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American Imperialism

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Imperialism can grow a nation into a world power and still respect different cultures. Americans viewed the growing nation as a “melting pot” mixing all cultures into the “American culture”, which was at the root, white-supremacy. Imperialism was executed poorly and if the expanding nation valued the nations and coexisted with the different cultures, instead of plundering the traditions, American could have saved an incredible amount of culture and lives. Expanding America should be a “mixed salad”, each ingredient is valued on its own and works with the other ingredients and is bound together by a common ingredient. This way cultures are appreciated and respected, brought together by America and freedom. There is still some mixing from the …show more content…
Albert J. Beveridge explains in his writings of The Pacific Is Our Ocean, that the Philippines is such a positive area to control for access to trade, “The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East [markets],” however obtaining more of the Chinese market, was not a single path to the top. Beveridge reasonings were that through colonizing the Philippines, America could open more markets in China, increasing the percent of China’s foreign commerce that America earns. Some people believed that America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were experiencing over production, that they did not have enough consumers, and drastically needed more markets to Contrary, American producers were not over producing, the companies simply wanted more markets, an increase in profits, and the government wanted to be a world power. Trades in the Philippines would be beneficial, but not as much as the China markets would aid American companies. Beveridge thought that the Philippines would be the entry ticket to China’s markets and territory, thus increasing America’s status to a world power. Imperialism was thought to positively change American life and influence in national matters, by developing the economy through trade with the …show more content…
Louis S. Meikle explains the racial standards in American imperialism, in With Americans You Must Be White!. “One of the main points at issue is the standard of inequality (set up by the Americans with respect to other persons) based on color, creed, and race, irrespective of qualifications,” Americans that were expanding their territory, did not care if a person of color was more qualified than a white man, they would only deal with their illusion of the higher standard. Through the expansion of American power, they felt the need to overpower the culture they inhabited, instead of valuing it. Americans treat other cultures than white-Americans similar, Juan José Osuna reports of this treatment in An Indian in Sprite of Myself, “The United States of America, our new rulers, thought that the people of Puerto Rico were Indians, hence they should be sent to an Indian school—“. Puerto Rican children were put into Native American culture-bending schools, of which they did not speak the language. Granted a nation’s fasted way to grow is through imperialism, assume dominance so that your nation is viewed as the strict power that is not crossed, however through this method American made a grave mistake to bulldozer over the cultures it used as a stepping stone to world power, this method does more hurt than

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