Dbq Imperialism Essay

America's imperialistic tendencies reaches it’s peak in the late 19th century where things like cultural superiority, militarism, and the drive for markets all culminated in this time period. These imperialistic motives had the U.S dipping its hands into nations like Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii, and more. The effects of imperialism on these countries range from assimilation to revamped governments. The following documents all are evidence of what led America into the pursuit of imperialism. Militarism was another huge factor in the pursuit in imperialism. During the end of the 1800’s is when the U.S set out on it’s goal to become a global superpower. After seeing the treatment of Cubans by the Spanish and the sinking of an American

The Treaty of Paris gave America Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines for 20 million dollars. In Document B there’s an excerpt from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt in 1899, the president at the time was William McKinley. Roosevelt was critical of how McKinley had been going about business in foreign lands along with being too passive according to Roosevelt. Roosevelt believed that in order to hold our own as a country, we needed to expand if we were to have a say in future world conflicts. Other countries were also expanding along and if the U.S was to keep up, there was a need to stake claim in other lands. The lands that were annexed during this time were all located in foreign waters. It’s not much of a coincidence that the U.S wanted to control countries that were located in the there when looking at Document E. The book Influence Of Sea Power Upon History by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, speaks about how in the history of past battles always have a large portion of them take place in water. Using this article to analyze the U.S’s actions, we needed to have land in the waters in order for us to stand any chance in the future of world conflicts. This was also a chance to display the large naval power that Theodore Roosevelt had build up during his

Many Americans felt pity for those living abroad when news came speaking about the revolts and revolutions going on in countries like the Philippines and Cuba. For example, the Philippines and Cuba are shown as fighting and being rambunctious children in Document A and shown as though the U.S needed to get involved in order to stop the fighting. Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo is shown in a dunce cap for failing to learn properly from the teacher, Uncle Sam. The only two countries who submitted to the U.S without much resistance are Hawaii and Puerto Rico. In the cartoon they’re shown as exotically dressed women who seem ready to learn from the U.S about self government. In the end, we drastically changed their government systems to resemble something like the government system the U.S uses. The U.S also planted their own politicians in the government's placed in these islands. To many Americans, civilization had been brought to these out reaching lands. Document C highlights that feeling of superiority as Alvert J. Beveridge speaks of the Philippines having a bloody rule from which the U.S saved them from. He also talks about the U.S having a humane and civil government compared to the Philippines. He also declares that it’s the U.S’s duty to instill liberty in any land as we have to spread our civility. The U.S was also on the quest to bring their idea of civilization to these other countries. In