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American Imperialism

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The effects of the United States Imperialism
By Andrew Watterson
John Brown University
3/6/2013
American imperialism is believed to have truly begun in 1898 when America fought the Spanish in order to obtain Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The Spanish-American War was during the presidential administration of President McKinley. It was caused by the sinking of the U.S. battleship, USS Maine, in Havana harbor in 1898. War was declared and the United States won quickly. Under the treaty of the U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from Spain in return for $20 million. Later on President McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and vice president Theodore Roosevelt stepped up to fill his role as commander and chief. Now that the American army was a worldwide force to be reckoned with, and a headstrong, powerful leader was in control, the tone was set for an American empire to be formed. A glimpse into the newspaper articles of this era will help illuminate the thoughts of the American people’s thoughts of an empirical nation. In the all stages of the American empire, there have always been mixed feelings of the idea, that either it would be a commercial success and a glorious thing for the nation, where as others suggested that we were no better than the British empire that we broke away from.
“It is pointed out that such an empire would be the greatest the world has ever seen, and, the possessions that America has won from Spain during the present war, it would be a federation the equal in extent of even the mighty British empire.” As clearly seen in the previous quote, the benefits of an empire ruling over the recently acquired territories from the Spanish American War would be astronomical for our economy. With so much to gain from an empire, what protests could be pointed out to abandon such acquisitions?
“Against the

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