Preview

To What Extent Was Late Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century United States Expansionism a Continuation of Past United States Expansionism and to What Extent Was It a Departure?

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1187 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
To What Extent Was Late Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century United States Expansionism a Continuation of Past United States Expansionism and to What Extent Was It a Departure?
APUSH

To what extent was late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism a continuation of past United States expansionism and to what extent was it a departure?

Throughout the history of the United States, America had a desire to expand its boundaries. The United States acquired most of it's land during the nineteenth and early twentieth century with a brief break during the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, the way America went about graining new lands drastically changed from non-aggressive means in the beginning to extremely aggressive means towards the end. This essay will depict the extent to how late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism was a continuation of past United States expansionism, and, to an extent, a departure.
The two main ways of land gain for the United States were through expansionism and imperialism. These two means have several similarities between them. For instance, both of these policies led to conflicts. During expansionism, the main logic behind new statehood was to have the “upper edge” for free or slave states. Of course, this desire to gain as many free or slave states as possible led to conflicts such as Bleeding Kansas, where free and slave advocates flocked to Kansas in order to decide whether Kansas would allow or ban slavery. While the U.S. was imperializing, conflicts also took place rather frequently. In the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo led a two-year revolt against American forces in order to become free from American reign. Racism was also a key similarity between expansionism and imperialism.
When Americans began to establish states as they moved westward, they had no consideration for Native Americans and believed them to insignificant. The exact same idea occurred about one hundred years later, with “criminal aggression”, which took place in the Philippines. The American Anti-Imperialist League argued that the blood of the Filipinos was on

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jane McManus Storm Cazneau was a shadowy figure on the margins of United States foreign policy in the mid-nineteenth century. A journalist for expansionist publications such as the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, she deserves a place in the pantheon of the "Young Americans" (p. 96) who pushed for a U.S. commercial empire. But how big a place? Linda Hudson would like us to believe a very big place indeed, yet the evidence remains fragmentary.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1994 Dbq Outline

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Thesis: American expansionism in the late 19th century and early 20th century was, to a large extent, a continuation of past United States expansionism, while also departing with previous expansionism in…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manifest Destiny Summary

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    During the mid-nineteenth century, a number of U.S. business leaders attempted to take expansion into the region into their own hands by financing unauthorized military interventions, known as “filibusters,” in countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua with the hope of overthrowing the government and expanding the United States. Although the federal government refused to recognize such unauthorized expeditions as legitimate, it did invoke the expansionist doctrine in the buildup to the Spanish-American War (1898), which resulted in the United States taking possession of a number of Spanish territories in the Caribbean. By the close of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny had led to the U.S. acquisition of the outlying territories of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Midway Islands, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Wake Island, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Western expansion is one of the defining moments in United States history. The country grew tremendously and the country became the powerhouse it is today. Another moment that is more debatable was the Monroe Doctrine. In 1823, President Monroe published a document that outlined American policy on European involvement in North America. It stated that any foreign interference on the continent would be taken as a threat to American democracy. Some historians claim that the Monroe Doctrine opened the door for expansion, but that is clearly not true. Western expansion and American foreign policy were not affected by the Monroe Doctrine; the movement was already gaining ground and only grew as manifest destiny gained ground.…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1800s, the federal government promoted westward expansion in a variety of ways. This expansions changed the shape and character of the country. The United states first started with very small property back then they were call the 13 colonies which to begin with was not as strong as it is today, if anything it was a lot weaker and had little to rely on. Through time it was able to make it ways into gaining more territory. You may ask how they did they do this? since the president can’t actually buy land because it’s not for sale. To be honest and precise it wasn’t all easy for the United States to expand from its original 13 colonies to todays 50 states…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With the opening of the 19th century, new opportunities emerged for the new Republic of the United States and her peoples. Newly independent, the Americans were eager to expand the country's boundaries. The country was surrounded by colonial nations and native tribes, very much different from their style of republic. The Louisiana Purchase was the most important land acquisition in the history of the United States, as it led to exploration, international incidents, and America’s climb to a global superpower.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the early-mid part of the 19th century (mainly 1820-1860) Americans objected many things they didn’t like. Taxes, the government, even presidents were some of the rejections of the people. But the one thing the people did not like during this time period was the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. “The opponents of the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War attacked slavery as the root cause for expansion.” However, slavery was not the only reason America sought for expansion. Other than slavery, people wanted to expand America because they believed in Manifest Destiny (an idea during the 19th century in which people believed that America should expand over the entirety of North America) or because they feared that Texas was an independent state, even the Gold Rush in California (1848-1855) contributed to the expansion of America. Even though “the opponents of the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War attacked slavery as the root cause of expansion” the idea of Manifest Destiny, fear, and the Gold Rush were other important causes for expansion.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the country to protect its valuable territory, it must build itself from within. By protecting itself, they are keeping their chances of colonization high. The United States sought to obtain some of the new territory so that they may protect themselves not only economically but militarily. Alfred T. Mahan wrote text on how the United States should control many islands in the pacific so that they could be used as â??coaling stationsâ?�(doc C). They saw this strategy as an advantage in battle tactics in case of war. Many economic benefits came with the new territory. The new islands such as Guam and Hawaii were merely an earlier idea on a larger scale. In the early nineteenth-century, the idea of Manifest Destiny caused a large migration to the western half of the country. The thought that new benefits for boosting the economy would come from the new fertile lands. They would also have control of two oceans; a key to economic prosperity. This expansionism and craving to gain the benefitsof new lands to protect their military and economic interests was merely a rise to power that they knew they deserved; this has always been a primary factor in the ideals of the United States.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the late 1800s America was beginning to expand its territory overseas. With booming increase in wealth and industrialism, America was prepared to take on new challenges outside its boundaries. Manifest Destiny and American Imperialism both had differences and similarities in which led to American expansion overseas, The overseas expansion began in 1898 with the Spanish American war. America used the explosion of Maine to ignite a war with Spain. As the Rough Riders eng Both of these were similar in the fact that they wanted to expand America.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During 1820-1860, the citizens of America undergo hatred for the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. It is said that slavery is “the root cause of expansion;” however, there’re more reasons into the expansion of America. Consequently, the Gold Rush, Texas becoming an independent state, and the Manifest Destiny contributed to America expanding.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the past fifty years, America has grown. Through the rapid economic expansion caused by industrialization, America has broadened her horizons and become a fully modern state. Now it’s time to take up “the white man’s burden” and imperialize. Converse to people’s view of conquest during the middle ages, today’s imperialization competition is no longer just a race for land. It’s a race for land AND resources. It is time that the US join this race. The US must engage in imperialization because there are simply too many benefits to be had from it.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Westward Expansion

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”) In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand.The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manifest Destiny Movement

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Although Americans perceived Manifest Destiny as a benevolent movement, it was in fact an aggressive imperialism pursued at the expense of others. Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to American expansionism in the 1840s.…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    when annexation was proposed. Indeed the Philippine insurrection against the U.S. was more costly in terms of money and American lives lost than had been the Spanish-American war. Nor was everyone in the U.S. in favor of Philippine annexation. Anti-imperialists claimed that the Philippines might involve us in a war in the Far East, and that forced annexation violated the traditional American belief in "government by the consent of the governed." American labor leaders joined in opposition to acquisition lest it lead to the introduction of cheap Philippine labor. American racism also rallied against acquiring…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays