Why I D Roosevelt A Pro-Imperialist

Teddy was the 26th president of the U.S and was a energetic man. Because he grew up in the Gilded Age, he viewed commercial ideals as callous and wretched, and he brought these feelings with him into public life. While Roosevelt was president, he pushed executive powers to new limits, took on the captains of industry, and argued for greater government control over the economy. He pushed legislation to regulate railroads, pushed Congress to pass laws regulating food and drugs, pushed Congress to pass laws conserving land and forests, and pushed Congress to curb the actions of trusts, he believed, to be hurting the public. Believing that the best way to ensure safety was to have strong defenses, he built up the Navy and sailed it around the world.

Mahan, who was a pro-imperialist, to advise that the U.S expand as well. Imperialists, like Alfred, held the strong belief, that in order to obtain a powerful navy, the United States needed to procure ports all over the world. These leaders, also, believed these ports, would then, spur an increase in trade with other nations. Also, having many ports would ensure American ships, while sailing, safety all over the world. The U.S., having already expanded, by claiming Alaska and Hawaii as its possessions, as well as the belief that the Anglo-Saxons were the superior race and were responsible to spread Christianity and “civilization” to the world’s “inferior peoples” (The Americans Reconstruction To The 21st Century 344), caused many Americans to want to expand further. 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,