Between the Civil War and the 1890s, Americans didn’t have much interest in expanding their territories. They withheld from territorial expansion because imperialism didn’t seem to align with America's republican foundation and ideas, and because America was simply not interested in getting individuals with a different culture, language, and religion. However, the younger generation thought that the U.S. had an obligation to restore and help societies that had not developed much. Around the 1890s, American perspective on expansion had shifted due, to some extent, to a European struggle for territory.
From 1870 to 1900, the European powers took millions of square miles of land in Africa and Asia. Millions of individuals were forced to undergo
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By the 1890s, the economy in the United States depended heavily on foreign trade. About 1/4 of the nation's farm products and ½ of its petroleum were sold to foreign countries. In 1883, the United States started to swap sailing ships made of wood with steel ones powered by oil or coal to become an important naval power. However, becoming a major naval power also depended upon obtaining naval bases and coaling stations. A change in perspective regarding the inconsistency of imperialism with the American republican ideas and a homogeneous culture with no differing cultures to be assimilated into our society altered concerning territorial expansion. This change signaled a shift in the United States’ global role. In the late 1800s, different belief also required increasing support: that the U.S. had an important religious assignment n to help "backward" individuals around the globe. Various Protestant religious denominations formed missions in Africa and Asia, and 500 in China by 1890. Soon after, American foreign policymakers began to show a particular aggressiveness that hadn’t been seen before. Throughout the late 1800s, America almost declared war against