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Pros And Cons Of Americanization

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America encroaches on the rest of the world with its aggressive expansion. Advocates of Americanization argue that this spread is to promote prosperity and a worldwide connection, and encourage more. They do not recognize the great abuse and damage it truly causes. Americanization is idealized as a beneficial way to modernize foreign countries, but in reality it is harmful and leads affected communities to instability. America’s rationale for expansion has always been for aid. The mass cultural destruction of countries has been justified with the insistence that Americans are “modernizing” these civilizations. Their actions in foreign countries is argued as fundamentally to refine. This is far from the truth. Americans are not looking out for the best interest of the people who are graciously opening up their countries. Stephen Kinzer outlines an example of these selfish, and oftentimes inhumane, practices in Cruel realities: The American conquest of Guam. In 1898, an American warship arrived at the coast of Guam, a small island in the Pacific Ocean. Its goal: seize the island and declare it American land. With only 10,000 inhabitants and few resources, America felt no need to put on a facade of friendliness for Guam. It was purely a strategic base for …show more content…

Keenan writes in Called to conscience: Americans must recognize their own capacity for evil that Americans are too quick to forgive America’s misdeeds, or simply do not acknowledge them at all. These flippant excusals are due to Americans presuming they have a “manifest destiny that exempts [them] from the standards that others must follow,” (Keenan, “Called to conscience: Americans must recognize their own capacity for evil”). Keenan strongly urges Americans to recognize the inhumanities caused by America. Once this is achieved, the nation will have a better conscience and be greater. In turn, the countries that have been impacted by Americanization, and the countries that inevitably will be, can

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