Dbq Imperialism

I believe that the United States became an imperialist nation at the end of the 19th century because Americans wanted to expand overseas with their belief in manifest destiny. The three main factors that started American imperialism were political and military competition including the creation of a strong naval force, economic competition among industrial nations and a belief in the racial and cultural superiority of people of Anglo-Saxon descent. America took advantage of countries that were not completely capable of governing themselves at the moment. I believe the U.S. should not have become an imperialist nation. Instead they should have supported the countries until they could govern themselves or allow them to take a vote on whether or not they wanted to be under the control of the united states. America turned into the imperialist country they were once under control of.
The event that set off Imperialism in America was the Spanish-American war. At the beginning of the war the United states claimed to be fighting for cuban independence, but after the war ended America took control of Cuba and other countries. It enraged some cubans and led them to question the intentions of America. …show more content…
William Mckinley said “that there was nothing left for us to do but take them all and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and christianize them” (Document A 1899 Methodist delegation).There was no need to take control of the Philippines because they already had a government set in place. It would have been more appropriate to keep in close contact and monitor the Philippines until it was determined that they were capable of protecting themselves from foreign invaders. The U.S. forced the Philippines to fight back just as Great Britain had forced the U.S. to fight for their