Thomas Nast: Westward Expansion Of The United States

The United States has always been a country of expansion; from the time when Colonists wanted to live past the Appalachian Mountains to the time when we expanded to Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribbean Islands. Throughout our time as an independent nation, our methods of expansion have both changed in drastic measure and followed the processes we used for Westward Expansion. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the expansion of the United States continued as it had in the past and evolved to be more efficient. As in the past, United States expansionism continued through motives of religion, questioning of constitutionality, and remained the same in the way we treated natives of our newly attained territories; however, United
The cartoon does not show the Americas nor an American “grab bag.” Those reasons show similarities to early expansion because the image depicts the other nations fighting over land and the US is not in the picture -- showing how we were concerned with only the land near or part of the Americas. However, it also shows the differences in expansionism because in the past the US was only involved in expanding in North America, but during the late nineteenth century the US was motivated by competition between other nations to expand in other parts of the world, such as in the Pacific Ocean. Representing expansionism driven by religion, Josiah Strong of the American Home Missionary Society wrote of the push for Americans to expand for purposes of religion. He wrote, “let us hope, of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization . . . will spread itself over the earth.” His words obviously show the common belief that the spread of governmental territory will also bring potential for religious expansion. As Europeans had attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity and Protestantism when first arriving, many US citizens attempted to convert the natives of Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines to these religions, too -- even though spreading religion was not the priority for expansion. This same passage also expresses the idea of spreading US power around the globe, “If I read not amiss, this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond.” In the past, the US has only dealt with territorial expansion in the lands most