America’s Expansion

American expansion overseas was extremely powerful, with the American Eagles wings spreading across the world. But compared to the 19th century, America was still isolationist until the 20th century. In the 19th century with George Washington’s Farewell Address, he advised the nation to stay clear of the overseas and remain isolations. What he didn’t account for was the strength the country was going to gain with its booming economy to have the opportunity to be able to expand. But the country was still much divided with racism and prejudice, and to avoid this problem, America made an excuse to help others to show that they were good people (Weible, Lemak, & Noble, 2014). This hopefully would also bring the country together and unify, although different to expand our empire. For example, the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 allowed America to achieve its “second manifest destiny” by fully covering the west of the United States. As a result, America looked to expand elsewhere.

Asking whether or not American expansion was justified is a very controversial question, especially among people today. The United States greatly benefited economically by expanding overseas, but it was at the expense of other people’s lives. American expansion was crucial in keeping the country alive, but it wasn’t morally justified. The idea of Manifest Destiny—having the God-given right to expand the nation—started by wanting to expand from the east to the west coast of North America. However, in the late nineteenth century, some politicians were looking at going beyond the continental borders of our nation. At the time, depression was consuming the United States, better known as the Panic of 1893 (John Paul Caltabiano, 2016). Imperialism would exploit resources from surrounding countries, give America access to their ports and materials in other countries for refuelling their ships, and give us the ability to expand our military.

Having colonies such as Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines were vital to the United States up until the Panama Canal was built (Laplante, 2016). The Philippines especially helped with trade as they were a stepping stone to China; they produced a base of operations that made it easier for the United States to monitor China and that is where America was able to finally succeed in ending our depression and boosting our economy, trade, and military. These things were all beneficial to our country: it saved us from furthering a devastating depression, it prevented other European countries from becoming more successful than us, and it kept our country thriving and alive. The harsh decisions America made by forcing countries to cooperate with our needs is what I believe was morally wrong (John Paul Caltabiano, 2016). While it was necessary for expanding our country and keeping our trade open, there could’ve been better ways to negotiate with Cuba, the Philippines, and Hawaii.

1898, Spanish-American War and the setting up of American Industry in Cuba, crush the Spaniard navy with Great white fleets. This war was needed for the country to unite with its racial prejudices, especially after the Civil War, to unify as one. This war showed off America’s naval power, giving them the confidence to take on the rest of the world. Now they were in a power struggle with Japan, of who could seize China (Laplante, 2016). The Japanese thought like Americans, they were the Big sister of the Asian countries. But Americans thought they were the Big sister of the world. Taking a slice of China, the U.S. raped and plundered of China’s wealth and natural resources, which lead to The Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Now with all the huge power struggles across the world from Japan, to Britain, to France, Spain, Germany, and the U.S., who would be the most powerful, there was only one way to settle this: a world war.

Calloway (2016), with anti-imperialist views, states that Americans were greedy, barbaric and had a growing need for natural resources to fuel their economy and social reform was needed. The abundance of natural resources in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Hawaii, which America annexed many to become American propriety. Americans had now adopted a policy of imperialism, of which was very hypocritical because of how notorious Britain was for imperialism. This would make perfect sense that Teddy drove most of the overseas expansion for he was an outdoorsman, loved to explore, and was fearless, showing that he was a rough rider. He did what he thought was best for the country.

Calloway (2016) highlighted that in America moved into the Philippines to silence the little brown people as they were not fit to rule their own country. They were savages and unfit to become citizens. Very similar to the Native Americans, Americans took their resources and tried to Christianize them to take away their culture. Panama Canal gave America lots of power in the world to gain more money for its economy, and the U.S. wanted to avoid going around South America and ensure less time for U.S. Naval ships to travel and protect U.S. possessions around the world. But they had to fight the Colombians to give Panama their independence (John Paul Caltabiano, 2016). Soon America firmly established the “Banana Republics” along with the American industry in Latin America issuing out Big Sister Policy. The United States had now grown out of its kid stage of being afraid. America was now full-grown and could protect like Britain had done the United States before 1776.

Some things made American expansion overseas seem justified, but it was morally unjustified. Not only were Americans trying to find ways to better their country, but European nations such as Spain, England, and Germany were also on this mission to expand their power as well; this made America make some quick decisions in the competition for power (Laplante, 2016). America was in a state of an economic depression that was very unhealthy for the people living in the United States at the time, and without that expansion overseas, where would America be now? America did have to make some decisions that were at the expense of others’ lives, and in no way is this morally justified, but America grew so vast in those decisions (Longyear, 2016). It wasn’t necessarily the influential leaders pushed the expansion into influencing people that it was okay, but it was more of the conditions that American citizens were living in at the time that influenced their opinion. If there was a way to strengthen the American economy and provide more materials that were exploited in other countries, most of the people would be more than happy to participate.

Conclusively, the United States had a mission to spread their ideas and beliefs in other countries, and that they wanted to stop other powerful countries from influencing those weaker countries first, I don’t see how Social Darwinism is a reasonable justification for expanding America overseas. I believe that expansion overseas was crucial for the survival of America, but in no way do I find it morally just. Social Darwinism especially made the control of other countries unjust, in my opinion. Specifying a race and calling it superior over all others and attempting to rid of the “less fit” gave no reason to control a country. One of the main points America had for imperialism that I find crucial is its mission to enhance our economy and get out of our depression. By signing a peace treaty with Spain, America was able to gain control over Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The access America had to these countries opened up ports that America could use to refuel ships to make trades and business with places like Japan and China. While I do see why people back then would agree with Social Darwinism, today we can look back and see all the flaws that made it an inaccurate way of describing people in the social world and justifying American expansion overseas.

References

Calloway, C. G. (2016). The world turned upside down : Indian voices from early America, a brief history with documents. Boston, Ma: Bedford/St Martin’s, Macmillan Learning.

John Paul Caltabiano. (2016, March 28). Battle Cry of the War Hawks. Retrieved December 4, 2019, from prezi.com website: https://prezi.com/oharsw5lu4aq/battle-cry-of-the-war-hawks/

Laplante, W. (2016). Tecumseh. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing.

Longyear, B. B. (2016). Manifest destiny. New York: Open Road Media.

Weible, R., Lemak, J. A., & Noble, A. (2014). An irrepressible conflict : the Empire State in the Civil War. Albany: State University Of New York Press.