reasons are economic interests, the second reasons are military interests, and the last reason is cultural superiority. If we hadn't become an imperialist nation, then we would have never gotten the islands of Hawaii or Alaska. We also helped the Cubans and Philippines to gain their freedom and got Puerto Rico as a territory too. Imperialism was a much better foreign policy than the Monroe Doctrine.”

10) Imperialism and America’s rise to power, including the causes and consequences of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century -1890’s- there were many economic, political, and social changes due to the gaining of territories during this time. The Age of Expansionism saw several factories coincide to account for American’s desire to pursue an Imperial policy. In the years that followed the Civil War the economy of the United States expanded rapidly. The Civil War briefly froze the Industrial Revolution, which began roughly around 1815, but the end of the conflict allowed the nation to finish the development of Industrialization. The kind of expansion that occurred during Expansionism was called Imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of acquiring dependent territories or extending a country's influence through foreign trade.

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.

At the turn of the 20th century, America was just beginning to arrive at a stage of development that her European counterparts had done so decade's prior, Imperialism. To this point, the identity of the United States up until the late 1800's was that of westward expansion and manifest destiny. The spirit of discovery fueled the advancement of the railroad and steamboat industries, while settlers from around the world poured into the states, spurred by her massive industrial growth. However, as all good things do, the allure of conquering the ended with the complete settlement of the country. Now, without any territory to conquer within her borders, the dawn of Imperialism had come. Beginning with the conquering of Hawai'i, and followed by the taking of Cuba, the U.S. began to seize territories around her as a means of expansion. In 1898, America participated in her first international conflict since the war of 1812

But because of world powers like the Russian, Ottoman, and Chinese empires, some people started to believe that this idea could not be achieved without becoming like them—without a further expansion of the country. However, due to the fact that “…there was no longer a clear line separating settled and unsettled land” (Foner 659), expansion of the country could not be achieved without invasion and/or colonization, which meant that the United States needed to become an empire if it wanted to expand. Much like during the nineteenth century, the idea of manifest destiny came into play again, but this time it was in reference to a global expansion. Those who supported the emergence of an American empire argued that it was our country’s divine right to do so, and “The economy would benefit…since one means civilizing “savages” was to turn them into consumers of American goods” (Foner 660). And since the United States already had some possession and control over the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, they were already halfway there. Combing this argument with the interests in both improving the economy and an expansion of trade, the idea of an American empire didn’t seem half-bad—if we were to conquer and civilize others, they would become essential to the purchasing and consumption of American goods. Wasn’t it in the best interest of the country to improve our economy and our trade by increasing both our exports and the number of people who depend on them? These interests, coupled with the ideas of manifest destiny and becoming a powerful nation, led to the United States’ temptation of creating an empire in the late nineteenth

Over the course of a century, nationalism spread throughout Europe. This new patriotic breakthrough changed the way Europeans looked at themselves. Rather than associating themselves with only a small area similar to their local town or area, like they did in the past, they are now beginning to associate themselves with their country as a whole. This trend escalated around 1830s, with states becoming unified with a common language, culture, and territory. Nationalism is important to modern day history because it is through this that many countries were formed and is also the reason for how the world is today. Without nationalism, monarchs could still not be treating people the way with respect, imperialism would not have happened at the scale

1. We might think of America as great country who stands up for the greater good but sometimes we let ourselves too involved in other country’s business. One country we affected with our new system of imperialism is the Philippines. We were at war with Spain until the Treaty of Paris of 1898 was made and Spain gave control of the Philippines to us. In this time in history, America is a very strong country and could have control over weaker countries if she wanted to. The united states didn’t know if they should give the Philippines the independence or become an imperial power by annexing the Philippines.

expanding it boarders in the early and mid 1800’s. Throughout the world in the 1880’s there was a large need for countries to gain places where they could get natural resources. Almost every Western European Nation was in need to imperialize. Examples of this were the scramble for Africa, and the spheres of influence. The cartoonist Thomas Nast depicts this in his cartoon “The worlds plunder” which appeared in Harper’s weekly in 1885. America’s need to I imperialize was similar to that of Europe. The way the U.S. went about gaining markets was no different then what they had done before to gain land. The U.S. looked to fighting to gain land and when they saw the Cubans wanted independence from Spain the U.S. looked to help Cuba to get land in return. Throughout the war there was yellow journalism to gain support from the American population. Also when the USS Maine got bombed the American immediately blamed it on Spain. Years later it was found the explosion happened internally and Spain couldn’t have bombed it. The U.S. easily defeats Spain and in return for helping Cuba the U.S. gained Puerto Rico, The Philippines, and Guam. After Cuba Got there independence the U.S. wanted to keep their influence in Cuba so they passed the Platt amendment which made Cuba a protectorate and gave the U.S. a naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It also would not let Cuba Make a treaty Without The U.S. The U.S. Justifies their actions for helping Cuba and gaining