Aim:

What motivated the U.S. to become an imperial power?

Reasons that led to American Imperialism

1. Thirst for new markets to sell US goods= Economic reason

2. Desire for military strength to compete with, and gain the respect of, other world powers= Military reason

3. Belief in our cultural superiority (Social Darwinism) and the benefits it could bring to less civilized people= Cultural reason

4. Desire for a new frontier to settle in order to maintain America’s identity and prosperity= Nationalist reason

Economic Reason• The industrial revolution led American farms and

factories to produce far more than Americans could consume

• The US had suffered a depression in 1893 – unemployment was high and farmers were suffering greatly from overproduction, under consumption and low prices

• Overseas territories would provide the US with access to cheap raw materials it could use to fuel its factories to recapture its prosperity

• Overseas territories would provide US businesses and farmers access to new markets (places) to sell their surplus (extra) goods leading to higher prices, more profits and more jobs (A STRONG ECONOMY!)

“American factories are making more than the American people can use; American soil is producing

more than they can consume. Fate has written our policy for us; the trade of the world must and shall be

ours.”—Senator Albert Beveridge (1898)

Senator Beveridge

American industry grew so large that companies needed new sources of raw materials and

overseas markets to sell their products

Military/Political Reasons• If the US was to become a respected and influential

world power (like Great Britain and France) it too would need to establish a global military presence and acquire overseas territories

• American leaders, like Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred T. Mahan of the US Navy, urged government officials to build up the U.S. Navy in order to compete with other powerful nations and extend its influence globally– Overseas territories needed to support the new navy (repair

stations, military bases)– Navy needed to protect new territories and merchant ships

trading near new territories

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon

History, 1890“… Americans must now begin to look outward… Control of the sea by maritime commerce and naval supremacy, means predominant influence in the world; because, however great the wealth product of the land, nothing facilitates the necessary exchanges as does the sea”

“Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.”

Navy officer Alfred T. Mahan

Admiral Alfred Mahan encouraged the USA to build a modern navy so it could compete with

European militariesWorld tour of the

“Great White Fleet”

• Some Americans combined the philosophy of Social Darwinism – a belief that the strongest economic nations would “survive and thrive (do well)” in a global free market – along with a belief in the racial superiority of Anglo-Saxons (white Americans of Northern & Western European descent) – to justify American Imperialism

• How Social Darwinism was used to justify overseas expansion:– English speaking Anglo-Saxons rule the world and help uplift

inferior races (in Africa and Asia in particular)– The US had a responsibility to spread Christianity and

“civilization”

Cultural/ Ideological Reasons

Social Darwinism, Herbert Spencer

“Survival of the fittest is that which Mr. Charles Darwin has called ‘natural selection’ or the preservation of favored races in

the struggle for life”

Social Darwinism

Many believed in Social Darwinism and the responsibility to “civilize”

the “inferior races” of the world by spreading technology, Christianity,

and democracy…

…also known as the White Man’s BurdenWhite Man’s Burden

By Rudyard Kipling (1899)Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--In patience to abide,To veil the threat of terrorAnd check the show of pride;By open speech and simple,An hundred times made plainTo seek another's profit,And work another's gain.

Nationalist Reasons• Overseas territories would provide the US

with a new frontier to settle, explore and exploit– Continue to be prosperous ( as they would provide

new land to settle and natural resources to use)– Maintain our democratic values of equality, bravery,

individualism and patriotism– Remain a great independent nation

In a recent bulletin of the Census for 1890 appear these significant words: “at present… there can hardly be said to be a frontier line…

This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.

[…] Since the days when the fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America has been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United States have taken their tone from the incessant (non-stop) expansion….

And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.

• Frontier: a line or border

Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in

American History, 1893

The Frontier Thesis

In 1890, the U.S. census revealed that the American

frontier was closed and there were no new lands in the “west” to expand into

Americans felt the need to keep up with other European imperial nations who were building colonies

Be prepared to answer this question tomorrow…

What motivated the U.S. to become an imperial power?