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Effects Of The Frontier On American Imperialism

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Dr. Magee
From Relative Isolation to Global Involvement At the time of the Spanish American War the United States went from relative isolation to increased global involvement because of 1. The spirit of the American people captured by the idea of the frontier and, 2. The belief it was the duty of America to maintain peace of all nations. The consequences of this increased global involvement on American Society was 3. The clashing views of the imperialist and anti-imperialist parties. America first took a step towards greater world involvement due to 1. The effects of the frontier on the American spirit. In 1893 Fredrick Jackson Turner delivered the idea of "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," to a gathering of …show more content…

Americans quickly fell in love with the ideas that they had set in place and started to form imperialistic ideals that it should begin to expand its commercial interests elsewhere into the world. As American enjoyed continued expansion and development it was then led to greater world involvement due to 2. The belief that it was the duty of the American people to maintain peace in the world. As time progresses from the days of Washington's presidency to the time of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency we see an important shift in the foreign policy of the United States. In Washington's Farewell Address he warned of the involvement in foreign affairs stating, "...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification."3 This was the common thought of the time and it was once again exemplified in the Monroe Doctrine during President Monroe's annual message to the Congress in 1823. " In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so."4 These thoughts of remaining neutral

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