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Primary motivations and factors that led to the U.S. shift from isolationism and continental expansion to imperialism by the
Primary motivations and factors that led to the U.S. shift from isolationism and continental expansion to imperialism by the late 19thand early 20th centuries
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Primary motivations and factors that led to the U.S. shift from isolationism and continental expansion to imperialism by the late 19thand early 20th centuries
Introduction
Before World War 1, the United States, through president George Washington, sought to have isolationism and neutrality primarily on internal affairs issues of other countries. The American political leaders identified requiring other countries in free trade, self-defense, and humanitarian emergencies. However, the need to form permanent alliances for American interests was not required since their attention was deflected on domestic issues. Therefore, they avoided involvement in World War one but had to change the policies after the German international aggression that led to the loss of Americans’ lives (Cooper, 1968). Thus, a German political scientist, Wilson, started making statements framing war for the United States, increasing American intervention. However, the Bolsheviks and Vladimir claimed that imperialism was a capitalist conspiracy by “big business” to subjugate colonies for purely economic gain. The claim is invalid since the primary motivation of the U.S shift to imperialism was based on political, economic, exploratory, religious, and ethnocentric factors and not a conspiracy for economic gain.
Economic Motivations
American production and revenues increased in the machine period, and they sought new markets due to increased nationalism. They developed new markets outside the country and in Latin America. The country practiced expansionism and moved to new regions to start businesses in order to increase their profits for the government and private entities (Dodd, 2009). The companies and economic activities success were based on the interrelationship between countries, shifting to imperialism. Also, the availability of raw materials and labor from different regions required accepted movement facilities and infrastructure, which imperialism would support. The increased production required a larger market hence influencing their expansion into new markets to attract more consumers. America expanded to most of the surrounding nations, thus increasing their colonial power to involve a larger region to enter into the Asian Markets and China and colonize the Philippines. However, the colonial power would not allow them to expand with the isolationism policies easily. Therefore, they had to shift to imperialism, where it developed its power and used military force to extend political and economic access.
The economic activities were also facilitated by the increasing population and the development of technologies that made manufacturing easier. Therefore, there was a favorable balance of trade with high exporting than products being imported. Also, the continuous supply of raw materials requires countries to be on good terms and have a good interconnection to receive such materials. In the same way, the industrial revolution led to more new products that required a market and the acquisition of labor to enhance production. The successes in the country and recognitions made by the territories allowed recognition of the parts gained by aggression and violation of international agreements. Therefore, the country’s economic activities expanded, creating more employment opportunities improving the per capita income giving it more power than other countries.
Exploratory Motives
The USA wanted to create new trade routes and find new territories; hence had a team of explorations to study the new regions to set businesses in the largest. Also, individuals were motivated to learn about the new regions and determine the best activities for such places. For the residents, they had a sense of adventure and imperial expansion to get more territories. Nevertheless, some individuals wanted to move for individual and national fame and discover more before competitors recognized the new regions. Therefore, the U.S. conquered and explored Samoa, which had a great harbor. The exploration was for social and economic purposes as the harbor would enable the movement of goods and services between different regions. However, the conquer led to conflicts between Germany and Great Britain and later settled to divide themselves. The exploration led to the identification of new opportunities and identification of materials for production and expansion.
The competition with other nations to obtain military superiority also encouraged imperialism (Hobson, 2018). Individuals moved to new regions to compete with the governments to get power and have national security. The nation’s security involved protection of the investments already made within and outside the country to ensure the competitors accept the defeat. Also, the protection of resources and colonies encouraged exploration. They had to ensure that the competitors were aware of their territories and resources and had the power over them. To add on, The U.S. had experienced the use of technologies and their effectiveness in production; hence, it was their duty to civilize the rest of the world by introducing them to the new regions. Their use in a new environment made them respected and valued by the residents hence had an added advantage over other colonial groups.
