'United States Imperialism\r'

'Imperialism is defined as the policy of extending a soils authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political mesh over some different nations; the notion of a globally stretching â€Å"American Empire” with such connotations was for the first-class honours degree fourth dimension make popular after the Spanish-American War of 1898 with the US annexation of the Philippines. Although previous US involutionism shargons many similarities with this â€Å" spic-and-span” age of have kittensing uponism, they overly diverged from one another in sev geological eral key vogues.\r\nThis vernal stage of American elaborationism took place through the latter part of the 19th century and the early twentieth century and was preferably analogous to the original or traditional oddball expansionism conducted by the US throughout its history work this clip period in several aspects. The first of which was the strong belief that draw outing was a destined employment supported by God.\r\nWhen the US first gained its liberty in 1776 span most of the east bank with the exception of Florida and extended merely minimally into the main defeat continent, more(prenominal)over by the late 1800s the nation stretched from the Atlantic oceanic to the pacific adding sassyborn states and territory and expanding across the melodic themel continent. This relatively quick and vast expansion was a result of the idea kn declare as straightfor state of ward Destiny, coined by columnist John O’Sullivan in 1845. The idea basically articulated that belief that the fall in States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.\r\nAs a result of such a belief the US government did everything within its power to make this evolution possible. This ranged from the buying of and making deals for territories from other abroad powers, alike(p) the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, to the taking of calcium and part of New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico after the US Victory in the Mexican American War. This suit of belief that violetism was a necessary duty held true up for the new age.\r\nThis was not exclusive to the US and was astray accepted throughout most of the colonizing European powers as hygienic. People at the time believed that God had made the â€Å"white race”; in the US exceptional emphasis was put on the Anglo Saxon race, supreme to all others as evidenced by their grander civilizations, numbers, wealth, and Christian beliefs. They saw these advantages as evidence that God cherished them to spread over the world imposing their conventionalism on other races and lesser civilizations of the worldly concern when inevitably the world’s supply of unoccupied res publica was depleted.\r\nThis was especially the view of missionary minded Americans such as Reverend Josiah Strong, who call ed for Christian missions spanning the entire globe; their ideas stemmed from the Social creed (Document B). The Social Gospel involved the use of Christian ideals to help deal with the problems of the time, many of which were caused by rapid indus running gameization. This entitled way of life of thinking again helped inspire the united States to expand as well as convincing its citizenry that such an expansion was rightful and meant to be, and again they did so because of these ideas and quite an successfully so.\r\nThe next ways in which the old and new ages were alike was in the treatment of the native peoples of the regions that the joined States expanded into. During both time periods US policy toward the people already residing in any plain newly acquired was biased and unreactive with little to no regard of the for the good or confides of the natives. During early American expansion the victims of such actions were nigh exclusively subjective Americans. As Americ ans pushed west they came into affair with a myriad of different tribes inhabiting different parts of the North American continent.\r\nThe US government and these Indian tribes began to clash with each other quickly and in brief what is widely seen as an unofficial extermination stir up began. This campaign carried on for decades until the US had spread a completely across the continent fight and weakening individual tribes until they submitted to US dominance. Even after this natural Americans were still treated unfairly, having to contend with horrific US anti-Indian legislation.\r\nFor Instance the Indian Removal Act, which took away Indian gain and forced onto plots of land mandated for them do busy in, cognize as reservations. The most famous of which was the trial of tears, during which the Cherokee people were forced to march the one jet mile distance from Georgia to Oklahoma beneath horrible conditions resulting in the deaths of 4,000 Cherokees. Another injustice toward the Indian peoples was their excluded from US citizenships and the rights and protections that come with it until 1924 with the passage of the Snyder Act.\r\nThe treatment of those in the territories and colonies of the join States during this time during the late 1800s and early 1900s in that they again like the Native Americans were subject to fierce phalanx action. This occurred shortly after Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for 20 million dollars. The Filipino people were under(a)(a) the mistaken assumption that after the withdrawal of Spain they would pay back their freedom, so as the US began to institute its conventionalism in the colony Filipinos revolt under the lead of Emilio Aguinaldo.\r\nThe US government responded not by reaching the Philippines its independence besides kind of by engaging in an armed conflict called by the American Anti-imperialist League, founded by Mark Twain in 1898, a â€Å"war of criminal aggression”. Altho ugh the US eventually won out due to far superior military might the process of doing so many Filipinos were walloping putting Filipino blood on American hands (Document D). Inhabitants of the new age US imperial holdings were just as their Native American counterparts of the erstwhile(prenominal) denied rights and privileges and citizens.\r\nIt was decided during this period that copulation would be tending(p) jurisdiction over US hostile colonies and territories and subdue over the civil rights and statuses of those in them. This resulted from the Supreme mash case Downes vs. Bidwell, where a Puerto Rican exporter sued over the fact that he had to pay an import duties on his goods arguing that he was not technically importing them seeing as how Puerto Rico was a US territory. As Congress never saw fit to make grant such inhabitants of the â€Å"US Empire” they were not wedded rights under or protected by the formation as US citizens were (Document H).