Internal pressure due to the end of expansionism caused the shift to imperialism. Before the Spanish-American war broke out, the United States had fully expanded westward, and met “the end of the frontier”. The population and demand for resources were growing, and there were no new lands to take. Labor skirmishes and populism grew, which show the effects of this internal pressure. Many began to see international expansion as the only way forward, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan expressed this in his 1890 work The Influence of Sea Power upon History. Mahan called for a large U.S. navy and the capture of key pacific islands. Businessmen supported imperialism because it would open new markets for their companies. This growing economic and social pressure would soon overflow, with the onset of the Spanish-American War. …show more content…
At the end of the war, America had gained the territories of Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. These new territories provided a release for the social and economic pressure that built up in the pre-war period. Businessmen saw these territories as new markets, where they could sell goods and harvest natural resources. Religious missionaries saw these new territories as a way to convert the inhabitants. Americans in favor of expansion were met with opposition by the Anti- Imperialist league. They argued that annexing territories violated the spirit of the constitution, and that unconstitutional behavior abroad would lead to unconstitutional behavior at home. Ultimately, this debate was won by the pro- Imperialist side, which would shape the foreign policy of the U.S. for the coming
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
The late1890s signaled an imperial expansion of the United States. After the victory of the Spanish American War and the Annexation of Hawaii, the U.S. had successfully expanded its borders overseas. Through the Treaty of Paris 1898, the United States acquired territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific. For example, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba were all obtained from the Treaty of Paris. That same year the U.S. also Annexed Hawaii into the Union. This massive expansion into the Caribbean and especially the Pacific created a political clash between Imperialist and Anti-Imperialist. During this time Anti-Imperialist and Hawaiian political leaders argued that the mistreatment of indigenous people was unethical. On the other hand, Imperialist like Albert Beveridge supported Imperialism. In Beveridge’s speech “The March of the Flag” (1898) he expressed imperialism was the Anglo-Saxon way, because it improved the prosperity of these islands and expanded American borders. Also, he stated that it’s America’s
Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the United States expanded its territory westward through purchase and annexation. At the end of the century, however, expansion became imperialism, as America acquired several territories overseas. This policy shift from expansionism to imperialism came about as a result of American's experience in the Spanish American War and the Congressional debates that followed the American victory.
At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other countries and foreign affairs; our immediate efforts were internal. Our goals that were of primary importance were setting up a democratic government and jump-starting a nation. The United States foreign policy up to and directly preceding the Civil War was mainly Isolationist. After the war, the government helped bring together a nation torn apart by war, helped improved our industrialization, and helped further populate our continent. We were isolationist in foreign affairs, while expanding domestically into the west and into the north through the purchase of Alaska. However, around 1890 the expansionism that had taken place was a far cry from what was about to happen. Expansionism is the nations practice or policy ...
This period of expansionism clearly demonstrates just how power hungry the United States was at this point in its history. One could say that this thirst for international power, and perceived need to exercise such power, directly led to World War One in the
Throughout the course of history, nations have invested time and manpower into the colonizing and modernizing of more rural governments. Imperialism has spread across the globe, from the British East India Company to France’s occupation of Northern Africa. After their founding in 1776, the United States of America largely stayed out of this trend until The Spanish-American War of 1898. Following the war, the annexation and colonization of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines ultimately set a precedent for a foreign policy of U.S. imperialism.
The late 1800’s was a watershed moment for the United States, during which time the Industrial Revolution and the desire for expansion brought about through Manifest Destiny, began to run parallel. Following the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States found itself with a wealth of new territory ceded to it from the dying Spanish empire. The issue of what to do with these new lands became a source of debate all the way up to the U.S. Congress. Men like Albert J. Beveridge, a Senator from Indiana, advocated the annexation, but not necessarily the incorporation of these new l...
From western expansion to foreign imperialism the United States has always been an expansionist country. Early America’s focus was to conquer the natives and obtain western land within North America, but in the latter of America’s history, specifically in the nineteenth and twentieth century, foreign imperialism became the new focus. America’s activity in foreign imperialism was a continuation and departure of the United States’ early expansionism. It was a continuation in terms of manifest destiny, the spread of Christianity, and by the concept of “the city on a hill” and a departure in terms of foreign involvement.
