The Pros And Cons Of American Imperialism

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. In addition, the increasing effect of social Darwinism led to the acceptance that America was superior to other countries and essentially responsible for bringing concepts such as industry, democracy, and Christianity to under-developed societies. The mixture of these attitudes along with other factors led the United States toward imperialism.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In some ways it would have been ironic if America became an imperialist nation because America started out as a group of colonies ruled by an imperialist nation. Another challenger of imperialism was Jane Addams, a progressive social reformer, who gave a speech in 1899 that criticized the Spanish-American war and the increase in militarism in the U.S. She compares militarism in Cuba and an increase in crime at home (Doc4). She reflects the concerns of people on the homefront during the Spanish-American war and the U.S. acquisition of colonies in Asia and Caribbean. She believes American imperialism undermines the ideals of peace and America’s tradition of isolationism.

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

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.

However, can economic strength be achieved and maintained without the ability to project sufficient power and deter possible threats against the country’s economic capacity? Which is more important, the power that keeps economic freedom or the economy that fund the source of power? Furthermore, Walter Hixon on the essay Culture, National Identity, and the “Myth of America, argues that “the myth of America and the pathologically violent foreign policy it inspires cannot remain unchallenged.” (Merrill and Paterson, 2010, 14). Have American interventions been entirely unnecessary?

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.

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

Negative effects of imperialism included the stripping of a people’s culture and beliefs. Missionaries often came to other countries with the intent of converting the people. Imperialism often took away a people 's right of self-government. One example of this is the spread of democratic ideals, or “Americanization”. Overall, imperialism may have helped countries advance but, it did so at the expense

In the aforementioned warfare, the US not only sent its army to legitimize its sovereignty over Afghanistan and Iraq, but it also conspired to take democratization as an excuse to uncover its real intention of gaining profit. To recapitulate, not only does imperialism exist in Belgian Congo in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but also in Middle-East in the twenty-first