The social reaction to expansionism continued throughout both movements because the opposing sides of each argument disagreed on completely different topics. Many during the time of Imperialism believed America was destined to expand due to the believed superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race (Doc 1), and was justified in expanding due to the fact that America would spread democracy and that they were required to expand because it was the “White Man’s Burden” (Doc 1-POV). This is also true for Manifest Destiny, which was built on the idea that God ordained the western hemisphere for Americans. The annexation of Texas and Hawaii were both conducted under expansionist philosophies. American Texans expressed their desire to become a part of the …show more content…
This sentiment continued far into the late 19th century during the annexation of Hawaii. Many American businessmen and entrepreneurs had emigrated to Hawaii, making them important to Hawaiian society. Their ties with the American economy made annexation beneficial to the United States. These ideas of American expansion continues throughout the course of American history. However, opposition to expansion also continued throughout the period of expansion. For example, Americans opposed the Mexican-American war on the grounds that the annexation of Texas was not worth waging war, and that the desire for Texas to become a state was rooted in slavery. These types of disagreements were continued well into the 19th century when anti-Imperialist movements fought against Imperialists, arguing that international expansion goes against fundamental American ideology (Doc 3) and they attempted to preach their ideas to common Americans and legislators, denouncing Imperialism as unconstitutional and in violation of American birth rights (Doc 3-Intended Audience.) The continuity of expansionist ideas continued due to the belief of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race due to global expansion of European countries. However, the disagreements over the justification of expansion continued due to the fact that the majority of American expansion within the periods of Manifest Destiny and Imperialism was inspired by individual interest and economic gain
The Hawaiians however did not favor for there to be an annexation and it was therefore not carried out. Later on, when President McKinley had entered the white house, he called for the immediate annexation of Hawaii. One of the main reasons to annex Hawaii was to have there be naval bases on it so the US could have a port near the Philippines during the Spanish-American war. With this new territory, the United States had expanded
Puritan utopianism influenced western expansion by expressing the idea that god wants them to move west. They believed that it was gods will for them to move west in order to influence and teach the infidels how to live a righteous life. Revolutionary republicanism influenced westward expansion with the attitude that liberty and freedom were essential. They believed that moving west would offer them more freedom from government rule (145).
Many Americans thought occupying foreign countries, like the Philippines after the Spanish American War, was a bad idea because it contradicts the American values of equality found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (Doc D) However, a majority of America sided with people like Senator Albert J. Beveridge who believed people were chosen by God to expand into China and the Philippines to open more Asian markets. (Doc E) This was a continuation of past expansionism because acquiring land for money Manifest Destiny have been motives for expansionism for
The United States was not interested in having people with different cultures, languages, and religions where an older generation of moralists thought it violate a core principle of republicanism, while a younger generation believed that the United States had a role to uplift backward societies. When the foreign policy changed after 1890, the US became an imperialist nation. After the United States bought Alaska from Russia the US quickly decided to look into overseas. Their plan was to take over other foreign lands and slowly gain an empire, and soon become a world power. The two major causes for US expansion after 1890 were for economic benefits and military control overseas.
And third, the United States were divinely ordained to accomplish these tasks" (Miller). Manifest Destiny was used to justify the annexation of Texas, the Mexican American War, and westward expansion through the Indian Removal Act. Americans believed that their values lined up with the right for them expand west by all means, such as acts of violence. With America rapidly multiplying in population, the need for more land to create homesteads and establishments was needed and could be solved by expanding west. By spreading colonies west, the United States was able to develop and prosper as a nation promoting its values, influences, and technology out
Throughout the early nineteenth century, the ideas of expansionism swept through the United States The belief in Manifest Destiny, that the United States was destined to spread across the continent of North America, gave reason behind the allocation of new territories and acceptance of new states. However, the debate over the legality of slavery in the national identity, made it difficult to adopt new areas into the control of the United States with ease. In the later portion of the nineteenth century, expansionism was mainly motivated by imperialism. The United States was determined to become a leading world power and the belief in the survival of the fittest, Social Darwinism and the idea of the “Gospel of Wealth”, the rich helping those
Several people thought differently about imperialism, and about how it would impact their rights, the reason behind the annexation, and the nation and if it was an appropriate policy to follow. In the 1800’s the economy had boomed and kept stable. The American people were content with the growing of their country. They were finding new lands and founding new cities throughout North America!
“Manifest Destiny,” written by John L. O’Sullivan, explains how expansion is needed for america and how it could better our nation. The painting “American Progress,”supports expansion by displaying what it looked like when the settlers moved in. The text, “Reporting to the President, September 23-December 31,1806,” by Stephen Ambrose, supports westward expansion by talking about how lewis and Clarke did good things to help westward expansion. What do you think about westward expansion?
Such ideologies are exhibited in John L. O’Sullivan’s, “Annexation”, through his use of “manifest destiny” where he aims to justify the annexation of Texas. “Manifest Destiny” is the cultural belief that the American settlers were consecrated to settle the continent of North America. Due to the ideologies created by transcendentalism and the frontier, American settlers believed that if they had not settled the west they would be “hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent” (O’Sullivan). Although the transcendentalist and frontier beliefs aimed to be divine, Spain and the Native Americans saw the westward expansion as a horrific
“Once we became an independent people it was as much a law of nature that this [control of all of North America] should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea” –John Quincy Adams (Henretta, p. 384). In the 1840s, Americans had a belief that God destined for them to expand their territory all the way westward to the Pacific Ocean. This idea was called Manifest Destiny. In the nineteenth century, Americans were recognized for coming together and building up one another for one cause: westward expansion.
The annexation of Texas occurred in the early 1800’s. American colonists were expanding into the Northern sector of the Rio Grande, which developed the need for Texas to become a part of the United States. In the South, the people supported the drive toward the annexation of Texas, but the Northerners opposed this idea. Texas was another slave state and the nature of their society did not appear appealing to the North.
Before the 20th century the United States was an isolationist nation but around the late 19th century America decided to convert into an imperialist power. They had numerous reasons to shift into being an imperialist nation. America didn’t want to begin imperializing to settle and live in the nations they were taking over, they already had America for that reason, they wanted to adopt these nations for what they had to offer, which was many things. America saw an opportunity to improving their nation and took it. Even if there were many causes for America to imperialize, three of them stood out the most.
And lastly the desire for a new frontier to settle in order to maintain America’s identity and prosperity. All three of the examples: economically, politically/military, and culturally can simply explain why and how America became an imperialist nation in the late
There were both positive and negative components of westward expansion from 1800 to 1875. By the late of 1800s, the land of the United States was mostly purchased. In seventy five years, the United States continuously expanded westward, which was encouraged by the idea of Manifest Destiny. New land in the United States led to more economic, social, and political opportunities. Gaining more land also led to disputes between the states and wars with other countries.
In being an anti-imperialist the worrisome is not that one opposes the idea of expansion of religion, commercial, and constitutional. It’s that with the annexing of these tropical islands would come to a result of the American system of self government would be that America might abandon this idea that makes America that nation it is to this point. Three reasons why the U.S should avoid imperialism is because it fails to follow that criteria of the constitution, could lead to tyrants like behavior, and could lead to conflict One argument that can’t be missed is the fact that the constitutions sets forth a principle that states “consent of the governed” after further research this means that to imperialize and annex other islands would violate