The Eagle Takes Flight

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"A new consciousness seems to have come upon us - the consciousness of strength - and with it a new appetite, the yearning to show our strength ... Ambition, interest, land hunger, pride, the mere joy of fighting, whatever it may be, we are animated by a new sensation. We are face to face with a strange destiny. The taste of Empire is in the mouth of the people even as the taste of blood in the jungle." (Editorial, Washington Post, 1898) Upon approaching turning of the page towards the 20th century in America, an empire would begin to materialize; a great power would come to fruition, and the eagle would display its impressive wingspan as it swooped downward to grasp destiny in its predatory talons. Perhaps America’s first true leap into imperialistic tendencies was a reactionary measure to peer pressure, as many other large “empires”, namely England, Spain, and Russia, had already been staking their cultural and economic claims into various global entities for quite some time. By 1870, Africa was mostly colonized by Belgium, Britain, France, and Germany; Central Asia, by Britain an...

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