American Imperialism in the 19th

American Imperialism in the 19th Century American Imperialism 19th Century American imperialism of the 19th century has long been a controversial subject matter. Many people believe that America had other issues that it should have been tending to, like staying home and focusing on the issues of the American people; however, there were many others who believed that America would not be able to survive without having to employ imperialist policies; industrialism, they believed, depended on imperialism, which was, for the most part, true.

By the end of the nineteenth century, self-sufficient governments did not have autonomous futures. Empires controlled investments, international commerce, and they controlled loans; this means that every nation depended on another nation for something or other. World expansion was needed in order for America to thrive and self-sustain. Raw materials were needed -- for example, sugar cane came from the Caribbean and precious gems like diamonds from Africa, silk from India, among other materials elsewhere (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle and Stoff 2008).

America had to find resources in other areas of the world in order to keep up with industrial growth. Once countries -- such as the United States -- were dependent on industrialism, foreign trade was necessary to bring in money. The task was not an easy one as there were other world empires that had to do exactly the same thing in order to survive. Thus, it was a fight for who could get what and where.

Annexation became the way to take over other nations in order to get the raw materials needed to support industrialism. Military bases would set up along specific courses in the ocean in order to act as a deterrent to enemies as well as to defend nations from those who wanted to take over them. With so many bases out in the ocean and everyone having the same mission, there was no doubt that territory conflicts would arise (Davidson 2008).

This had been going on for hundreds of years -- and some nations (like Spain) had more experience at it. Imperialism, however, was a bit newer to America, and America was more than willing to learn. The United States was especially successful at imperialism. In less than 100 years it grew into a nation that took up a large majority of a continent. When the United States went south, there was then the idea to expand into the Caribbean (Davidson et al. 2008).

However, Spain was not going to be helpful or allowing of this; Spain would fight like it always had. America was, in a way, new to imperialism, as aforementioned. There had always been empires -- for example, the Roman Empire, one of the greatest in history -- using their power and force to take over territories, people, and cultures -- but America now had to stand up to other nations and become a worthy empire.

The Navy was a major part of the plan, preparing itself to take over whatever parts of the world the United States wanted. There were steam ships that were introduced and there were thousands of men who were ready to fight for their great nation (Davidson et al. 2008). Specific legislation helped American Imperialism -- specifically the Monroe Doctrine and the open-door notes of 1899-1900 (Davidson et al. 2008). The Monroe Doctrine basically threatened European powers to stay far away from America -- or else.

The open-door notes of 1899-1900 focused on the great need for equal commercial access to Asian Markets (2008). These pieces of legislation were used as a sort of declaration to all other world powers, warning them that American would do whatever it had to do in order to protect their interests. They were more than happy to go to war over any kind of defiance. The American people were split between support and disapproval of the military and its actions to defend the nation's interests at whatever costs.

Many did not have trouble, seeing America like the Spaniards, employing force if necessary when it came to expanding their territories. However, there were people who were against American Imperialism. Some believed that by expanding into islands, they were opening the door to people whom they viewed as lower in race and culture. America, at the time, had many who believed that Americans were superior in race and culture.

There were other issues at hand during this time -- tensions between other world powers, an volatile economy -- and some believed that by focusing on expansion, the nation was not facing the real problems that needed to be dealt with right at home. Anti-imperialist raged about what America was doing when America should be at home tending to the needs of its citizens. There were defenders of American Imperialism who would not have it, however.

They saw America as the greatest nation in the world and in order to keep that position, they needed to go out and conquer all the weaker countries (sort of a "Survival of the Fittest" attitude). By seeing themselves as superior in race, some became worried about what would happen when Americans came in contact with other substandard races. Some became fearful of interracial propagation and the weakening of American race and culture because of it.

Many Americans at the time believed fiercely in white supremacy, seeing themselves as the species at the top of all other species. Some Americans actually believed that God had given America a very special place in the world (Davidson et al. 2008) and thus came the term "Manifest Destiny." The American Anti-Imperialist League was founded in the United States in the summer of 1898 to battle the American annexation of the Philippines (Halsell 1997). The anti-imperialist disagreed wholly with this expansion because they thought that imperialism went against the philosophy of republicanism.

It was not because they that expansion was bad; when it came to commercial, religious or other humanitarian grounds, they actually believed that expansion was good. What they did believe was that annexation of backward tropical locations would mean that American was abandoning its American ideals -- the ideals that were expressed in the Declaration of Independence as well as in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The League was an older generation of Americans who were adamant about these American ideals; however, the League was not able.