Spanish American Imperialism

Imperialism is the term used when a country expands its current power and influence through diplomacy or military force throughout other lands and countries that are weaker than their own. Some motives of imperialism is, economic reasons, like industries need resources, and customers to sell to. Another reason would be military factors, and nationalism. Imperialism in the US hasn 't been a failure. The goal was to increase the country 's influence, territory, power, and belief. This was all to compete with other world powers. In the 1800’s-1900’s we weren 't even close to the world power we are today. Through imperialism the united states grew and became one of the strongest nations to this day. The USA prospered because of the amount of success American imperialism brought to the table.

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.

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 beginning of the 19th century, the United States had minimal interest in becoming an empire who controlled overseas countries. Instead, Americans decided to just use Manifest Destiny on their own continent as their form of expansion. In the late 1800s, the frontier was announced to be “closed”, so Americans were forced to look overseas in order to expand trade by looking for new markets. After America made the decision to support Cuba in its revolt against Spain during the Spanish-American war, the United States gained its own colonial empire when it defeated Spain in 1898. Once the war ended, Americans had to debate between becoming an imperialist empire or remaining in isolationism.

The war lasted from April 1898 till August 1898; through this war we took control over Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the islands of the Philippines. The end result of this war comes to show that the reasoning behind the war has more to do with

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.

According to history.com “U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba’s right to independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain’s armed forces from the island, and authorized the President’s use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba.” McKinley then set up a naval blockade on Cuba and started requesting American volunteers for their military. This decision caused the Spanish to declare war with America which we now call it the Spanish-American War of 1898. The war started out on May 1, 1898 when Commodore Dewey and his naval squad went into the Philippine Islands at Manila Bay to successfully gain control of the sea when they defeated the Spanish naval force that was trying to defend the Philippine Islands. The victory of the defeat triggered McKinley’s want for acquiring the Philippines land as a trophy for the war, leading to tension between the Americans and Filipinos.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 put an end to Spain’s colonial empire within the Western Hemisphere and put America in the new role as a global power. With the United States victory this produced a peace treaty which compelled the Spanish to relinquish any claims on Cuba. It also gave power over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States (United States, United States Department of State, n.d.). During the conflict the independent state of Hawaii was annexed by the United States. The war gave the United States predominance within the Caribbean region and allowed us to pursue our economic and strategic interests in Asia.

Imperialism means that one country controls all political, economic, or cultural life in another country or region. Europe successfully did this in the Americas and established colonies in South Asia, Africa, and China. Although this would seem like a substantial amount of power, Europe did not gain much influence until later on. Once Europe recognized their own growing control, they embarked on what is now called the “New Imperialism”. Many components played into this seemingly rapid success, but one significant reason was that of the

Imperialism actually means ‘to command land’ Around 600,000 people died from all of these different events No person or nation likes to be controlled, and that is what America was doing We took away people’s freedom Many people were shipped to America and used as slaves without their consent

During America’s imperialistic period they saw Middle America as another optimal position to take for trade routes to the west from eastern America. Many islands in the gulf, and lower were also needed for many reasons. One such place was Cuba, Cuba was against Spain, and wanted to be separate of its state. Cuba asked for the assistance of America, and was granted access to this assistance. Eventually Spain was driven out, and Cuba was put under the Monroe Doctrine, allowing America some control.

The united states declared war on Spain in April of 1898 over the issue of human rights violations in Cuba, that war lasted a mere four months, within a year the united states found themselves in yet another war, this time against the Philippines. Why did the United States find themselves in another war when one just ended? Americans who advocated annexation had a variety of motivations. First the desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, the second reason was that they thought the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and the third reason was the fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands another power would (office of the Historian, the Philippine-American war, 1899-1902)

The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area. The ship and 250 American lives

This allowed the Spanish to expand from Virginia all across the eastern parts of the United states. The Spanish went across the Pacific ocean to a lot of the islands including the Philippines. By 1825 a lot of the empire was taken by other country 's but Spanish did keep hold of what they had. The conturys that the Spanish still had were " Cuba and Puerto Rico and across the Pacific in Philippines Islands, and the Carolina, Marshall, and Mariana Islands (including Guam) in

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was established in order to evenly divide unclaimed lands between Portugal and Spain. This led to the Line of Demarcation, in which the non-European world was divided into two zones. Portugal had rights to the eastern hemisphere, and Spain had rights to the western hemisphere. This allowed Spain to colonize areas in the New World. Even though they had this opportunity, they were not able to colonize specific areas in North America due to competition with other European countries. Spain fought with countries such as France, England, and the Dutch for control over lands in the New World, because they were all seeking wealth and power. They had even faced the threat of foreign attacks from England. Because of