American Imperialism
America like all other nations has seen many different periods of growth, development, and change. The nineteenth century was a time of change for America. America was not a very old country at that time and Americans were struggling to create and maintain an empire. This ttime has become known as imperialism. Although, not everyone agreed with imperialism, the major events associated with imperialism shaped the future of America.
The nineteenth century was an important time in the history of America. During this period the nation was experiencing change in many directions. Americans were producing more crops and ventured into shipping those crops all over the world. The high demand of these products created “growing commercial ties” and “turned American heads overseas” (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2008. Pg.611). America had to find outlets for the growing trade markets and needed materials from other parts of the world which helped increase trade activity. Businesses in the U.S. were growing at a rapid pace, and were also exporting goods, materials, and items at an impressive rate. America was almost set up for imperialism; however there were still matters that needed to be handled before imperialism could truly take place.
The Navy was not strong enough to be able to deal with affairs around the world. The Navy had dealt with set-backs that reverted back to around the Civil War. None of the Navy’s vessels had been modernized and most of the boats were in need of serious repair. However, Mahan, a naval captain, had come up with a theory based on the argument “that great nations were seafaring powers that relied on foreign trade for wealth and might” (Davidson et al, 2008. Pg.613). Mahan had the ear of Congress, the Navy which had been sorely lacking began growing in size and was “ranked third in the world by 1900” (Davidson et al, 2008. Pg.613).
During this time other key elements were falling into...