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American Imperialism Dbq Essay

1347 Words6 Pages

Throughout the early nineteenth century, the ideas of expansionism swept through the United States The belief in Manifest Destiny, that the United States was destined to spread across the continent of North America, gave reason behind the allocation of new territories and acceptance of new states. However, the debate over the legality of slavery in the national identity, made it difficult to adopt new areas into the control of the United States with ease. In the later portion of the nineteenth century, expansionism was mainly motivated by imperialism. The United States was determined to become a leading world power and the belief in the survival of the fittest, Social Darwinism and the idea of the “Gospel of Wealth”, the rich helping those …show more content…

The war brought conflicts to the national identity in that different types of people believed that it was in the United State’s best interest to stay out of or continue the fight in the Spanish American War. Theodore Roosevelt, the Governor of New York and strong supporter of both militarism and imperialism, explains the importance of the United States acquisition of the Philippines in his speech “The Strenuous Life”. He describes the Filipino people as incapable of providing a secure and democratic government so the intervention of the United States was entirely necessary (Document 5). This idea relates directly to the theme of the poem “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling, which urged the United States to colonize in the Philippines, as it was the duty of the American people to help struggling governments. Theodore supported the Spanish-American War, and even created a private military group known as the “rough riders”, unaffiliated directly with the United states, to personally fight in the war. In terms of one view of the national identity, aiding in the Philippines and fighting in the Spanish American War was needed to help fulfill the American mission of helping those who need guidance to be …show more content…

It is against the Declaration of Independence to inflict the democratic government on a group of people who do not have the wish to be governed, therefore denying the basic human right of liberty (Document 2).Sumner was a strong believer in Social Darwinism, which accredits his issues with helping the people of the Philippines adopt a democratic government. Mark Twain, great American author- thought that the United States should be given consent to govern by the governed, rather than placing unfamiliar customs on the Filipino people. There was also concern as to the spread of foreign expansion. The Philippines are geographically located a great distance away than any other territory acquired by the United States (Document 7). The location of the Philippines worried some because it had the potential to make the United States involved in affairs in the eastern hemisphere. This would contradict the isolationist statement of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and force more direct relations with other

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447 Words | 2 Pages

Toward the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the United States was becoming an increasingly powerful nation and world power. The country was competing with other nations also expanding. Their motives for expanding were to gain land and resources. While there was a slight departure from past expansionism, the United States mostly continued as it had been in the previous years. In order to accomplish expansionism, the United States needed to acquire foreign territories to increase their global presence.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

In “In Support of an American Empire” Albert Beveridge was a Senator who said that the United States should have the Philippines as one of their empires. He believed that the United States would benefit from the location of the country. The Philippines is located near China and other rich resources. China is one of our main consumers. It is also located in the Pacific, which he states is “our ocean.”

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1237 Words | 5 Pages

Emilio Aguinaldo is the name of this leader who was ruthless and when the United States didn’t grant or recognize this he declared war on the beloved country the United States. This sparked up many fiery discussions among senators. One such discussion was between George Hoar and Beveridge and “every word of which… [would] cost and… [would cost] the lives of American soldiers” (Doc. D). This discussion was arguing between whether or the Philippines was a United States territory and if it was in the construction or not. This territory was extremely important for the united states because it allowed the United States passage to all of the East.

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495 Words | 2 Pages

During the late eighteen hundreds a few decades after the civil war the United States had fallen into a great depression and was lacking resources and economical power. The need for economical growth was crucial. The united states needed to gain economical power so that we could trade with countries overseas and to show everyone how much power we really had. Social Darwinism started because countries were trying to gain more power this influenced the United States to try and gain more power than most other countries. But “All the united states wanted was for our neighboring countries to be stable, orderly and prosperous.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Industrial Revolution occurred in Africa and Asia. Industrialization was an improvement of technology and factories which led to the need for more materials such as textiles. The existence of factories took away job opportunities from people which forced them to work for the government. Colonial powers did not let anyone trade with anyone in Europe, meaning they were limited to Africa and Asia. Therefore, as materials became more requested, more hard unpaid labor was done in those areas.

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526 Words | 3 Pages

The expansion of America was desirable, creating a false duty to get rid of barbaric influence from asianic countries to expand America’s empire. After the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, Senator Albert Beveridge saw potential in recruiting the Philippines as US territory. He writes, “...The Philippines gives us a base at the door of all East”(Beveridge 1). He wanted to expand America's commercial trades with Asia, but in order to do so would need an ally near the east. Knowing that the Philippines had just come out of Spanish rule, Beveridge suggested in the letter that they were not capable of self-governing, and America's intervention would be needed.

