A Rationale for American Imperialism
Directions: As you read the following selections, compile a list of possible explanations from the beginning of
American imperialism in the 1890s.
1.
Up to & including 1880, the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been
so broken into…that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line
-- Superintendent of the Census, 1890
2.
3.
God has not been preparing the English speaking & Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing but
vain & idle self-admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish systems
where chaos reigns…He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among
savages & senile peoples.
--Albert T. Beveridge
4.
There is one thing that neither time nor education can change. You may change the leopard’s spots, but
you will never change the different qualities of the races which God has created in order that they may
fulfill separate and distinct missions in the cultivation & civilization of the world.
--John W. Daniel
5.
If it is commercialism to want the possession of a strategic point (Philippines) giving the American people
an opportunity to maintain a foothold in the markets of that great Eastern country (China) for God’s sake
let us have commercialism
--Senator Mark Hanna
6.
The tendency of modern times is toward consolidation. It is apparent in capital & labor alike, & it is also
true of nations. Small states are of the past & have no future. The modern movement is all toward the
concentration of people & territory into great nations & large dominions. The great nations are rapidly
absorbing for their future expansion & their present defence all the waste places of the earth. It is a
movement which makes for civilization & the advancement of the race. As one of the great nations of the
world, the United States must not fall out of the line of march
--Henry Cabot Lodge
7.
Whether we will it or no, Americans must now look outward. The growing production of the country
demands it. An increasing volume of public sentiment demands it. The position of the United States,
between the two Old Worlds & the two great oceans, makes the same claim which will soon be
strengthened by the creation of the new link joining the Atlantic & Pacific. The tendency will be
maintained & increased by the growth of the European colonies in the Pacific, by the advancing civilization
of Japan, & by the rapid peopling of our Pacific States….Three things are needful” First, protection of the
chief harbors, by fortifications & coast-defence ships…. Secondly, naval force, the arm of offensive power,
which alone enables a country to extend its influence outward. Thirdly, no foreign state should henceforth
acquire a coaling station within three thousand miles of San Francisco
--Alfred T. Mahan
8.
It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race for an hour sure to
come in the worlds future. The lands of the earth are limited, and soon will be taken. Then will the world
enter upon a new stage in its history- the final competition of the races. Then this race of unequaled energy,
with the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it- the representative of the largest liberty, the
purest Christianity, the highest civilization... will spread itself over the earth.
--Minister Josiah Strong, 1885
9.
Today we are raising more than we can consume. Today we are making more than we can use... Therefore
we must find new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for our labor... Ah!
As our commerce spreads, the flag of liberty will circle the globe and the highway of the ocean - carrying
trade to all mankind - will be guarded by the guns of the republic. And as their thunders salute the flag,
benighted (ignorant) peoples will know that the voice of liberty is speaking, at last, for them... that
civilization is dawning at last, for them.
--Senator Alfred Beveridge, 1898
10.