When reflecting on the two fundamentally conflicting arguments -are foreigners better on their own or do they need our help? “American imperialism” comes to mind. This term denotes the economic, military, and cultural influence of the United States internationally. First propagated during the presidency of James K. Polk, the concept of empire-building in the America’s, developed throughout the late 1800th century. During this time, industrialization caused American capitalists to seek new global markets in which to sell their commodities.
Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared many similarities and differences to that of previous American ideals. In both cases of American expansionism, Americans used the theory of manifest destiny to justify their conquests for new territory. Later, Social Darwinism was added to the mix, which made Americans even more big-headed. Both of these theories caused Americans to believe that the United States was superior to other nations and that all lands were theirs for the taking. However, there were also many differences between the two expansionist periods because some people supported imperialism while others were highly opposed to the idea.
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
A tremendous amount of people wonder if America is trying to achieve world domination because of their involvement with the Middle East that is, however, a debatable and an unproven statement but it was especially true about a century ago during Theodore Roosevelt’s era. After the reparations done due to the civil war, Theodore Roosevelt strived to bring back American traditional values, that it, world expansion also known as manifest destiny. Theodore Roosevelt was an ingenious president whose aim was to make America an imperialistic nation and to colonise all the countries of the world. There is clear evidence that Roosevelt was trying to make America as a world superpower and he made it look like it was democracy even before Theodore Roosevelt’s
The economic interest for America was to support the industrial boom of the 1800s the U.S. needed. The United States had limited raw resources and to make more money for new markets. The only way was industries nations by taking non-industrialized nations to use their raw materials and expand markets. America wanted to annex the Philippines
In an attempt to increase trade and prove itself as an economic and military superpower, the US began to expand overseas and increase its military size; the US believed in International Darwinism and saw these actions as an expansion of Manifest Destiny which led to imperialism. People like William H. Seward pushed to annex Midway Island and purchased Alaska to expand the size of the US. However, imperialism became a controversial debate among the American people throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Expansionists and Jingoists like Theodore Roosevelt wanted to protect and gain control of other nations including Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam, whereas anti-imperialists such as William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, and Jane Addams were against entangling the US in unneeded conflicts overseas and depriving other nations of their rights. Thus, while advocates of expansionism wanted to civilize other nations, become a superpower, and improve US unity, oppositions wanted the US to improve domestic conflicts instead of involving itself in foreign affairs and should not force America’s ideals on other nations.
Lastly, it improved the global economic situation. American Revolution decreased the British power and set up an example for Revolutionary war; American Revolution was a turning point for the equality of the gender; American Revolution not only promoted their own economy, but also the world economy so that America can be the largest
Although the United States is not an empire around the world in terms of owning nations, they have expanded their economic influence in countries across the globe. The United States economy is able to thrive due to expansion of U.S. business into other countries. Large U.S. cooperation’s produce their products in factories overseas that do not have strict labor laws, which in turn allows these businesses to produce their product for a cheap price and control the supply and demand of the product. Imperialism has allowed businesses to thrive as they can produce their product at a lower price foreign than domestically in the U.S, and then in turn sell that product at an extremely high value by controlling the supply and demand of the product on the market. Their expansion all over the world has allowed the country to combat overconsumption and gain control of markets worldwide.
I believe that imperialism was beneficial for the people that had their countries interrogated, and expanded. One of the many benefits would be that America would give that country stability and modernization, adapting the country to fit its needs, if they were struggling. For example, ¨If we annex the Philippines we shall have to conquer the Filipinos by force of arms, and thereby
The United States mostly expanded into Latin America and Asia/Oceania during this time period. A prominent example of overseas expansion is the Spanish-American War. This conflict, which was caused by the alleged sinking of the USS Maine, led to the United States’ acquiring of Puerto Rico and the Philippines, among others. The U.S. also received significant control in Cuba, where the Platt amendment provided a great deal of power to the United States in regards to building military bases. This acquirement of foreign territory represents a clear example of imperialism.