19th and 20th Century Us Expansionism Compared to Past Expansionism

From the beginning of its time, America has held the desire to expand. Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States has a mission to spread its beliefs and culture, had held true since the formation of the country. Between 1776 and the start of the twentieth century, expansion had always been something on American’s minds. The only difference in each individual case was the place we sought and the time. Other than that, the reasons behind it were more or less very similar. Three main reasons led to annexation of new land and imperialistic dreams: the belief that we had a duty to spread our culture, the belief that it was a mission from God to spread Christianity, and finally, that we should take hold of any opportunities that pass us.

Before the late nineteenth and early twentieth century imperialistic movement, America focused mainly on expanding to the west. It began in the seventeenth century when the first white settlers wanted to look to the interior of the new land to get away from the civilized world. The land was unlike anything settlers had come across before. The image of the land was pure and unsettled. However, many tribes lived on them. Throughout the years the Indians had been pushed further and further west to get out of settler’s ways. They soon became a problem because they did not know whether they should grant them citizenship or not. In the mid 1800s severe fighting took place between the whites and the Indians. The Dawes Act in 1887, for example, took away much of what they knew and later they were forced to become assimilated into American culture or pushed aside into Indian reservations.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, expansionism was finished inside America and more focused on foreign lands. This was not only true with the United States, however (Document A). Other nations wanted pieces of other lands as well. This is true, for example, in the case of Samoa. Great Britain and Germany were interested in the islands as well as the United States. They came to the conclusion to share power over the land but came close to war, and soon only Germany and the US split it between them. It had become a race to take the land that was not taken already and that had weak leadership (document B). The theory of Survival of the fittest came into fruition and countries were fighting for hegemony of smaller lands.

Trade became a factor in the US fighting for lands. China was important to the country’s trade. Other countries were also trying to get their trade into China. In order to protect American trade, President McKinley stated that he wanted access to China but no special advantages there, a statement later turned into the Open Door Policy. It set rules that no countries were to interfere in others’ trades there, Chinese officials could collect tariffs, and the nations could not discriminate against each other in special rates. When the Boxer rebellion occurred, these nations agreed to the notes. America truly had the key to China and could control who traded in China (Document G). Two of the most important imperialistic moves the United States made had to do with Spain and the Philippines.