American Imperialism During The Gilded Age

509 Words3 Pages

Leading up American Imperialism was an era defined by change and monopolies. Prior to Imperialism was the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was an era dominated by monopolies and “Titans of Industry” like JP Morgan with banking, Andrew Carnegie with steel, Cornelius Vanderbulit with railroad, and John Rockerfller with oil. Each of these men dominated their industry eventually creating a monopoly over them, they did this with the process of vertical/horizontal integration where companies would buy out their competitors then eventually all steps of their production process. There were many developments in the age of Imperialism however the biggest was the American shift from Isolationism to Interventionism. Isolaisitm which America had practiced for most of their history was the policy of the US isolating itself from the world and not getting involved in foreign affairs. However during this time the US shifted to Interventionism. This was the policy of the US intervening in foreign affairs. This led to the US expanding westward but also into countries like the Philippines and Hawai’i. This leaves the era with a legacy of expansion and mistreatment on native peoples. …show more content…

People were attracted to the west as it represented a new chance at life and a chance to get rich. People first started to move out in 1849 with the california gold rush. Where people were trying to move to was largely already settled by Native Americans, this often led to them being kicked off their land. This eventually led to things like the Dawes Act of 1887. This act broke up Native tribes and kicked them off their land and be moved to reservations where the land was often terrible and with very little wildlife. This destroyed American and Native American relations as the Natives were very upset that the Government forced them off of their land to make way for things like mines and