America's Feelings Toward Expansionism example essay topic

AP AM HISTORY DB 7 - (An A+ Essays Original Paper, written by Zoo Patrol) To what extent was the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth century United States expansionism a continuation of past United States expansionism and to what extent was it a departure? For almost 100 years since it's birth, U.S. foreign policy was based on expanding westward, protecting U.S. interests, and limiting foreign influence in the Americas. However after the development of a huge industrial economy, U.S. started to focus on the rest of the world. This happened because it needed worldwide markets for it's agricultural and industrial surpluses, as well as raw materials for manufacturing. However it was also fueled by a feeling of imperialism that few Americans had before 1890's. A good example of this new expansionism was a concept called International Darwinism.

Many people accepted the theory that U.S. had to be the strongest and acquire other territories overseas. They extended the idea of Manifest Destiny to the rest of the world. Josiah Strong wrote "The Anglo-Saxon race will be of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization... will spread itself over the earth". Many Americans were also afraid of competition from other nations. Britain, France, Germany, Russian, and even Japan were all "grabbing" and taking over weaker countries in Africa and the Pacific Ocean. Some people in the U.S. believed that they too had to compete or it will fail to survive.

America's feelings toward expansionism were also changed by such books as The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. In this book, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that a country must have a strong navy in order to secure foreign markets and become a world power. Many people in America read the book, and embraced the idea that "America must look outward". Using arguments from Mahan's book, U.S. naval strategists persuaded Congress to finance the construction of steel ships and encouraged acquisition of overseas islands.

By 1900, the United States had the third largest navy in the world. Another good example of this is the Spanish-American War. The Caribbean islands have been a target for American imperialists for a long time. However presidents Cleveland and McKinley did not wish to use military action abroad. Nevertheless, specific many events occurred that triggered the war against Spain.

Some of those were the revolt of Cuban nationalists, the sinking of battleship Maine, and the De Lome letter. However most pressure came from the public, which was influenced by exaggerated newspaper accounts of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. The first battles of the war took place in the Manila bay in the Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt sent a fleet to the Philippines, to show off the country's new navy. The Spanish fleet was quickly defeated, and U.S. troops captured the city of Manila. However the controversy over the Philippines lasted much longer then the war.

Imperialists wanted to annex the islands, however anti-imperialists opposed it. They argued that by "slaughtering Filipinos" the United States betrayed it's people and did not care about the Constitution. However others, like Senator Albert J. Beveridge said that America must not "abandon our opportunity in the Orient" and that "it must move forward". Following the war, U.S. again demonstrated it's new feeling of imperialism during the Insular Cases.

These cases were concerned with whether the Philippine people should be granted constitutional rights. The Supreme Court ruled that the United States had "not only the power to govern such a territory, but to prescribe upon what term the United States will receive it's inhabitants, and what their status shall be". This meant that constitutional rights were not automatically extended to territorial possessions. The U.S. also had an "Open Door" policy in China. John Hay, McKinley's secretary of state argued that the Chinese empire, weakened by political corruption and failed to modernize, would soon be taken over by another world power. To prevent the U.S. from loosing influence in China, Hay proposed an Open Door policy toward China to nations with spheres of influence there.

This policy said that all countries would have equal trading privileges in China. The world powers did not really agree with the policy, however they had no choice but to accept it. After the civil war America was indifferent to the outside world. However it's foreign policy changed drastically after the 1880's. Unlike the expansionism which occurred before in the history of the United States, many people now had more imperialistic feelings. The Americans still agreed with the old principal of Manifest Destiny, however now they have extended it to the rest of the world.