Manifest Destiny Essay

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Although, because of this expansionary mindset, America did not care what they were taking over or what they were doing while expanding. In Across the Continent by Francis Palmer, you can see that the Americans are leaving the Indians behind and leaving them in the dust (Slideshow 8:13). The Americans only cared about themselves and did not care about anyone else or anything else that was going on. All they cared about was that they were moving westward and expanding their country as a whole. Militarily, this was seen through peaceful and non-peaceful means. Towards the Indians it was seen as territorial or non-peaceful and seen by the Spanish-American War as non-peaceful for the purpose of expansionism commanded by Theodore Roosevelt, essentially pushing the Spanish troops further inland and having a great amount of casualties. On January 25, 1898 the United States sent ships to help conflict between the Cubans and Spanish. On February 15, 1898 and explosion went off on one of the United States boats in the harbor and killed 266 men. The American public was then whipped into a frenzy and prepared a declaration of war against Spain and forces were deployed to the Caribbean and the Pacific. Anti-expansionist protested heavily, believing the United States was in danger of becoming an imperialist nation. As the war started, President McKinley issued a call for 125,000 men volunteers to fight the war against Spain. The United States joined the Philippines with 11,000 troops to defeat the Spanish. Diseases such as the yellow fever broke out and thousands were hospitalized. Of the 5,400 deaths in the Cuban campaign only 379 were the result of combat. The war was over in just four months and the truce was signed on August 12, 1898. But, the war left a huge distasteful legacy. At home, anti-imperialist complained that the wars purpose was to free Spain’s colonies. But, the result was the United States becoming an imperial power. The famous Mark Twain once said, “there must be two Americans; one that sets the captive free, and one that takes the once captive new freedom away” (America Becomes a World Power).

Although the United States military was strong and powerful and aided Americas advancement in the world, it also had a dark side to it. In which initiated the debate over imperialism in the late 1890’s. This debate over imperialism had a pro-imperialist side, and an anti-imperialist side from readings 25 and 26.

Pro-imperialist such as Senator Albert J. Beveridge, was in support of an American empire and was very much into trade and supported the powers for economic and military. Beveridge and other pro-imperialist were mainly into trade with other countries like the Philippines and other Asia countries. In Reading 25, it says “Mr. President…The Philippines are our forever…and just beyond the Philippines are China’s markets,” therefore telling us that they were huge into trading with the Philippines and China and wanted to be trusted by them and have trust in them. They also knew that the Philippines and Asia will be their “largest trade [in the future]” (Reading 25). Since Asia and China is closer to them than England, Germany, or Russia, they knew that China and Asia would be their “natural customer[s]” (Reading 25) and that they would be good friends and trade with each other a lot. Pro-imperialist saw them as a gift from God and that “He made [them] the master organizers of the world…and of all our race He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in civilizing the world” (Reading 25) therefore telling us that they had a huge belief in God and manifest destiny.

On the other hand, there were anti-imperialist who thought that the use of violence was brought out and was not necessary in order to get what they wanted. The anti-imperialist included both Republicans, Democrats, and business leaders such as Andrew Carnegie, philosopher William James, and literary figures Mark Twain. Many of them joined the Anti-Imperialist League formed in Boston in 1898. The purpose of the Anti-Imperialist League was to prevent the Philippine War and the “evils of Imperialism” (Reading 26). In Reading 26 it states, “we deplore the sacrifice of our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust war. We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless honor. We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods,” therefore telling us that the use of violence was seen as not necessary and tended to lead the United States against International law. They did not see this as being “right” at the time and wanted to put an end to it. These anti-imperialist wanted a “demand to the immediate cessation of the war against liberty,” (Reading 26) and wanted to stop everything that was happening before it got too out of hand. “We deny that the obligation of all citizens to support their Government in times of grave national peril applies to the present situation,” (Reading 26) therefore stating that Americans don’t need to abide by this government since they do not believe that what they are doing is right. The league also supports the United States apposing international law because the weak can parish so the strong can flourish and by allowing the strong to outweigh the weak all the time it does not lead to equality or supporting one another.

Imperialism occurred for cultural reasons, these cultural roots manifested in an increase in foreign missionary forces in women. This is important because women in the work force increased and imperialism was not super male dominated anymore. This shows that women also participated in manifest destiny and women believed in the context of it through their missionary ways. But, they were not only missionaries; they were also experienced in medicine and other missionaries in China tried to bridge cultures together. Susan Carson Rijan Hart was essentially the all around female. The three reasons for practices and manifestation of American imperialism were economic, military, and cultural once again.

Economically, the United Fruit Company is an example of American imperialism. This is also an example of economic imperialism. The United Fruit Company (UFC) was based out of Boston, Massachusetts and created an impressive network that produced bananas in Colombia for distribution to the United States market. The impressive production and distribution of this new company included plantations, hospitals, roads, railways, telegraph lines, housing facilities, and ports in the producing countries. Therefore, this helped expansionism and technology in the countries that did not have a lot of technology. This company also led to the international banking system and the coordination of production. Producing and transporting supplies got