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Why Was America Become An Empire Essay

1475 Words6 Pages

America emerged as an empire, and continues to be one, for a plethora of reasons. For this prompt, I have been asked to identify three reasons. I shall attempt to be succinct, although I anticipate overlap. My reasons are not chronological; all contribute at various levels are various times of the USA’s development. I shall explore America’s emergence as an empire chronologically, identifying the three reasons as they play their roles during the appropriate time periods. These reasons are: Success and luck in war, putting human rights second, and taking quick action to secure resources. One may debate the merit of discussing human rights violations before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their spread as a concept, but we cannot …show more content…

The Native Americans suffered from the American concept of manifest destiny. Manifest destiny was the idea that the West was waiting for eager Americans to come and tame it, as was not only our right, but our duty, our destiny. It was no doubt an arrogant concept, but an effective one. Throughout the 1800s, Native Americans were slaughtered, dispelled, coerced, or tricked out of their land, and relocated. Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1830 was one of the first major dominos to fall in a long series of systematic violations. The Act was essentially a landgrab, forcing multiple Native American tribes out of their homelands in the East so that Americans could farm the land. This legislation eventually led to tribes either fighting, and dying, or relocating. The relocation was a long and inhospitable journey, leading to many deaths. This journey is now known as the Trail of Tears. It is important to note that there was opposition to the removal; Davy Crockett was among those who fought against the legislation. Even men who took part in the relocation had reservations. The following quote came from a Georgian soldier who participated in the Civil War, and compared that experience with Native relocation: "I fought through the Civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew"

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