American Imperialism In The Late 1800s And Early 1900's

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.

Imagine waking up one day and being forced to drop every custom and tradition you’ve ever known. This is what many countries had to endure when Americans decided it would be okay to imperialize them. Imperialism is the act of extending a country 's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. By the late 1800’s America started imperializing weaker countries. Americans were not justified in barging into weaker countries, and taking over for their own selfish gain. They mistreated the Filipinos and exploited the Puerto Ricans lands, they’ve done more bad than good which is why they are not justified.

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. Those three reasons being, economy, military, and culture superiority.

Was American expansion justified during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s? This was a debate that Americans fought over then and still now fight over now. There were two types of people some were for expansion and others were against expansion of the U.S. Both sides of the story will be well explained in this essay.

America had a dream of Manifest Destiny (O’Sullivan). Which they believe that God had set aside the entire North America for United States(Textbook). “Which later started the Westward movement”. During the time Native Americans tribes and Mexico had already had been inhabiting the area(Textbook). They would not leave without a fight.

Colonialism and Imperialism affected our world both positively and negatively. On one hand, Imperialism has often been linked with racial segregation, manipulation, and hardship. On the other, it has been said that many colonial powers contributed much in terms of schools, roads, railways, and much more. Whether this time period was constructive or harmful, it has played a large part in shaping our lives today.

Within the years 1800 and 1855 an issue that was making waves in the United States was whether the country should expand in size or not. Multiple events such as the Mexican-American war and the idea of “Manifest Destiny” lead to a growing discrepancy between the supporters and opponents of expansion. Although the opponents had some valid and understandable concerns with expansion, the supporters overall had a better argument.

Now the Cubans used two fellow yellow journalists, known as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The two both wrote about how the Spanish atrocities in Cuba, many were fabricated. Hearst and Pulitzer manipulated public opinion in order to have the American people intervene.

During the Gilead Age, the rich ruled over the poor and robber barons, 1% of the population, had too much power over the common people, workers, and over politics. Imperialism also happened during this time. Imperialism is when a country takes over another country or territory that has not already been claimed by another country. Most European Countries took over smaller and/or weaker countries in Asia and Africa. Countries did this to be seen as a world power. America started to imperialize Latin America and small islands surrounding or near the US. American expansionism, imperialism, was not justified.

For such of new country, it sure has some history. The United States has been involved in some rocky “regime changes” throughout its history. In Overthrow, author Stephen Kinzer outlines those in which American influence was the deciding factor. The book is set up into three sections, titled for how the operations were grouped together: The Imperial Era, Covert Action, and Invasions. With each government interference, Kinzer seems to only point out where they went wrong. He simply doesn’t give America enough credit.

At the start of the 19th century, America was already expanding its territory. In 1803, the United States of America had bought the Louisiana Territory, it was bought from France which had made the country two times larger. In 1819 Spain had given up their territory of Florida to the United States. President Monroe issued the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823, its main purpose was to warn the European countries to not enter the Western Hemisphere. In order for America to achieve its goal of becoming an imperialist nation they had conquered other countries economically, culturally, and with a strong military in the late 1800’s. Economically the U.S. had made advances in technology and began to get oversea territories. Culturally they had used the

Imperialism by the book is the policy in which stronger nations extend their economic, political or military territories. The time period where the US exampled imperialism was very important for our country because the US was able to grow with the new territories that were gained and the economic gain from the new market that were acquired. The spread of American culture was also a big concept during this time in the countries history. The United States exhibited imperialism between 1890-1920 through military strength, new markets, and cultural superiority.

Imperialism is the term that describes one nation’s dominance over another nation or territory. In the 1800s there were four types of imperialisms, which were; Colonial imperialism, Economic Imperialism, Political Imperialism, and the Socio-Cultural Imperialism. Colonial Imperialism, this form of imperialism is virtual complete takeover of an area, with domination in all areas: economic, political, and socio-cultural. Economic Imperialism, this form of imperialism allowed the area to operate as its own nation, except for the trading and other businesses. Political Imperialism, although a country may have had its own government with natives in political positions, it operated as the imperialist country

As America became more of a world power it wanted to have a bigger influence on the world. In order for America to have more of an impact around the world it needed to change its fundamental ideas of George Washington policy of staying out of European affairs. Even as America began to create treaties with other countries they never acquire territory. The main ideals that America wanted to spread across the world were the idea of republicanism and exceptionalism. Although imperialist and anti imperialist disagreed with weather of not to take on more lands, they both agreed on those two ideas.

Since the early 19th century, many Americans believed that America had an obligation to expand westward and by the end of 19th century, America became an imperialist nation due to her belief in manifest destiny. Imperialism is simply defined as the policy by which a nation dominates another country or nation in order to gain their land and natural resources. America wanted to imperialist for various reason, but the three main factor was due to economical competition among industrial nations such as Europe, political and military power competition including the formation of a naval force which was proposed by Alfred Mahan and Social Darwinism which was to civilize the “inferior races” spreading technology and Christianity. In addition, the United