The Louisiana Purchase was a “land deal” made between France and the U.S. in December of 1803, where France sold America 828,000 miles of land along the west side of the Mississippi River for 15 million dollars (approximately 4 cents per acre). People regard it as Thomas Jefferson’s greatest achievement because of how drastically it changed the United States. The purchase greatly expanded America and brought many other benefits along with it. Although it was definitely a major benefit to the United States, even Jefferson had his doubts about the purchase. But despite many doubts, the U.S. made the decision to ratify the purchase, and because of that decision, America has changed for the better.
Congress took away Hawaii’s privileges forced them to
The Hawaiian Kingdom emerged from the arrival of Polynesians from other Pacific islands and later the unification of the islands by Kamehameha the Great. The Kingdom of Hawaii had a monarchy government system, where the rulers were of the same family and royal blood. King Kalakaua was the last king of Hawaii and Queen Lili’uokalani was the last ruler of Hawaii. While Queen Lili’uokalani was locked away from her throne, she sat under house-arrest in the hopes the next heir to the throne, Princess Ka’iulani would make a change for the better of Hawaii’s sovereignty. Into the present, the Hawaiian Monarchy has been overthrown, annexed and in control by the United States of America.
Imperialism was a controversial idea that a nation can extend its power outward through means of diplomatic or military force. This often results in a shift of power from one major force currently in control to another. The people of that nation under control conflict may also experience wars, rebellions, or cultural destruction. Looking at some of these events, we see some positives and negatives of imperialistic action taken by the United States, and how it affected the nations imperialized by the United States. For starters, let’s look at Hawaii’s annexation.
American imperialism: the result of capitalism, business, and trade; the result of fear, competition with other countries, and the quest for furthering an economy—proven with the acquisition of Hawaii and the removal of its ruler, Queen Liliuokalani. Why and how did that happen, and in which ways did it impact the world? The United States removed Hawaii’s queen out of imperialism, an avarice for control of the rich natural resources, and the strategic military standpoint Hawaii provided them with. This changed Hawaii to a tourist base and sugarcane phenomenon, boosting the United States’s economy, but also caused a decline in the population of the Native Hawaiians. The possession of Hawaii also led to the United States’s involvement in World
Manifest Destiny is a unique, yet mysterious fundamental series of events in American history. No other country’s history contains such an eventful history as the United States. Amy Greenberg’s book, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, provides documented evidence that settlers believed they were destined for expansion throughout the continent. In other words, many religious settlers believed that it was a call from God for the United States to expand west. On the other hand, people believed that Manifest Destiny vindicated the war against Mexico.
The US should not have annexed the Philippines because it would be hypocritical of Americans, the
As America became a great power, it has continued its legacy of territorial expansionism through neo-imperialist policies. Aside from acquiring land and expanding American territory, the United States has established policies that have allowed direct and often indirect military and political control, economic exploitation, and the introduction of American ideals. The U.S. has justified this form of colonialism by claiming that it is for mutual economic pursuits, the spreading of democracy, and the establishment of stable governments in developing countries. Despite America’s noble causes, American imperialism has caused many repercussions. The United States should cease to be an imperialist power as it is economically damaging to countries under its rule, costly to America, violates the fundamental American principle of self-governance, and exacerbates social and political situations in countries America has tampered with.
The United States has inflicted imperialism on the island Hawaii on January 17, 1893. They did this by overthrowing the government which was a monarchy and its ruler was Queen Liliuokalani. Then by overthrowing the sugar planters who overthrew the Queen, President William Mckinley was able to obtaining the territory for the U.S after the Spanish-American war. The U.S wanted to obtain Hawaii because of its monopoly on Sugar and its Sugar exports to The United States. The United States wanted to obtain the territory also to get rid of taxes on them and the business, and wealthy people were losing their ability to manipulate the government and wanted it as a naval base like pearl harbor.
Eight islands, two thousand miles off the U.S. west coast attracted attention from the Americans as a place to occupy. The U.S. owned three fourths of Hawaii’s wealth through sugar exports. Americans
Anti imperialists had the better arguments than imperialists. Imperialism violates the peoples rights to vote/ the declaration of independence. White business leaders forced king kalakaua to amend Hawaii's constitution limiting voting rights to only wealthy land owners. Congress also proclaimed Hawaii as an american territory, although Hawaiians never had the chance to vote. Imperialism goes against ideals of self government for an example the military controlled Puerto Rico until congress decided otherwise.
The United State’s annexation of Hawaii in 1898 led to the gradual destruction of the Hawaiian culture and the almost-extinction of native-born Hawaiians. The majority of the Hawaiian natives opposed the annexation of Hawaii and wanted to maintain their sovereignty. Although the Japanese could have taken over the Hawaiian islands if the United States had not, the annexation of Hawaii by the U.S. was unjustified because of the treatment of the monarchy and natives, the infringement of the natives’ self-established culture and government, and the natives’ overwhelming opposition to the U.S’s involvement in Hawaii. From 1795 to 1874, the Kamehameha Dynasty ruled over the kingdom of the Hawaiian islands. Up until the death of Kamehameha III, the U.S. had stayed out of interfering with the islands.
After watching the film called ‘Act of War’, I again felt that countries’ do not stand for justice but only pursue their national interests. The reason why Hawaii was so desirable to the United States was the imperialistic characteristic that America had at that time. Even a small island or land is into the consideration of taking over. In detail, the Americans wanted to use the land as their military base and a strategic spot for expanding their imperialism to Asia. The fact that American continent was far away from Asian and European continent, made them realize that in order to empower their global power they need to first dominate the closest countries, even a small land that they consider it trivial.
Something that had one of the biggest impacts on the world as it is today is colonization. There’s no way that the world we live in would be the same without it. From colonization, a multitude of good things came out of it, such as wealth for many nations, new land discovered, and colonies established. However, all of those things came at a price to others. The negatives of colonization affected the Native Americans (North, South, and Central America) and the Africans.
In being an anti-imperialist the worrisome is not that one opposes the idea of expansion of religion, commercial, and constitutional. It’s that with the annexing of these tropical islands would come to a result of the American system of self government would be that America might abandon this idea that makes America that nation it is to this point. Three reasons why the U.S should avoid imperialism is because it fails to follow that criteria of the constitution, could lead to tyrants like behavior, and could lead to conflict One argument that can’t be missed is the fact that the constitutions sets forth a principle that states “consent of the governed” after further research this means that to imperialize and annex other islands would violate
