A history of American imperialism

The start of American imperialism can be traced back to how the country progressed in the post Civil War climate. The idea of Manifest Destiny can be related to the idea of imperialism, but once we had filled up the space within our own country, America looked abroad. At the same time, Europe was busy establishing colonies abroad and carving up Africa amongst them, Americans felt left out of colonizing. There was a need for America to expand to allow further trade, “American feared that their nation would soon be left out of all these potential markets” (Brinkley 499). It was felt that out of necessity the country needed to keep up and to do this we were required to expand. Alfred Mahan builds upon this with a thesis he presented in 1890 emphasizing the need for a sea power to control trade (Brinkley 499). With the country bordered by two gear oceans, he was right, looking to our neighbors across the sea was the way to go. This idea would carry over and become one of the centerpieces of American foreign policy that following presidents would work from.

            The first administration that worked to implement American expansion was that of Rutherford Hayes. Under Hayes, America was able to put itself into running for influence and power across the Pacific Ocean. The first step that was taken was to secure a naval base in Hawaii, allowing the U.S. Navy to firmly establish its power and dominance in the Pacific. As a result, we eventually annexed Hawaii in 1898, and were able to basically island hop from there to other areas of the Pacific (Brinkley 501). Hayes also worked to compete with European nations with American influence in Samoa. Like Hawaii, a naval base was created to support sea control over the region and eventually acquired Samoa in a joint deal with Germany and Great Britain (Brinkley 502). These first steps by Hayes not only increased American naval presence in the Pacific, but also allowed us to become a national player when it comes to dealing with abroad territories.

Grover Cleveland worked on this to even expand American colonial influence further. Although Cleveland appears to be more reactive to what is going on around him, he did follow suite with imperialism to a degree. To start things off, Cleveland got involved in a foreign dispute between Venezuela and Brittan, siding with the Latin America country over the British Empire (Brinkley 500). This seems to be the first step in defying European empires to better American influence abroad. The next issue Cleveland dealt with was the revolt that was occurring in Cuba, in this instance, Cleveland seemed very hesitant in becoming involved in the war, Spain being a big empire was dealing with a internal problem, but Cleveland’s hand was forced as a result of being insulted in the Depute do Lome Letter and the blowing up of the U.S.S Maine (Brinkley 506). Those two events caused Cleveland to react and as a result further American imperialism by warring with Spain. Through the war, America was able to explain our colonial power by taking directly from Spain; this is seen with the occupation of Puerto Rico, involvement with Cuba and also the taking of the Philippians. Although not blatantly imperialistic, Cleveland’s responses to external events lead to America’s expansion which would be build up upon following his administration.

Following Cleveland, the McKinley administration, also supporting an expansionist agenda but like Cleveland was pretty moderate with enacting expansion. One of the first issues McKinley had to deal with was the American occupation of the Philippians, he remained strong and was able to keep the territory as a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1898 (Brinkley 510). The other big issue regarding expansionism that McKinley dealt with was the European influence in China. Although McKinley is very hesitant when it comes to actually intervention and occupation, he does want to be allowed to trade with the region. McKinley did not want to occupy space in the region like what Europeans were doing, just to be allowed to trade freely and have a ‘open door’ with the region. The outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 forced McKinley’s hand to act in the situation. American intervention in China helped support and allow the ‘open door’ policy to be accepted by foreign nations (Brinkley 515). McKinley’s administration like Cleveland took a moderate approach to expansionism by responding to events rather than causing them, this all changed under Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt was an avid supporter of America being a imperial empire. Before he was in power he was able to even work to make this reality when ordering the occupation of the Philippians during the Spanish American War (Brinkley 506). When he became president, his ideas became policy. Roosevelt wanted America to be able to compete, he saw it as our duty to spread our ‘civilization’ to those who were ‘uncivilized’ (Brinkley 553). Although he did not further expand, Roosevelt’s actions in ending the Japanese, Russian war helped to preserve a open system not dominated by any single country. The ultimate goal was to keep the Pacific not out of America’s reach, even sending a fleet near Japan as a show of force (Brinkley 554). Further, Roosevelt increased American influence in Latin America by following a policy of protecting the countries from European influence while furthering American investment. Roosevelt further worked to expand American control but orchestrating the Panama revolt from Colombia while constructing the Panama Canal to better America’s trade (Brinkley 556). In this situation, Roosevelt both served to influence politics of other nations but also work to expand America’s overall power and trade ability. Overall Roosevelt’s administration was the one that focused directly on spreading American influence abroad rather than reacting to events abroad.

The administration following Roosevelt, lead by William Taft also supported an American expansionist agenda but not to the extent that Roosevelt did. Overall Taft was limited to following up on keeping American influence up in the Caribbean and intervention in Nicaragua (Brinkley 557). After Taft, the expansionist agenda died off quite a bit, only being seen in a limited number of instances.

The administration of Woodrow Wilson did work to expand American influence but the times were changing away from colonialism. He continued policies to protect American influence in the Caribbean with intervention in Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as purchasing the Virgin Islands (Brinkley 557). With the unrest in Mexico, Wilson seemed to continue pushing for American influence in the region but unlike other administrations, he did not jump in to the conflict head on, instead relied on supporting different regimes. American troops were sent to intervene slightly but Wilson never used them to push the issue, just to provide stability and prevent war (Brinkley 559). Wilson follows a different set of goals, rather than flexing American’s might, he rather uses it to provide peace and stability. This is further seen in America’s delayed involvement during World War One. Wilson does not enter the war until it is deemed necessary to, as a result of damaged trade and direct attacks by German u-boats (Brinkley 560).

These administrations saw the rise and fall of direct American imperialism. Resulting from the climate post Manifest Destiny, after sitting back and watching Europeans expand freely, American expansion came to effect. The Hayes administration set the groundwork for America to be a naval power in the Pacific. Cleveland and McKinley followed with policies that responded external events allowing for America to gain influence and power as a result. Imperialism peaked with the Roosevelt who was one of the biggest supports of the idea, leading to long-term American presence in Latin America. The movement changed by the time Wilson came to power, the world had changed. The actions of administrations leading up to that point were quite successful in achieving American dominance in foreign affairs and the global economy each in their own way of supporting that practice.