The United States of America is a nation that displays strong democratic tradition but history teaches us that there have been presidents whom have demonstrated imperialism. Imperialism occurs when a stronger nation takes over by force a weaker nation or region and then imposes it’s economic, political and or cultural life on that region. Imperialism has been around for centuries beginning in the ancient world when great empires arose due to a civilization or religious belief attempting to dominate and control others. Then in the modern age the word is most often associated with the British Empire but in the late 19th and early 20th century the United States also possessed imperialistic policies. U.S. President’s such as William McKinley, …show more content…
for $20,000,000. The McKinley administration looked beyond its borders to conquer new land. McKinley’s had his sights on acquiring Hawaii. He imposed a tariff raising import rates of foreign sugar which caused a depression to sweep through the islands of Hawaii. The U.S. marines stormed the islands overtaking the people and forcing Hawaii to become a U.S. territory. As the McKinley administration gained power it turned to imperialistic views and polices instead of helping other countries and regions establish stable democratic governments. “McKinley understood that to his electorate, imperialism was a dirty word, and so he made Americans believe that their nation’s boldly imperial moves were instead efforts of great compassion and sacrifice.” (Bradley, 99)
President McKinley was assassinated in September, 1901, thrusting Vice President Theodore Roosevelt into presidency instituting his imperialistic philosophy into his administration. Roosevelt was the youngest president with charismatic energy to make the United States into a global power through international trade. Roosevelt believed in the proverb “Speak softly and carry a big stick” he believed that war was justified when it increased American power and introduced democracy to other nations. Roosevelt needing to display his power to other nations, “Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. built up its navy and deployed a naval armada around the world, decided to complete the Panama
The Roosevelt Corollary, an addition to the Monroe Doctrine, was a good example of how Imperialism related to Progressivism. In the corollary, Roosevelt describes ideas that have already been echoed by people like Josiah Strong. That a civilized government should look out for those countries that are “uncivilized”. A quote from Roosevelt stated, “All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly and prosperous.” So if you look at the two philosophies, like how the progressives sought to change the corruption in their current government. You’ll notice that the Americans idea of Imperialism was based off of changing a problem that another country was having. And both Roosevelt, Wilson and even Taft mixed these two ideas together with their foreign policies.
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.
In the late 1800s, United States was becoming a powerful industrial. Due to the growth of the nation; U.S. needed more resources for the industry. The solution was to imperialist other country. Imperialism is to expand the country power through the influence or military power. Many countries in Europe had become an imperialist nation; for example, British were in India, and the French were in Indochina. Most country around the world has been taken over by the European nation. United States realizes that if they did not get in the completion, then they would be left out. The reason United States become an imperialist nation were economy and military strength.
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
Imperialism is "the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.” (Johnston 375) By the 1890s, many Americans leaders started to have new attitude towards imperialistic adventures abroad. There were numerous reasons for the U.S. to turn to Imperialism at the end of the 19th century, mainly the economic, political, strategic, and humanitarian motives.
In the late 1800s the United States in the western hemisphere as a pursuit to contend with European economic, political, and military strategies. Another possibility for imperialism would also have trade between other Countries. The United States was becoming a nation that was yarning for wealth, and seeking the need for advancing their own economy. They United States has corrupted many less fortunate countries for The outset to improve their own lavish.
