European Imperialism In The 19th Century

At the turn of the 19th century, the concept of “new imperialism” first came onto the scene. Under the guise of this new term, Europeans began to wreak havoc on surrounding areas around them as they began their campaign to lay claim to, and bring their form of civilization to people that were otherwise considered to be something just short of savages. For varying motives, some of them being religious, some economic, and others based on Darwinism and racism, many European nations made moves into lands in Africa and Asia to get a piece of the proverbial pie for themselves. While the statement in the prompt mentions the United States’ reluctance in becoming involved in the “new imperialism” expansion, it is difficult to see any truth in this claim
during the movement. The main difference is that the European nations primarily focused on Asia and Africa for their expansion, but the motives and results were quite similar in the Pacific islands. The United States began to colonize some of the islands, starting with the Samoan islands, and would soon move on to claim the Hawaiian Islands, which was used as a naval station. The similarities between the European nations and the United states can be found in the fact that the U.S. was motivated by economic gain and religious reasons. When President McKinley said that there was an obligation “to educate the Filipinos and uplift and Christianize them,” he shed some light on the general attitude towards expansion by the American people. Rather than being viewed as cruel and thoughtless, it was seen as an obligation or a duty, something that simply had to be done. There is a tremendous amount of irony in the fact that a nation could claim to value freedom and liberty so much in one breath, but then turn around and take those very things from less powerful