United States expansionism in the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century is both a continuation and a departure of past United States expansionism. Expansionism in the United States has occurred for many reasons. Power (from land), religion, economics, and the ideas of imperialism and manifest destiny are just a few reasons why the U.S. decided to expand time and again throughout the course of its 231 year history. Expansionism has evolved throughout the years as the inhabitants of the country have progressed both socially (the Second Great Awakening, the women's suffrage movement, the populist party and the early 19th and 20th century social reformers) and economically (factories, better farms, more jobs, etc.) Expansion changed from non-interference policies to the democratic control of the government as the United States grew in both size and population. Through the use of the documents and events during two major-expansion time periods (1776-1880) and 1880-1914), I will display both the continuation and departure trends of United States expansionism.
...se having more land naturally meant having more space for the immigrants and new opportunities. When business expanded, it meant having more wealth for the business owner. After the annexation of Hawaii, the natural resources were enjoyed by both America and Hawaii. Despite the fact that Hawaii was annexed during the war with Spain as a strategic move, America took great care in the expansion of the island (Thurston 1897).
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that everyone else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom.
America obtained a pinpoint on the global map at the turn of the 19th century. The Spanish American war was a turning point in American history in that it changed the political, social, and economic aspects of society. Prior to the war, America was focused on itself as a nation and expanding nationally. However, at this period in time, the U.S. decided to expand beyond national borders and partake in the global market. By participating in this war, the U.S. was exposed to the concepts and practices of imperialism, yellow journalism, and jingoism. As demonstrated in Crucible of Empire, the Spanish American War altered American society by adopting imperialism, yellow journalism, and jingoism.
Imagine that you wake up in a tiny bedroom. You have to be very quiet because there are millions of people sleeping in the same building as you. Your apartment is so small that your room barely fits your bed in it and you have to get dressed while standing on your bed. Outside of your apartment you have to squeeze through halls till you get to the elevator. Since your apartment is on the 2067th floor you have to wait crammed in there with 15 other people until you get off of the elevator and walk onto the busiest street there is. The flow of people takes you right past the place you need to go because you couldn’t fight against the current. You keep walking trying to get back to that building, but it’s a lost cause. You no longer panic, because this has happened to you almost every day since you were born, and would likely happen the rest of your life too. This may
When North America was first being colonised in the early 17th century, the settlers made their home along the coasts of the ocean and the shores of the nearby rivers. Nevertheless, as the population kept growing, adventurers, trappers and many mores, started to move west, farther from waterways and from the Atlantic coast. Early westward expansion began… However, it is in the first half of the 19th century that the United Sates gained most of its lands, sometimes buying them to their original owners, sometimes simply stealing them (There were actually 13 cases of land annexation during this century). We can thus wonder why the USA needed to enlarge its country so dramatically and will therefore analyse the reasons of this territorial expansion. Though it is clear that a large number of political reasons actually led to the annexation of a few western territories, we will rather concentrate on other main points. First of all, territorial expansion can be explained starting from two main reasons: the explosive population growth and the "restless individual energy of the people" (D.E. Fehrenbacher, The Era of Expansion, 1800-1848,(1969),p2). (Indeed, the rag-to-riches myth was very present in the settlers' mind…). On the other hand, I believe that the desire of expansion was connected with military security, commercial reasons and with the growing sense of anxiety that Americans felt towards Great Britain. Finally, we have to bear in mind that...
As shown, America’s rapid change as the 19th century came to a close was supported by a variety of imperialistic beliefs, motives, and incidents that almost jumpstarted the U.S. onto the world stage. Many of these incidents, such as the public’s thirst for expansion, the annexation of several faraway lands, and the build-up of U.S. military forces, would not have been possible without the Spanish American War. Moreover, the Spanish American war would not have been possible without the American people. Imperialism was a consequence of the American Democratic experiment, giving the people what they want. . Works Cited http://www.course-notes.org/us_history/notes/the_american_pageant_14th_edition_textbook_notes/chapter_27_empire_and_expansion_18