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Essay on Imperialism in the Late 1800's and Early 1900's

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Imperialism Unit Essay

Imperialism is the policy of extending the role of authority of a nation over a foreign country, usually in material gain. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States went through an era of imperialism. At the time, the US was quite powerful, but was looking to continue to spread their territory, make themselves even stronger, and have multiple trade routes to have all the resources they needed and wanted. There were three major policies that the US used during this era. One policy is the Big Stick Diplomacy. The president at the time was Roosevelt and was striving to take control over other territories. His famous quote related to this policy is “Speak softly and carry the big stick”. What …show more content…

This would increase trade, which gives us more money, which gives up more power. Cuba is near Florida and we already had business associations with them. Also, the Spanish were trying to take over them. We were against the Spanish and we didn’t want them to expand so this lead to the Spanish- American War. This war also is fought over the Philippines. We ended up winning the war. We felt Cuba could expand and also maintain the business we already had. Also, if we go to when the Cold War was occurring, we were threatened that Cuba would join the USSR and become communists. The reason we wanted Panama was simply for the Panama Canal. We wanted the Panama Canal since it was a faster route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean so this would fasten the process of trade which means more business would be occurring so this would give us more wealth and power. Essentially, the US wanted to get more land so it would in the long run give them more power and money. We needed these policies to make us successful and the result is that we did become more expanded; we got more money, and more power due to these two previous things. I feel Imperialism was a success for the US for the reasons I just stated and feel it was an intelligent decision and action for our country. Even now, we are still somewhat Imperialistic considering we’ve spread our culture all over the world and help the poor. The only disadvantage is that now we pay too much attention to

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