Dbq Essay On American Imperialism

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

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