In the late 1800’s America started to expand across the world. America went to areas like Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. The U.S. wanted to expand and tried to annex many countries. Many people wonder if the American expansion was justifiable or not. Alaska, a piece of land bought by the U.S. was called “Seward’s Folly” because when William Seward bought it America thought that there was nothing there. Not until after William 's death, people started exploring and finding a lot of natural resources. It was just what the U.S. was looking for. The population was increased during the Klondike gold strike in 1896. Another piece of gained by the U.S. was Hawaii. One reason for the annexation of Hawaii was because America needed a place to stop along the way to Asia. It allowed the U.S. to trade with Hawaii and take control of the sugar farmer’s crops. Also, establishing a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base became a strategic imperative for the United States. …show more content…
An excerpt from an Anti-Imperialist league platform said “We do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We go there to conquer, not to redeem…” When America gained more land, we tended not to give the people who live there much freedom but tried to make them more like us. The people of the newly claimed land had to follow the same religion and same government. Another excerpt from the Anti-Imperialist league platform said “We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism. America was violating the core principle of republicanism. America was starting to turn into a militarism type government by forcing other land with its
Toward the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the United States was becoming an increasingly powerful nation and world power. The country was competing with other nations also expanding. Their motives for expanding were to gain land and resources. While there was a slight departure from past expansionism, the United States mostly continued as it had been in the previous years. In order to accomplish expansionism, the United States needed to acquire foreign territories to increase their global presence.
After the Civil War ended many people were in hope of finding land since population was increasing. Since the West was underdeveloped and uncivilized, many decided to expand the land. First the Louisiana Purchase increased the opportunity of expansion. Then industrialization and the Homestead Act also caused many companies encouraged to move West due to the low cost of land and that the transportation was provided through the railroads. In order to complete such goals, something had to be done with the Natives since it conflicted with their home area.
When America, as we know it today, was created, it had just freed itself from an unwanted, suffocating European power. The people wanted nothing to do with foreign affairs and their presidents’ policies reflected that. As America moved forward and established themselves as a world power, they began to want more. At the turn of the twentieth century, this want for more hit its peak and because of other circumstances, more was just within reach. America had always prided themselves in staying out of foreign problems and focusing inward, but now a new age was dawning.
In the years following the Revolutionary War the United States would begin to expand, although not popular among all citizens, it helped shape the country into what we know today. The first acquisition of territory would be as a result of the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain ending the Revolutionary War. This treaty marked the boundaries between the British colonies still located in North America and ceded the thirteen American colonies to a newly recognized country known as the United States of America. This would not be the only acquisition of territory that the United States would complete between the years of 1789 and 1815 but it would be the initial acquisition of territory that would develop this newly formed nation.
Separate countries trade with each other without having to be annexed in another country, so the US took away the Philippines independence and they did not truly profit. In the end, Annexing the Philippines to profit from trade was
“Once we became an independent people it was as much a law of nature that this [control of all of North America] should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea” –John Quincy Adams (Henretta, p. 384). In the 1840s, Americans had a belief that God destined for them to expand their territory all the way westward to the Pacific Ocean. This idea was called Manifest Destiny. In the nineteenth century, Americans were recognized for coming together and building up one another for one cause: westward expansion.
William McKinley in his thoughts on American Expansionism has identified the reasons why America had no other choice but to incorporate Philippines as a part of it. This writing has been lifted from the excerpts of an interview with William McKinley soon after Spain had surrendered in the Spanish-American war. McKinley cleverly talks in this interview about how Philippines just came and fell into the laps of America thereby suggesting the helpless stance of America. He talks about how America’s sole intention and purpose had only been to safeguard its own interests as a country. He had to order that the Spanish fleets in Manila be destroyed because if left unattended, they would have crossed the Pacific and wreaked havoc in the American states
Before the 20th century the United States was an isolationist nation but around the late 19th century America decided to convert into an imperialist power. They had numerous reasons to shift into being an imperialist nation. America didn’t want to begin imperializing to settle and live in the nations they were taking over, they already had America for that reason, they wanted to adopt these nations for what they had to offer, which was many things. America saw an opportunity to improving their nation and took it. Even if there were many causes for America to imperialize, three of them stood out the most.
And lastly the desire for a new frontier to settle in order to maintain America’s identity and prosperity. All three of the examples: economically, politically/military, and culturally can simply explain why and how America became an imperialist nation in the late
Why Imperialism Was Not Justified Many Americans and Europeans believe that there was many good reasons for imperialism. These people think this because they were the ones that benefited from it. In imperialism, the stronger countries took over the weaker countries and used them for their resources which improved their economy. Most also claim that they helped the countries they were imperializing, but the Europeans were actually hurting them. This led to the natives rebelling which arguably led to World War 1 later on.
As America became a great power, it has continued its legacy of territorial expansionism through neo-imperialist policies. Aside from acquiring land and expanding American territory, the United States has established policies that have allowed direct and often indirect military and political control, economic exploitation, and the introduction of American ideals. The U.S. has justified this form of colonialism by claiming that it is for mutual economic pursuits, the spreading of democracy, and the establishment of stable governments in developing countries. Despite America’s noble causes, American imperialism has caused many repercussions. The United States should cease to be an imperialist power as it is economically damaging to countries under its rule, costly to America, violates the fundamental American principle of self-governance, and exacerbates social and political situations in countries America has tampered with.
This is because of the massive culture, and thriving economy. Even though the imperialism of Hawaii could be viewed as aggressive behavior, it was necessary to stop other countries from acquiring Hawaii. But Hawaii also supplied the United States with a lot of natural resources and a suitable naval base that was crucial for us to win World War II. So without the imperialization of Hawaii, the Axis’ powers could have won WW2 and doomed us all. But since we imperialized the increasing demand for sugar resulted in the importation of thousands of immigrant laborers from all over the world to work the industry.
Expanding territory, and a country's overall power by imperialism, was the major reason, politically
The United state had a treaty with the Native Americans that “ negotiated to establish borders and prescribe conditions of behavior “. The United States broke the treaties regarding the Native Americans land and borders. This is how the White Settlers expanded their resources and
How did the United States expand over the years and why? The expansion of the United States was a vital part of America’s history and greatly affects how we live today. America's early days only started in 13 states and then progressively grew to 50 states in total. The time throughout the 1800’s and what happened throughout that time greatly impacted how America expanded land, resources, opportunity, trade, and money. Two of many main causes that evoked American expansion was the amount of opportunity that America could take, the idea of Manifest destiny, and the amount of power that the US had on other countries.