Imperialism
His 204 American History Since 1865
Page 1
We’ve all had a moment where there was some form of displeasure with someone having “too much” control over the actions and abilities of another person. This can be as a friend seeing a friend in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship or even as a customer seeing how a manager treats their employees, at times. American Imperialism was essentially the same thing. Imperialism is practically the use of force or alternative means to maintain the expanded control over another group of people or at least their political and/economic means of life. In the 19th century, the United States was well known for its use of imperialism over a few countries and it was impressive how things were different in various cases.
The United States acquired the nations of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines form Spain in a trade to attempt to keep pace with the rest of the westernized nations of the world, or the European powers. Having to feel a need to still prove that the United States was just as strong as other nations, imperialism and colonialism were seen as passive was to establish the stability of the United States to the rest of the world. It seemed that most Americans during the 19th century were supportive of American Imperialism in order to show the strength of the United States as a new nations, but having control over three other nations would completely go against the Abraham Lincoln’s words of “[when] the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism” (Bancroft 2).
When the United States held more control over Cuba and Puerto Rico, various states were going through political changes over the endorsement or abolition of slavery, which only led to the Civil War that the United States dealt with, as well as the Great Depression (Bancroft 2). With the nations trying to resolve and confront...