American Imperialism In The Late 1800's

In a time, in 1865, Reconstruction was ending. The Compromise of 1877 led the Republicans to end their fight for racial equality. This led to Rutherford B. Hayes, the President of the United States, to pull out troops from the South causing the Republican Party to dismiss. The end of Reconstruction brought America to imperialism. Imperialism allowed for America to gain more power by taking over territories aggressively. In the Gilded Age from 1865 to 1900, farmers and industrial workers responded significantly to industrialization by forming alliances and movements.

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.

Imperialism is not a new concept by any means to the human race. This form of movement has not only made many great empires rise to greatness, but have also made many fall (Roman). At many points in history the drive for imperialism was the only aspect some nations had in common (Cohen). Imperialism is simply the expanding of one’s power and influence by the complete taking over of other’s financial markets, industry, and abilities to be themselves.

A great change United States history was the development of the country as a whole, regarding its magnitude in land mass and overall spread of acquired territory. Also known as the Age of American Imperialism, this significant expansion came about from foreign relations with other nations. Through peaceful negotiations, as well as violent conflicts, the U.S.’s sphere of influence and control expanded across various bodies of water. Increased involvement with world relations triggered a shift in power from one side of the world to the other, which would lead to the establishment of the U.S. as a world power, or an independent entity powerful enough to bring change on a global scale. Foreign relations between the U.S. and other nations during the late 1800s and early 1900s increased and became more complex as their involvement within global affairs likewise intensified. Moreover, major reasons for these increased relations included political, economic, religious, and cultural reasons, and for the purpose of saving the idea of masculinity within American men.

In a time between the beginning of the of the Second Industrialization Revolution and the end of the imperialism movement, there were many changes in America. It is in this context that American ideals changed in the Gilded Age. Farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age from 1865-1900 by forming organizations that allowed for their voices to be recognized and by influencing political parties to help get national legislation passed.

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

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s America started expanding abroad to try and enlarge our borders. However this expansion ended up creating more problems for the US. In the end America lost more than they gained all due to American imperialism.

The United States had for years been improving and growing rapidly. Away from the other world powers in Europe, they were able to avoid their conflicts for a long time, but that changed. America got involved in World War One and it affected some of their advancements. U.S imperialism was able to thrive in WWI, with America using the power to expand their empire. American progressivism however, fell between the cracks and disappeared for a long while during and after the war. WWI was not necessarily a distraction from either imperialism or progressivism, but it did affect them substantially.

Colonization was rebirth if you will in the later 19th century through the wake of industrialization which gave Europeans a new desire to conquer and established the need to go and claim natural resources to be used in the factories. Many of the larger nations joined in this rebirth with the most notable actions being the Scramble For Africa which showcased the most rapid expansion of European influence ever seen before. "The effects were profound. In 1875, 11 percent of the continent was in European hands. By 1902, the figure was 90 percent."(Cole, 534) Europeans also had significant influence in Asia in which they conquered large pieces of land in India and Indochina in order to establish a strong trade connection. European powers in these regions constantly tough each other for supremacy while completely disregarding the people who live there which lead to many different catastrophes.

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

World War I was one of the very first wars that had a global effect on the whole world. According to the book about WWI, The Guns of August, A shocking 32 countries took part in it. In the very first stages of WWI, the U.S stayed neutral, and had good reasons for doing so, too. However, the U.S eventually became entangled in the conflict anyway. Three leading causes forced the U.S to join WWI. The first reason was the sinking of the ship Lusitania. The second conflict was the sending of the Zimmerman Telegram. The final cause was that German U-Boats sank several merchant ships. Due to these three leading causes, the U.S was no longer neutral in World War I.

Throughout the early nineteenth century, the ideas of expansionism swept through the United States The belief in Manifest Destiny, that the United States was destined to spread across the continent of North America, gave reason behind the allocation of new territories and acceptance of new states. However, the debate over the legality of slavery in the national identity, made it difficult to adopt new areas into the control of the United States with ease. In the later portion of the nineteenth century, expansionism was mainly motivated by imperialism. The United States was determined to become a leading world power and the belief in the survival of the fittest, Social Darwinism and the idea of the “Gospel of Wealth”, the rich helping those

During the mid and late 1800s imperialism was alive and well in the United States. It was not enough for America to have acquired massive tracts of land throughout the late 1800s, such as Alaska and Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The idea of imperialism and the Monroe Doctrine called for more land and limited European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. Ultimately the imperialistic eye of the United States had to eventually turn to Cuba, an area under Spain’s control that represented tremendous opportunity to fuel the growing imperialist machine that was America. The Monroe Doctrine could not tolerate Spanish control over Cuba, forbidding European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. This factor, coupled with the United States’ desire

The early 20th century had a remarkable impact on human kind, creating ripples in the continuum of history that are still felt in modern times. The biggest and by far the most remarkable event was World War 1. It's main trigger being the assassination of Archduke Franz the war began tragic and tense. In an attempt to prevent Germany from becoming too powerful, other European joined powers for what was to be an exhausting and long battle of attrition. The war was essentially a huge chain of events, tracing back to the Franco-Prussian War and the actions of important people like Otto Von Bismarck. Different ideologies arose that moved the war in several directions: nationalism came along smoothly with modernization and proved to be an incredible

During the late 1800’s there was a scramble for imperialism. The United States felt that it needed to be more powerful, and to show its relevancy in the big picture of the entire world. Basically, the U.S. wanted to be taken seriously, and a possible way of doing that was imperialism (which also happens to be a very controversial course of action). As Henry Cabot Lodge was a member of the Senate at the time, this speech was directed toward the people of the United States that could be persuaded into voting for the movement of imperialism. Lodge is trying to convince a group of people to believe and vote for a certain thing, so he is definitely going to bring light to the more positive components of this movement. Lodge was a Senator, so his