American Imperialism in the late 1800s.

American imperialism in the late 1800's was a break in American foreign policy. America has always wanted to expand the country. In the 1880's, many people thought that America should join countries such as England and set up colonies overseas. Imperialism is when a bigger, stronger country wants to control other smaller and weaker territories.At that time, imperialism was a trend around the world. America became an imperialist nation because of economic reasons, militery interests,and cultural superiority.

Leaders of the economy said that expanding the country would increase the nations wealth. William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia. Everyone criticized him for it. They would call Alaska "Seward's Icebox", or they would call it, "Polar Bear Garden". As it turns out, the purchase of Alaska turned out to be a bargain for the country. After the purchase of Alaska, Seward looked for more territories to gain.

One of the territories he considered buying were the Hawaiian Islands. During the early 1800's, missionaries from the United States went to Hawaii to try to convert people to Christianity. Their descendents started sugar plantations. The planters conquered Hawaii's financial system by the late 1800's. The Queen thought that the planters had too much authority. So, she thought that she should try to limit their power. Meanwhile, in the United States, the trade laws were changed to support sugar grown completely in American states. The American planters that lived in Hawaii were upset that they had changed the law not to their advantage. In 1893 the planters rebelled. They overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and arranged their own regime. After that, they asked the States to annex them into the US. When the president at the time, which was President Benjamin Harrison, heard the planters demand he approved and sent the treaty to the Senate. But Grover Cleveland became the president before the Senate could act on the treaty. He withdrew the treaty because he thought