Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Rise of american imperialism
Us history imperialism
Brief essay on american imperialism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Rise of american imperialism
The Rise of American Imperialism
The idea of American Imperialism had both its advocates and its critics. One only needs to look at a map to see which side won. America has greatly expanded since its own phase as a colony of the greatest European Empire of the time. America became her own Empire through the accusation of vast territories through many different mean. "Sometimes she purchases the mighty morsel, sometimes she forms it … by the natural increase of her own people, sometimes she "annexes," and sometimes she conquers it ("Manifest")."
The rise of American Empire received support because in many ways it seemed a proper product of past American history and tradition (Healy 47). Several American ideals -- such as: expansionism, progress, mission, and racial inequality -- were some of the main assumptions held of imperialism (Healy 34). The idea of Manifest Destiny had been with Americans long before the term was coined by John L O'Sullivan in 1845 (Sanford 26). American had been an expansionist nation since its earliest days (Brinkley 604). Americans saw themselves as expanding more than just political boundaries. They saw themselves as expanding the frontiers of freedom and carrying forward civilization and Christianity as their mission from God (Healy 35). Americans felt that their building of a new and better society in the heathen lands was the very embodiment of progress (Healy 37).
American's concept of their superiority over all other races did not just promote the idea of Empire but justified and mandated imperialism (Healy 39). "It would seem that the White race alone received the divine command, to subdue and replenish the earth! for it is the only race that has obeyed it -- the only one t...
... middle of paper ...
...Bibliography:
Works Cited
Benton, Thomas Hart. Speech on the Oregon Question: Delivered in the Senate of
the United States. Washington, D.C. May 22, 25, and 28, 1846.
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American
People. Volume II, Third Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Healy, David. US Expansionism: The Imperialist Urge in the 1890's. University
of Wisconsin Press: Madison, Wisconsin, 1970.
Malcolm, G. A. and Kalaw, M. M. "President McKinley Explains His Attitude
toward the Philippines, 1900." Philippine Government. Boston, 1932: 63.
"Manifest Destiny -- A Rendezvous for Rogues." The Annals of San Francisco.
New York, 1855.
McKinley and American Imperialism.
Sandford, Charles L. Problems in American History: Manifest Destiny and the
Imperialism Question. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: New York, 1974.
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.
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.
middle of paper ... ... I firmly believe that the betterment of one group of people is not worth the destruction of another. Works Cited Anderson, William L. Cherokee removal before and after. Athens: University of Georgia, 1991.
Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism explores the evidence and reasons for racial prejudices in America and discusses one of the most controversial topics in American history. The book also navigates the subjects of white superiority, and the creation of Anglo-Saxonism. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious and certain. Originally a political catch phrase of the 19th century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent.
John L. O’Sullivan, an editor, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” and gave the expansionist movement its name in 1845. The “Manifest Destiny” was the belief that Americans had the divine right to occupy North America. The Americans believed they were culturally and racially superior over other nations and other races such as the Native American Indians and Mexicans. The notion of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ was that the Americans were morally superior and therefore morally obligated to try to spread enlighten and civilization to the less civilized societies. According to World History Group, “The closest America came to making ‘Manifest Destiny’ an official policy was The Monroe Doctrine, adopted in 1823, it put European nations on notice that the U.S. would defend other nations of the Western Hemisphere from further colonization” (World History, 2015). This divine American mission caused Anglo-Saxon Americans to believe they had the natural right to move west and bring blessings of self-government and religion, more specifically-
While the US may have prided themselves in the fact that we didn’t practice imperialism or colonialism, and we weren’t an Empire country, the actions conquering land in our own country may seem to rebuff that claim. In the 19th century, the West was a synonym for the frontier, or edge of current settlement. Early on this was anything west of just about Mississippi, but beyond that is where the Indian tribes had been pushed to live, and promised land in Oklahoma after policies like Indian removal, and events like the Trail of Tears. Indian’s brief feeling of security and this promise were shattered when American’s believed it was their god given right, their Manifest Destiny, to conquer the West; they began to settle the land, and relatively quickly. And with this move, cam...