Political Reasons
The political motives were influenced by the feeling of threat to the homeland security of the country, which would have affected their citizens and led to death. Therefore, they felt the need to involve with other countries to identify such threats and deal with the competitors. The government wanted to be recognized as a world power, and this was impossible in isolationism policies (Miller, 2013). Therefore, the change to imperialism provided more opportunities for them to be considered a superpower. Empires wanted to advance their defenses and increase land and territories and at the same time create more routes for their army and alliances. It developed the Monroe policy, which was aimed at preventing the European intervention in the newly formed colonies and warning them not to interfere with the affairs of its political government. Their actions led to an increase in their empires due to the failure of other colonial government interferences.
The U.S formed various policies, such as the open-door policy and Monroe Policy, to protect their territories and inform the competitors of their power towards the colonies. The open-door policy was formed in 1899 to offer equal privileges among countries trading with China (Magdoff, 1969). The policy aimed to create a good relationship with China to keep trading and protecting their sovereignty. The government also wanted to increase infrastructure and connections between regions to make trading easy, connect Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and expand to Latin America. The infrastructure was also expected to enhance the speed of the Navy when they are required or when threats were posed to the country.
Religious Reasons
The U.S sifted from isolationism to imperialism due to the impact of religion. At the moment, most of the individuals in the USA were Christians and believed that Christianity was superior. The Christian missionaries had created a foundation within the land and needed to spread to Asia and Africa to seek new members and convert them to Christianity. The missionaries moved from one region to another, building churches and institutions, exposing more conquered lands to Christianity interactions. Also, the missionaries were considered the religious wing, battling against social issues such as child abuse, corruption, racial discrimination, poor labor laws, and involvement in the war. Some traditional religious beliefs were against humans’ rights, hence required to create awareness and recruit more individuals to Christianity which would lead to abandoning the unfair conventional spiritual practices. Imperialism would allow them to move from one region to another, accomplishing their mission and impacting a larger area.
Ethnocentric Factors
America had to move to imperialism since some of its citizens felt that their cultures and beliefs were superior to other regions. For example, the imperial community respected their opinion that the rich would keep being rich while the lazy failed to involve in economic activities to raise their status. Contributions of individuals such as Darwin explained that the wealthy individuals would keep being wealthy while the poor would fail to rise from their poverty lives (Petras & Veltmeyer,2015). Therefore, the U.S. wanted to engage in the quest to ensure that each individual gets the same opportunities and that poverty in the region is reduced. The U.S. believed that its expansion to the other areas would spread its cultures to the inferior groups hence adopt the new systems that would enhance their abilities to develop and create opportunities for the individuals living in poverty.
Conclusion
Imperialism in the United States created more opportunities for the country and the neighboring empires through economic and political activities. Hobson, a British theorist, and Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary and leader of the Bolshevik critics on imperialism that capitalism conspiracy is meant to subjugate colonies for poor economic gain is unwarranted. The shift to imperialism was enhanced by political, economic, explorational, ethnocentric, and religious factors. The economic factors included the need to finds raw materials and enough labor for production. They also needed to explore ways to get more colonies to expand and increase trade in the various territories. The political factors focused on getting better terms for the country and preventing wars by developing policies that show each colony provides equal opportunities. The religious reasons were to increase Christianity among its people and demolish the spiritual practices against the rights of humans. Therefore, even though the shift to imperialism failed to create freedom of choice for some of the new colonies, the positive impacts outweigh the negative. Hence, the critique by Hobson and Vladimir is unjustified.
References
Cooper Jr, J. M. (1968). THE VANITY OF POWER: AMERICAN ISOLATIONISM AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914–1917. Columbia University.
Dodd, C. (2009). US Imperialism and Expansion at the Turn of the 19th Century [11th grade].
Hobson, J. A. (2018). Imperialism: a study. Routledge.
Magdoff, H. (1969). The age of imperialism: The economics of US foreign policy (Vol. 21). NYU Press.
Miller, R. D. (2013). Colonial Bureaucracies, American Identity, and the Roots of Isolationism: Transnational Histories and the Turn of the Twentieth Century-Cathleen Cahill. Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869–1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. xv+ 368 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-04984-0. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 12(2), 260-268.
Petras, J., & Veltmeyer, H. (2015). Power and resistance: US imperialism in Latin America. Brill.
Rothkopf, D. (1997). In praise of cultural imperialism?. Foreign policy, 38-53.
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