American Imperialism: Late 19th And Early Twentieth Century

American Imperialism
Mrs. Dorinda L. Robinson
HIS 204
Professor Steven Brownson
March 29, 2009

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Introduction
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism, extending its political and economic influence around the globe. It was the age of imperialism, a pivotal era in the history of the United States. Imperialism is defined as the acquisition of control over the government and the economy of another nation, usually by conquest. (Davidson, et al., 2008, pp. G-4). As we will see, not everyone supported the interference in foreign affair by the United States and so in 1899 they founded the American Anti-Imperialist League in an attempt to stop what some
We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government”. It was very clear that they were opposed to the interference in other countries affairs. The United States adopted the policy of imperialism because they saw the potential to control foreign markets and earn vast amounts of money. They also wanted to be in control. “The speed and efficiency with which Europeans expanded prompted many Americans to argue for this European-style imperialism of conquest and possession”. (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff (2008) pp. 611). So in the struggle to obtain this imperialistic government, the United States tried to justify there actions by using long cherished values to tempt other cultures such as democracy, free enterprise and Protestant Christianity. They bribed other cultures with material
Take the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, on the orders of the British a small group of Anglo-Arab soldiers faced the Sudanese people who were armed with spears and musket rifles. The soldiers used machine guns and killed nearly 11,000 Sudanese people who were merely defending their home and rebelling against foreign control. The British only lost 48 soldiers that day. There is another passage in the platform that I myself find to be a true and earnest statement. It was made by President Lincoln and he said, “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism." "Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it.” How wonderfully profound this statement is and if government today would remember this great presidents’ statement, we might come to better understand that the