One common theme, which stretched the American spirit beyond its borders and into the soil of foreign territory during both old and new expansionism, is the belief that the U.S. was destined by providence, power, and its own intrinsic worth to expand beyond her boundaries. Senator Albert J. Beveridge revealed this mindset in his 1900 address to the 56th congress when he outlined his faith that God almighty had chosen the United States of America to act as keeper and leader in his volatile time in world politics. Having this belief that the United States was divinely appointed to be a superpower was of similar proportion to the desire of p...
Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared many similarities and differences to that of previous American expansionist ideals. In both cases of American expansionism, the Americans believed that we must expand our borders in order to keep the country running upright. Also, the Americans believed that the United States was the strongest of nations, and that they could take any land they pleased. This is shown in the "manifest destiny" of the 1840's and the "Darwinism" of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Apart from the similarities, there were also several differences that included the American attempt to stretch their empire across the seas and into other parts of the world.
After the civil war, United States took a turn that led them to solidify as the world power. From the late 1800s, as the US began to collect power through Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines, debate arose among historians about American imperialism and its behavior. Historians such as William A. Williams, Arthur Schlesinger, and Stephen Kinzer provides their own vision and how America ought to be through ideas centered around economics, power, and racial superiority.
One of the largest and most wealthy countries in the world, the United States of America, has gone through many changes in its long history. From winning its independence from Great Britain to present day, America has changed dramatically and continues to change. A term first coined in the 1840s, "Manifest Destiny" helped push America into the next century and make the country part of what it is today. The ideas behind Manifest Destiny played an important role in the development of the United States by allowing the territorial expansion of the 1800s. Without the expansion of the era, America would not have most of the western part of the country it does now.
Many Americans packed few belongings and headed west during the middle to the late nineteenth century. It was during this time period that the idea of manifest destiny became rooted in American customs and ideals. Manifest Destiny is the idea that supported and justified expansionist policies, it declared that expansion was both necessary and right. America’s expansionist attitudes were prominent during the debate over the territorial rights of the Oregon territory. America wanted to claim the Oregon territory as its own, but Great Britain would not allow that. Eventually the two nations came to an agreement and a compromise was reached, as seen in document B. The first major party of settlers that traveled to the west settled in Oregon.
WWII has a ripple effect across the globe causing changes both internationally and domestically. Internationally, The sun finally began to set over the British Empire with the majority of her majesties colonial possessions gaining independence in the years following the war. Britain’s stage left exit from its hegemonic role resulted in the start of a new “Great Game” between two burgeoning superpowers. A new world order began to take shape with the United States and USSR vying to establish their own hegemony.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Imperialism was a popular trend among the large, powerful countries. Imperialism is defined as “The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations”. Imperialism cannot be said as either good or bad, but as a general rule: If you live in an annexed country, imperialism is not good, if your country annexes smaller ones to gain profit, land, and respect, then imperialism is good. The United States was not much of an imperialistic country until we won the Spanish-American war. As a result of this war, we annexed Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.
One of the main reasons that encouraged America to pursue imperialism was competition. Many other nations such as France and Italy had already stabilized their bases in outside countries. Alfred Thayan, naval captain, was the one who persuaded Theodore Roosevelt into acquiring a wide variety of products and services that would help make the U.S. naval power even stronger. After much of his insisting the U.S. “had built eleven battleships, making its navy the third most powerful in the world…” (pg. 901). Manifest destiny, a belief that America was destined to enlarge its territory, was also a strong motivator. However this spiritual calling did have hints of racism, because the reasoning behind expanding became that because the white people were superior to all other races, they had the duty to duplicate their innate gifts in other places as well. Even universities were giving their approval on this supposedly researched “fact”. The spreading of religion (evangelism) motivated many of the church officials to also readily support this idea.
The idea of an American empire changed dramatically over the period between the 1790s and the 1850s. The drive of the American empire however, has remain constant over that same period of time. The motivation throughout this time was Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism. The changes over the idea of an American empire happened because of population growth, economic prosperity, and the thought expansion was gods will.