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Dbq Essay On American Imperialism

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Republican? Democrat? During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it didn’t matter what political platform you were on, all that mattered was the U.S. expansion to new territories and whether or not the U.S. should have stayed within its boundaries. After the U.S. won the Spanish-American War, attention was placed on new countries, such as the Philippines, and the benefits, or downfalls, of American Imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force. Two main arguments, Imperialism or Anti-Imperialism, arose from the ashes of the war to spark new ideas on what the U.S. should be viewed as. On one side there are the pro-Imperialists who believe the United …show more content…

These are the Anti-Imperialists. The first of which is William Graham Sumner. Sumner is greatly against imperialism for the one sole reason, because it would show that the U.S. and Spain are not that different. He says, “What is that (use of force to extort foreign countries) but the policy of Spain to her dependencies?” (Document 2), and explains that the U.S. should not be abusing other countries to benefit the economy like how Spain does to its colonies. Sumner says this to point out the misdeeds that come from Imperialism. Next, a social reformer named Jane Addams expresses her take on Imperialism through her speech given in Chicago, “Then came the Spanish war… and again the moral issues are confused with exhibitions of brutality… The little children in the street played at war, … killing Spaniards. The humane instinct… gives away, and the barbaric instinct asserts itself.” (Document 4), which clearly shows that she against the Spanish-American War, and tells us the war brings cause to moral issues and primitive instincts. Addams gave this speech as a warning and a call back to reality, people really should not be uncovering new problems at the result of Imperialism. Lastly, one of the most Anti-Imperialist men during this time, William Jennings Bryan. During his campaign for presidency, Bryan delivered an amazing speech on the reason why America can not be influenced by Imperialism, “Imperialism is the policy of an empire. And an empire is a nation of different races, living under varying forms of government. A republic cannot be an empire, for a republic rests upon the theory that the government derive their powers from the consent of the governed and colonialism violates this theory.” (Document 6), here he explains in full that America by definition can not be an Imperialist country, for it goes against what America stands for in the first

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According to Teddy, imperialist concepts consisted of securing as many ports and colonies as was possible, to reinforce America as a world power in both military and trade areas. At the close of the short-lived Spanish-American War, the U.S. Government had a new problem on its hands. The powers, that be, could not agree on how to resolve serious issues involving newly acquired colonies. Supporters of imperialism wanted to keep the Philippines, under U.S. control,

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America in the Age of Imperialism, Document Set 11. President Theodore Roosevelt’s new foreign policy furthered progressive movements in the United States as it was riding off the successes of the Spanish American War. Corbett et al., p. 646). His contributions to the construction of the Panama Canal expanded foreign trade exponentially.

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If the 2016 U.S. presidential election has taught the world anything, it is that where the United States is concerned, so is the rest of the world. The U.S. has been, and continues be, seen as one of the most powerful countries in the entire world. Henceforth, a highly controversial discussion for debate would be over whether, when regarding American Imperialism, if it is positive or negative. When looking at it from an international standpoint, the era may not have been considered “humane”, so to speak. The U.S. had already been the most powerful country of this era.

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Teddy Roosevelt, an imperialist, condemned anyone who was against the takeover of the Philippines (doc5). Before becoming a president teddy Roosevelt saw the United States as a parent to the philippines. After becoming a president Roosevelt felt that the United States needs to be an international police. He recommended his ‘big stick’ policy. This included the Roosevelt corollary as suppose to the Monroe doctrine.

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Roosevelt gains criticism from the Congress and American people for his imperialist approach. Through his speech, he tries to convince the audience of his imperialist approach. His argument relating to it is quite weak and makes the argument less viable and credible. He believes that it is the role of developed nations to play role for “advancing the…civilization. This point deteriorates his argument as he tries to prove the people of developing nation less sensible.

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Rooted in American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States is different from other countries due to its mission to spread liberty and democracy, America acquired territories like the Philippines. Many Americans accepted the ideology of the white man’s burden; an important factor in the decision to rule, rather than liberate the Philippines after the country was taken from Spain after the Spanish-American War. One of America’s notable examples of American imperialism was the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 which became a state later in 1959. Imperialism greatly effected many nations throughout the late 1800s and 1900s. As countries fought for more power and influence, it became one of the main reasons for WWI in the early 1900s.

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Between the era of Mahan Beveridge, Schurz, and Bryan, there have been many outlooks and opinions about whether or not imperialism is good or bad; some similar, some different. One is the speech by Obama being similar to Bryan’s opinions in relations to them both believing that imperialism is pointless, and overall not a good decision since there can be other ways to solve the problems they may have for imperializing in the first place. They both saw the same effects that can come out of imperializing; the consequence being an unnecessary war that can be avoided in the first place. Webb’s is also similar to both Bryan and Obama’s opinion because he also believes that it is an unnecessary thing to do in order for us to get what we want. They

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There were other anti-imperialists, like Jane Addams, who believed that imperialism lead to militarism. Addams was one of the few people who actually argued that the Spanish-American War caused more problems at home because of how people started to openly hate Spaniards and wanted them dead. This was something that the United States could not stand for in the eyes of her. William Bryan Jennings argued and believed a similar idea to this (Doc. 6). In his beliefs, he thought that the government of the United States could not accurately represent the desires of both citizens and the foreigners equally.

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Gail Bederman from the university of Notre Dame claims that Theodore Roosevelt, who was the greatest supporter of the attack on Spain and Philippines, had it engineered by both race and gender. These two concepts made him perceive imperialism as being the next stage of growth in a healthy republic. To him, expansion and domination were necessary if America was to civilize the world. For people like Theodore Roosevelt, as the United States advanced, the democratic vision was also progressing (Bederman, 1996). Theodore Roosevelt, just elected to office in 1882, felt that he was very important and had many ambitions.

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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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Meeting of the Minds - American Expansionism: William Howard Taft Introduction William Howard Taft was a conservative Republican imperialist politician. He was a jurist, judge, Filipino governor, president, and later chief justice. He mostly supported imperialism to boost the American economy by using land and resources from colonies. However, he wasn’t too interested in in political or social aspects of imperialism as long as they didn’t interfere with his economic portion.

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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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