American Imperialism In The Late 1800s

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From the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s, many nations were trying to expand their influence across the globe. Seeing how Europe and Japan had success with acquiring new colonies, The United States started withdrawing from isolationism and began to consider the benefits of imperialism, a policy by which strong nations extend their political, military, and economic control over weaker territories. Industrialists wanted raw materials for industries in their home countries and entrepreneurs wanted to sell their goods and invest in new overseas markets. The primary cause of American imperialism was for economic gain. They needed places to sell their “amazing” new products as China had most of the customers. Militarism was an important factor of …show more content…
Secretary of State John Hay issued the Open Door Policy which gave all nations equal access to trade with China. Roosevelt decided to update the Monroe Doctrine with the Roosevelt Corollary which stated that even if a country had a legal contract agreement with a smaller, uncivilized country of the Western Hemisphere, the US could step in and interrupt. With his update to the Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt only wanted “to see neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous.” But if those governments were to collapse, the United States stood ready to restore and prevent European intervention. In 1901 the Platt Amendment was adopted which restricted the rights of newly independent Cubans and effectively brought the island within the U.S. sphere. The Platt Amendment and the Roosevelt Corollary made it seem as if the Latin American nations could not fend for themselves. In both of these policies we see that the U.S. wants to intervene in the nations governments to “preserve order” and ensure a stable government. America wanted to be in control and conquer. America believed that the Latin American nations were not stable enough and corrupt and needed to be regenerated and more maintenanced.
Woodrow Wilson proposed the idea of moral diplomacy when he was elected into office in 1913. Moral Diplomacy is when you promote democracy and stay away from imperialism. Wilson wanted to make all governments in the world like the one in America so the people could have control of their government instead of letting empire's rule over multiple areas. Many people believed that is was a bad idea for the U.S. to get involved with other countries and thought that it was better to govern ourselves and leave it at

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