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374 Words | 2 Pages

William McKinley in his thoughts on American Expansionism has identified the reasons why America had no other choice but to incorporate Philippines as a part of it. This writing has been lifted from the excerpts of an interview with William McKinley soon after Spain had surrendered in the Spanish-American war. McKinley cleverly talks in this interview about how Philippines just came and fell into the laps of America thereby suggesting the helpless stance of America. He talks about how America’s sole intention and purpose had only been to safeguard its own interests as a country. He had to order that the Spanish fleets in Manila be destroyed because if left unattended, they would have crossed the Pacific and wreaked havoc in the American states

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746 Words | 3 Pages

These anti-imperialists feared a lack of freedom for other races and for their own democracy. Many believed that the steps necessary to enforce government on foreign people was undemocratic and opposite to true American ideals. In doing so to the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, Americans were acting like the Spanish oppressors they fought to remove (doc 2). Although some considered the foreign subjects less civilized, they still considered moves like the Platt Amendment (which subordinated Cuba to the US for a time) as unfair. Progressive thinkers and reformers, like Jane Addams, also feared what might result at home (doc 4).

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437 Words | 2 Pages

Deciding the Annexation of the Philippines Assessment: On Google Docs you need to write a three paragraph essay arguing whether or not the United States should or should not annex the Philippines. You need to use 2 pieces of evidence from the documents per paragraph. Americans might have thought that all war and chaos would have ended and stayed in the year of 1898, when we (America) won over the Spanish, in the Spanish-American war. Although, we were partially right with allowing us to have some sort of peace, we did not figure that we may have to have annex a whole different country, taking away from our “peace”.

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392 Words | 2 Pages

Essay One: Imperialism Flies circle great black lumps as the moist air ravages the corpses. Dried blood soaked into the ground after faceless soldiers brutally destroyed its owners’ lives. These were the stories in the newspapers, the movies, and the films. Horrified by these crimes against humanity, the American public was spurred into action against the Spanish oppressors. the United States invaded Cuba in 1898 to pursue humanitarian efforts.

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393 Words | 2 Pages

In the beginning of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. had to decide how they would recognize their acquired land. The Philippines were showing some resistance to U.S. presence. Many politicians argued the Philippines only brought the U.S. problems and not benefits. Anti-imperialists, such as William Jennings Bryan, emphasized the irony of American’s believe of self-rule by trying to control another country(Doc 6). Yet, Theodore Roosevelt believed it was the U.S. responsibility to civilize and guide the Philippines to acquire a self-rule government of

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1178 Words | 5 Pages

The United States of the early 20th century was one with a booming economy and a hunger for power. They had expanded westward and were looking to continue to expand their territory across the seas, in order to assert their dominance as a global superpower among the powerful nations of the time. The poor relations between Cubans and their Spanish rulers eventually led to the Treaty of Paris, which is when Spain surrendered the Philippines to the United States. It was at this point that another major divide between the American people was created. Many Americans believed that attempting to gain power over as many territories as possible was a bad idea and one that went against what America was built on.

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468 Words | 2 Pages

In being an anti-imperialist the worrisome is not that one opposes the idea of expansion of religion, commercial, and constitutional. It’s that with the annexing of these tropical islands would come to a result of the American system of self government would be that America might abandon this idea that makes America that nation it is to this point. Three reasons why the U.S should avoid imperialism is because it fails to follow that criteria of the constitution, could lead to tyrants like behavior, and could lead to conflict One argument that can’t be missed is the fact that the constitutions sets forth a principle that states “consent of the governed” after further research this means that to imperialize and annex other islands would violate

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568 Words | 3 Pages

The United states was longing to annex,or take land into a country, California. One reason the Mexican War was justified

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1166 Words | 5 Pages

His poem at the superficial level shows an unwavering support for imperialism, In almost all interpretations, furthermore, the support for imperialism is obvious, although the fanaticism is seen more so as a warning to those who wished to commit imperialist acts. In terms of the poetry itself, White Man’s Burden consists of seven stanzas of eight lines with a traditional ABCBDEFE rhyme scheme which, although a simple format, was able to expound upon the topic without becoming overly confusing to the common reader. The goal of each stanza is to convince the reader as to why it is his goal to take up the white man’s burden and send the best of his country to civilize the dark recesses of the

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