Spanish American War Imperialism Essay

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Between the years of 1867 and 1900, America adopted the ideas of expansionism and imperialism. Expansionism is the territorial expansion of a nation. Imperialism is the extending rule over foreign countries. The purchase of Alaska, the annexation of Hawaii, and the Spanish-American war were causes of these new ideas for the United States. The purchase of Alaska was known as Seward’s Folly because people couldn’t see the value in it. William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars on March 30, 1867. The purchase was widely criticized, until the discovery of gold and oil was made. With the purchase of Alaska, the United States wrongfully claimed a strip of land on the west coast of British ruled Canada. This strip of land connected …show more content…

Queen Liliuokalani believed the root of Hawaii’s problems was interference from foreign countries (Hawaiian Annexation, 11/9/16). So, she passed the McKinley Tariff that put a tax on all foreign investments. The planters staged a rebellion and overthrew the Queen and set up a “puppet” government ran by Sanford Dole. President Cleveland didn’t agree with the annexation of Hawaii, so he tried to reverse the incident. Dole delayed the reversal until the election of William McKinley in 1898. The Spanish American War was a major incident during America’s expansion and imperialism period. The war was caused from many falsities and publications that were exaggerated. Hearst published the explosion that destroyed the U.S.S. Maine, the “De Lome Letter” which insulted president McKinley, and pictures of Spain’s treatment towards the Cuban people in American newspapers. Americans then felt sympathy for the Cubans and anger towards the Spanish and wanted the United States government to get involved. Commodore Dewey wanted, close to the Philippines, for war to begin. During war, American forces destroyed the Spanish fleet at the battle in Manila Bay in 1898 (Spanish-American War,

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