American Imperialism In The Late 19th Century

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the United States was transitioning into a new period of time. This new era brought about the ideas of American Imperialism by expanding both more power and American influence to other countries. This new change in foreign policy was mostly for economic gain. With American Imperialism, the U.S. wanted to extend their reach into other countries for raw materials and more markets. Multiples forces in play here by the U.S. included Navalism, white man’s burden, and Seward’s Folly, all which had to do with Americans expanding both their power and white culture. This turned out to be only the beginning of the soon to be American Imperialism, and the striving U.S. nature to go and achieve more. In the late 19th century, the U.S. had little to no Navy, and it was said that with no navay Imperialism would be unsuccessful. This notion led to the start of Navalism when Naval captain Alfred Thayer Mahan. Mahan published a book called, The influence of Sea Power Upon History. This book argued that everything good came from Naval power, and coined the term Navalism. This helped convince Congress to expand the Navy and from 1890 to 1900 the U.S. Navy went from being the 12th largest to the 3rd largest Navy in the world. This was just one step towards the change of foreign policy that would help

This culture included government, food, drink, and language. Americans believed that anyone who didn’t have comparable cultural standards were savages, and that they had to fix them and make them American. Another reason why Americans wanted to change the cultures in other countries related to foreign markets and factories which also played a role in the business reasons why the U.S. changed their foreign policy’s. Americans realized that foreign land was rich in materials and thus desirable. Alaska is an example of