In analyzing the causes and effects of United States Imperialism from 1870 to 1916, one finds that there are three main factors. These major factors of United States Imperialism in this time period are: Hawaii, the Spanish-American war, and Theodore Roosevelt. In this time period Hawaiian islanders were very happy to live traditionally, but Americans were not content with the traditional ways of the Hawaiians (Buschini, n.pag.). Even though America seemed to be on the road to imperialism with Hawaii, the Spanish- American war actually set the United States on the new road of Imperialism (The Spanish American War n.pag.). Theodore Roosevelt played an important role in the United States road to imperialism in the 1870 's while serving as
Also, Social Darwinism had been a huge influence to many Americans, which led them to believe that the United States had a responsiblity to bring industrialization and democracy to less developed nations. Many American leaders, such as Theodore Roosevelt, thought that the ticket and key tool for imperialism would be a powerful naval presence, his, “big stick” that would rival any great European power. Through necessity of resources and war with Spain, the United States would free Cuba, annex Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Annexation had a pronounced affect on the citizens of those countries, more so in the Philippines. As we know the United States engaged in imperialism to promote their influence of democracy to new parts of the world. The United States believed they had a responsible to police the Western Hemisphere, but the United States’ decision to engage in imperialism was much more than
Money is power, and the US got a lot of both from industrialization, but it just wasn’t enough. U.S business owners pushed their government to conquer new lands, to have new markets to sell goods in. Hawaii in the late 1800s, was already tied to the U.S through economic treaties, but was still it’s own country, but as American businessmen increasingly sought to control Hawaii’s natural resources and wealth, they pushed for the American government to annex the islands and bring them under their control. “These business people wanted Hawaii annexed to the U.S. This would get rid of taxes on goods from Hawaii and make a lot of money for Dole and his cohorts.” Sanford B Dole was a prominent businessmen and founder of the Dole Company, he was fearful of the new Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani from stripping foreign influence from the government, but after seizing her
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s the United States (U.S.) pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism extending its political and economic influence around the world. What is imperialism? Why this policy was adopted and how it was rationalized. The major events that took place and which countries of the world the U.S. became involved due to this policy. Finally, we will see, not everyone supported foreign affairs by the U.S. and in 1899 they founded the American Anti-Imperialist League. I will discuss their view of Imperialism and discuss the outcome of the foreign policy going into the twentieth century.
Cultures using hyphenated forms of “American,” such as Mexican-American, African-American, Asian-American, Native-American and many more is a step in the right direction for culture acceptance. With this positive move in the world, there could be a change in how cultures view themselves, leading to how others view them. The multicultural society has to take into account for this change because without their acceptance it would just be hate. Bharati Mukherjee in her essay “American Dreamer,” asserts, “WE MUST BE ALERT TO THE DANGERS OF AN ‘US’ vs. ‘THEM’ MENTALITY.” Although Mukherjee has a great point here, I have to disagree. I don’t feel that we have to be aware of the ‘US’ versus ‘THEM’ mentality with the change in cultural acceptance.
After the Spanish-American war in 1898, America attained much power. The defeat of Spain led the U.S. to the 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 Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The american foreign policy of imperialism, exerting military, economic, or political control over weaker nations, was unjustified due to geographic greed for resources, unjustified subjugation, and cultural oppression through white washing.
The Southern States of America was made up of the following, Georgia with Atlanta as the Capital of the new union, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. Although, Kentucky wasn’t a sure bet at this point, there was still a lot of work to do in that state.
The journey of how the United States of America became the United States of America is a very complex one. With America declaring separation from the Great English Empire, to the organization of becoming a free, sovereign nation and lastly, the migration and colonization of the now, western United States, including the great state of Nevada, has many components. The Declaration of Independence initiated the process of becoming a country of its own. This Document pushed the separation from England and showed the world that America was now its own nation. The United States Constitution laid out the blue print of how the United States would work. This was after a failed attempt of the Articles of Confederation. After the Constitution was created, the process of migrating west began in order to colonize the western region of the United States. Nevada had a big role in this because we helped President Abraham Lincoln gain a second term. The first chapters of the story of the Untied States of America were a dangerous, difficult and long one, but because of this, the people that live in this country today have the freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Imperialism began in the 1870s, European states established vast empires mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East. Imperialism can be used as an act of expanding used as an act of developing a country’s empire through the use of force, colonization, or coercion. This method can be used to benefit one or both sides of the process. By means of benefiting one side would be considered as being a world bully because the nation is trying to expand or develop with the help of others without doing the other nation any good. As a result of advancing both nations can give a nation the name of a world leader with it helping both sides, everyone is developing in a way to help not just themselves, but others as well. America used imperialism for the good or bad as long as they got something out of it in some way. Many in the U.S. thought that country must be able to compete and saw the opportunity to take its own colonies before European countries got them all. Colonial powers often struggled with each other over the best potential features. These motives tend to believe its purpose is gaining additional wealth, power, and control. America used this approach as an intimidator to get economic growth, expand their political power, spread of the culture’s religion, and build military and naval bases.