19th Century Imperialism
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One of the earliest imperialism actions for America was when Christopher Columbus came to America, they fought with the natives killing many, took over their lands and forcing many into slavery. Although America was a new and young nation compared to the others it didnt take long for America to begin it move to become a mighty nation. In 1867 the purchase of Alaska started the progression of American imperialism.
Soon after America found them in the Spanish-American War which America found to be an easy war in fact it only took about four months to beat the Spanish, the result of this war resulted in The Treaty of Paris in 1898. Spain lost more than just a war they also lost Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico to America. America was also able to acquire the Philippines during this time, but only Puerto Rico is still part of the American territory today mainly because they have never chosen to declare their own independence.
There are many reason a nation fights for imperialism, however for America there where many reasons. Although the main reason was because America was always connected to the rest of the world and since America was an industrial power they found that they needed to expand the trade market where they could also begin to receive raw materials and overseas areas provided cheap labor which allowed for American goods to be made with a decreased cost. Imperialism just didnt benefit America it also helped the country America was annexing by allowing them to get a pass on the tariffs that America had. Not to mention that this also provided a perfect opportunity for America to instate their idea of democracy to these new territories. America had the belief that granting freedom and a form of independence it would put to rest the domestic unrest that was growing from the lack of growth from their country before annexing into America.
Also the acquiring of new territory allowed for new military bases overseas. The gaining of new land such as Alaska allowed new resources such as timber, and minerals and Hawaii allowed for a naval base and new territories.
This was a way they America was able to rationalize the imperialism, acquiring new land and also the ability to expand the military allowed America to gain world influence and become a super power. Yet there were also other reason why America took to imperialism besides the economic benefits, there was also the religious reasons. Religious groups would try to convert inhabitants from foreign land to Christianity; this was a reason for the discovery in 1850 of the perfect sugars that Hawaii, religious group took notice of the sugar while attempting to Christianize the people.
Although imperialism had many benefits for the American nation, yet not everyone agreed with it.
In the year of 1899 The American AntiImperialist League was founded, and according to Paul Halsall (Modern History Sourcebook) they were completely against the National Administration