\r\nThis lack of rights for natives in these lands undefended the door to abuses and despotism from the United States government as well as other entities for instance fine-looking business, trying to serve their own wishs and desires at any cost. The similarities between both states of US expansionism are represented both in its attitude toward its own expansion and in its handling of the living populaces in the areas acquired. The more recent imperial period reservoir in the late 1800s was also in numerous key facets a departure from previous US policies and preceding expansionism.\r\nTo begin there was a major(ip) difference in venue between the cardinal periods. During the early era US expansion was modified to the North American continent only paste out and making larger the already existing American nation to the surrounding area. This mostly consisted of watt extension toward the Pacific Ocean, and the settling largely rushy country side that was quite relatively precisely popul ated with only a number of Native American Indian tribes. However the latter era was a more global form of expansion.\r\n rather of having growth limited to the continent and immediate area the US began to obtain colonies and territories thousands of miles away in other parts of the world such as the Philippines, the only official colony, Puerto Rico, and Guam. According to the father of the modern US navy, Admiral Alfred T. Mahan the US had to start looking outer to distant territorial options due to the increasing contain for raw materials and other growing production needs, an expansionistic desire form the American public, and the geographic position of the nation between the Atlantic and Pacific (Document C).\r\nThe perceived need to keep up with the growing colonial possessions and thus wealth and power of the European nations was also a driving force behind this colonizing outward look. The US had fallen behind in this arena as memorialisen in works like Thomas Nast†™s â€Å"The World Plunderers”, which shows the dominant European nations of Germany, England, and Russia taking land off different regions of the globe. The US is not tho represented here among these powerful colonizing nations, serving to show how far behind the US was in that way and how it did not play as large or powerful role as these other countries (Document A).\r\nThese new colonial territories were not made up of under populated wilderness ready for settlement, but instead were populated and held developed native societies with their own customs duty that the US government had to deal with. This type of new era colonial style interaction is exemplified in events like the Filipino revolt against their American rulers for independence. non only did US expansion change fit more global, but US diplomatic expansionism foreign policy changed as well.\r\nDuring the initial time of expansionism the US foreign policy was focused on expansion through the gaining of land . While during the later time the US was still fixated on the attainment of land gains they began to also focus on expansion through the expansion of American sour throughout the world. During this time the US became somewhat less isolationist and introverted and looked to expand clientele with other nations and sway over other nations rather than real â€Å"colonial” control.\r\nThe goal of the United States was according to Senator Albert J Beveridge in the 1900 to use its colonial possession of the Philippines to control the Pacific Ocean, which he believed to be â€Å"the ocean of the commerce of the future”. This control over the Pacific would supposedly allow the US all-weather trade with Asia, making it â€Å"the power that rules the world” (Document E). This idea in practice resulted in the institution of the heart-to-heart door policy. This policy nvolved the forceful persuasion of chinaware by the United States to engage in traffic with the US an d other European powers. To keep from fighting between these powers separate â€Å"spheres of influence” were set up for each colonial power in which they could trade and conduct business as they pleased. This policy worked well making the US arguably the largest and most big foreign power in the region as shown by the political cartoon â€Å"American slightness” (Document G).\r\nThe United States also opened up japan to trade with the Commodore Perry’s expedition to the nation in 1853. These types of influence foreign diplomacy were not only employed by the US in the Pacific but in the Latin America as well with particular regard to Central America. This was known as the Roosevelt Corollary, President Roosevelt’s interpretation of the Monroe principle that required the US to interfere in the personal business of countries affected by wrongdoing and or impotence of the Western Hemisphere not for land but for the â€Å"welfare” of such countrie s (Document F).\r\nThe Platt Amendment helped to support and legitimized the Corollary by guarantying US participation in Cuban dealings, both foreign and domestic and appeared to be at the time quite a success. The practice of dollar diplomacy took US influence over the Latin American to a new level by using both political and military authority to respectableguard US citizens’ investments in the regions. This was used when President Taft sent US marines into Nicaragua in 1912 in order to keep safe American business interests.\r\nSuch policies served to expand American control through increase in substantiating influence instead of an increase in land and colonization. The variances between the old and new ways of expansion manifest themselves primarily in the change from Continental territory gains to globally and the shift from a comical expansion attention on land to a attention on influence based expansion. United States expansionism has undergone changes throughout t he years and at the same time stayed constant in many respects.\r\nExpansionism from the late 19th century and the early twentieth century was a continuation of past expansionism in that the religious and transcendence driven attitude toward expansionism and the treatment of those already occupying the colonise areas remained the same. However it was a departure from previous expansionism because of its more global connotations and its focus on diplomatic influence as opposed to land. It is evident that regardless of their particular differences the old era of US expansion and the new era are their own distinct entities.\r\n'