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American Imperialism Analysis

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Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It is a great way to strengthen the economy and gain power and territory for countries that practice it, though it often failed and resulted in war and the deaths of innocents. Four intellectuals that played a big part in influencing American imperialism were Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer and John Fisk. All of these influencers had different ideologies and came together to justify American imperialism. They believed America needed to expand power and gain territories. Remnants of the influencers’ philosophies still exist in present day. Frederick Jackson Turner believed that in order to keep the American …show more content…

Social Darwinism itself is the ideology of Herbert Spencer. Spencer was another historian that justified imperialism. He believed in survival of the fittest. In order to survive America had to keep conquering and gaining territory, money, power and resources so that she could be the fittest. Spencer was known as the revolutionist of society. John Fiske, another historian that justified imperialism, believed that every person and country should become English. Ethnocentrism was part of Fiske’s ideology. Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture. He wanted America to take over other countries and convert them to be one hundred percent english. He believed all languages, religions, bloodlines, and political habits should be …show more content…

Alfred T. Mahan and John Fisk worked together. Mahan pushed for conquering the new frontiers while Fisk wanted to take the newly conquered places and make them one hundred percent english. Frederick Jackson Turner and Herbert Spencer worked together too. Spencer preached about survival of the fittest and that if America wanted to survive she needed to continue to gain territory and power in order to be on top and Turner wanted to continue conquering new frontiers to stay strong and American. All of these philosophers justified imperialism in their own ways. They gave good reasons to support their ideas. All of the reasons were reasons that the U.S. needed for our own benefit such as the Turner thesis and a strong navy to protect our trade. Some reasons even appealed to helping others. Fiske and Spencer thought that we would be doing the countries we took over because then they would be moved to the top of the country ladder and we would be teaching them better ways to

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Imperialism is a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force. Once conquering a territory a nation wants, it becomes a colony for the mother country. Mother countries want colonies so they can profit and enrich their imperial power. All the European nations wanted to pursue all the same actions of gaining land, resources and power. Mother countries were all willing to go to war to have the most colonies.

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The start of the second Industrial Revolution was also the start for the push of imperialism throughout the country. The decision of taking care of another country because of the opinion that they were not “civilized” was a motive for many of the United States leaders. Leaders included President Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and President William McKinley. The imperialist group was strong but they had much push back from anti-imperialist. The anti-imperialist included Jane Addams and Mark Twain.

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The social aspect of Imperialism was extremely racist, where “White Man’s Burden” was the major reason for Imperialism for some. White Man’s Burden, was attempting to colonize the

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At the turn of the 19th century, America presented the policy of imperialism and there was a ton of debate over the subject. Some say that imperialism would benefit America by increasing trade and help make this country more powerful. Others say that imperialism would be horrible for America because we are taking over countries without their permission and restricting their choice. The United States should adopt the policy of imperialism because it would help grow our country, increase trade, and help the economy.

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imperialism is that it helped to promote economic growth. By acquiring territories and establishing markets overseas, the United States was able to expand its economic influence and increase its wealth. The United States also used its military and economic power to protect American businesses operating in foreign countries. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, the United States sent troops to protect American businesses and citizens.

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Imperialism is when a strong country extends its power and influence on a weak country. In the 1800’s, Europeans were trying to colonize Africa so they can profit from. In addition, it was completely different than other imperialistic takeovers as now you had several powerful countries all looking to colonize an entire continent. Europeans used imperialism to colonize Africa for many reasons such as religious, moral, political and economic gain. The first motive was to spread Christianity to the native peoples of Africa.

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Document 5 is an excerpt from The Diplomacy of Imperialism, a book by William L. Langer, that describes yet another possible reason for Imperialism. It explains that teaching about the survival of the fittest” justified and validated relentless competition and struggle. Although Darwin’s ideas are about science, this example of social Darwinism applies Darwin’s ideas to social issues and race which justifies the colonization of different areas that were allegedly “uncivilized”. Overall, social Darwinism is the social force that was the most responsible for new imperialism that began in the late nineteenth and twentieth

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Imperialism is expanding a country’s influence and power using military force or diplomacy. This greatly helped many countries, such as Great Britain, France, and Germany. However it hurt other countries who were not in favour of imperialism, such as Egypt, China, and India. Peoples in colonized countries developed nationalist resistance movements to protest imperialism, both violently and nonviolently, whereas supporters of imperialism claimed it brought modernity, civilization, and education to “backward” colonized people. Imperialism is more easily understood when put into context.

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Have you ever been stronger then someone, or tougher than someone and wanted to put them down and be the ruler of them? Well imperialism seeks to dominate a weaker nation politically, economically and socially. Imperialism has changed, some ways that it has changed is the industrial revolution, they used this for natural resources and new markets, this was helpful because it's a good place to grow and settle things, another way it was helpful was by they invested in profits so they had a lot of money into certain things that would benefit them down the road. They also did a lot of business with africa and asia, after the revolution, the western used their powers to basically take over, they later took over most of the lands in Africa and Asia. They wanted to stop this, so they decided to start adding more colonies.

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Imperialism is the act of colonizing smaller countries and territories. Many countries apply imperialism to their government, to gain power. The power can be economic, political, social, or even military benefits. In the late 1800s, America was also one of the countries that decided to include imperialism in the government, however, unfortunately in America's imperialistic era, land was gained at the cost of trust and values. Imperialism in America cannot be justified due to its contradictions of American Ideals and conflict between other countries.

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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

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United States Imperialism in the late 19th century was very selfish time. Many people in that time, debated about whether are not benefiting our country was the right way or the wrong way. The motiving factors that impacted our imperialism are economic, military, and cultural. These factors impacted the American Imperialism from 1890-194 by having control over weaker territories meeting our expanding needs.

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At these times, and even in today’s society; The more money you have, the more say you have in government and what goes down. (Document 3) In conclusion, imperialist use imperialism to take control over other colonies/countries to expand the borders, or to acquire vital resources. Imperialism was good because although certain leaders came around who were power hungry, many leaders wanted to build and help civilize their country. Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world

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Following the end of the Industrialist Era and the emergence of countless technological advancements, the United States entered the world stage. The United States was attempting to create an empire by expanding to land outside of its own borders in order to benefit the country’s economic interests. Many citizens, whose views were greatly influenced by their understandings of national identity, saw this overseas expansion in conflicting ways. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these groups differed in their opinions on the idea of expansion due to either their wanting to remain a democratic country built on the ideals of freedom and liberty to preserve their sense of national identity, or their wanting to expand for economic reasons and nationalism. Imperialism, which is the extension of a country’s power and influence through expansion, began as early as the 17th century, when Britain colonized the New World in order to expand economically and gain natural resources for manufacturing.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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