Examples Of 20th Century American Imperialism

Essay 1 The years after the Civil War to the turn of the 20th Century should be seen as American imperialism, because all expansions during the era were either approved, or instigated by the US government. To start I would like to take a look at how the Hawaii expansion was handled, it was first taken over by nearby US Marines that were station nearby before the government had learned of what happened. The Us Marines were ordered to capture the present ruler, Queen Lili’uokalani, by a US fruit company, The United Fruit Company. The company need the queen gone because she wanted any and all outside ties with Hawaii to end, which would mean that the United Fruit Company would lose a great resource of fruit and therefore money. Now when the …show more content…
At the start America was just a silent, due to ties with Eastern ties, rooting fan for the freedom of Cuba from Spain’s reign. However after the sinking of the USS Maine the US sent Spain an ultimatum, free Cuba or war, Spain refused and declared war. After about six months of war Spain called a ceasefire, and later that same year the United States and Spain completed the Treaty of Paris. The treaty itself is a great example of American imperialism because the US government made the decision to expand by annexing Puerto Rico and …show more content…
Events such as the actions taken in Hawaii were not premeditated imperialism because the government did not have any plans to take over the land, and did not intervene until after the fact that it was already captured by the US. However the Dawes affair can be seen as a complete act of imperialism because it did have every intention to expand the US, although it did try to help, and fail miserably, the Natives adjust to an American lifestyle. The Treaty of Paris can also be seen as imperialism because the government had the goal to come out of the treaty with more land, and the same could be said with how President Roosevelt’s policies worked