American Imperialism in the 19th Essay

However, there were people who were against American Imperialism. Some believed that by expanding into islands, they were opening the door to people whom they viewed as lower in race and culture. America, at the time, had many who believed that Americans were superior in race and culture. There were other issues at hand during this time -- tensions between other world powers, an volatile economy -- and some believed that by focusing on expansion, the nation was not facing the real problems that needed to be dealt with right at home.

Anti-imperialist raged about what America was doing when America should be at home tending to the needs of its citizens. There were defenders of American Imperialism who would not have it, however. They saw America as the greatest nation in the world and in order to keep that position, they needed to go out and conquer all the weaker countries (sort of a "Survival of the Fittest" attitude). By seeing themselves as superior in race, some became worried about what would happen when Americans came in contact with other substandard races. Some became fearful of interracial propagation and the weakening of American race and culture because of it. Many Americans at the time believed fiercely in white supremacy, seeing themselves as the species at the top of all other species. Some Americans actually believed that God had given America a very special place in the world (Davidson et al. 2008) and thus came the term "Manifest Destiny."

The American Anti-Imperialist League was founded in the United States in the summer of 1898 to battle the American annexation of the Philippines (Halsell 1997). The anti-imperialist disagreed wholly with this expansion because they thought that imperialism went against the philosophy of republicanism. It was not because they that expansion was bad; when it came to commercial, religious or other humanitarian grounds, they actually believed that expansion was good. What they did believe was that annexation of backward tropical locations would mean that American was abandoning its American ideals -- the ideals that were expressed in the Declaration of Independence as well as in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.The League was an older generation of Americans who were adamant about these American ideals; however, the League was not able to survive in terms of public opinion. The 1900 election opened the pathway for Progressives to come into a position of power and they supported imperialism.

American imperialism was needed during the 19th century. It was the time of biggest growth for the United States and it was a new country, as well, so they needed to show that they were worthy of being their own empire. While some of the ways in which they expanded are not necessarily respected, they needed to find resources from different parts of the world in order to support their own economy. America was in a shaky position during the 1800s and they needed to get on the right foot in order to establish itself as a nation worthy of being independent (even though having to find resources from other areas isn't exactly considered independent…).

While some of the ways that America went about imperialism isn't necessary favorable, the world would be a very different place today for Americans had American imperialism not happened. Perhaps it would not have turned into a world superpower; perhaps America would have been conquered by other world powers. We cannot take back what has happened, but we can learn from American imperialism of that time. We can understand that the nation was doing what they needed in order to survive.

References:

Davidson, J.W., DeLay, B., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., & Stoff, M.B. (2008). Nation of nations, 6th edition: A narrative history of the American Republic. NY: McGraw-

Hill.

Halsall, P. (1997). American anti-imperialist, 1899. Modern History Sourcebook. Retrieved on September 5,….....