Bat Agaoglu
9/25/2012
IR 376
Professor Kinzer
Paper #1 1) I tell you what I am going to say- The 1890s saw an expansion on US imperialism of American territory, as a result of economic, political, and cultural factors with justifications on acquiring more land, power, and resources. Many Americans believed U.S had to expand to increase population, wealth, and industrial production which demanded more resources. So, therefore, US took control of other territories such as Hawaii, Cuba, and Panama to impose its own beliefs of government and culture on the people. The United States encouraged these territories to become independent from other nations so that they would be more beneficial to us. Although we freed these territories from their restraining governments, it was only in our own interest. It started during the 1840s with the manifest destiny which was used to warrant the expansionist movements of that time. Expansionist used the population growth and close frontier to support their intentions on conquering new territories. Expansion would lead to economic advantages such as trade with new colonies and Asia which at that time was becoming increasingly important to American economy in the late 19th century. Another argument expansionist used was to prevent other countries and colonies from gaining more land and they also felt the need to rival with the other imperialist countries. They had a desire to compete with Europe for overseas empires. The U.S. sought for international statues like the Great European Powers (Europe had taken 20 percent of the land and 10 percent of the population in the world). North America was up and rising; it had so much potential with a lot of land, opportunities, and resources surrounding it which was led by great leaders who made U.S. the way it is today. 2) I say it- First reason on America’s expansionism, which I