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Logan Mardlin

March 23, 2015


DBQ
The United States overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries was a divide between the people that brought out, and was a result of,
national identity of everyone in the conflict. There were groups of Americans that were
in favor of expanding beyond the natural borders of the United States and there were
those who opposed the idea. Both sides had supporting ideas in which why they
believed what they did.
The reasons for wanting to spread American government onto other nations such
as the Philippines included increased patriotic feelings, unloosing from the bondage of
racial prejudice, wanting to spread the knowledge of Christianity and Democracy, and
most importantly, making America a rival world power against Europe and Asia. Black
participation in the war will bring about an era of good feeling the country over and
cement the races into a more compact brotherhood through the perfect unity of purpose
and patriotic affinity where White people will unloose themselves themselves from the
bondage of racial prejudice. (Document 1) This quote written by E. E. Cooper for the
newspaper Colored American shows the possible outcome that a war with Spain could
bring to the American people. ... there was nothing left for us to do but take them all,
and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them and by Gods
grace do the very best we could by them (Document 3) These words, attributed to
President William McKinley, displays the idea that American should attempt to spread
the belief of Christianity to the Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt expressed the idea of
Democracy onto the Philippines in his speech The Strenuous Life in which he said this

: ... We have driven Spanish tyranny from the islands. If we now let it be replaced by
savage anarchy, our work has been for harm and not for good (Document 5) At this
point, American had rid the nation of Spanish rule but the Philippines were yet to be
secure with a solid government. Therefore, it was Americas duty to protect and watch
over the young nation and take it under the United States wing for the time being.
Saying it is irresponsible for the US to leave the unstable country in a state of anarchy.
The American people had many reasons to become an imperialistic nation but
this also went against exactly what the United States was. They had fought so hard to
break free from an empire, that being England, and then Americans wanted to become
an imperial power which was rather hypocritical. Several reasons the American people
did not want any part in imperializing the world included; going against the idea that all
men are created equal and that one should not rule over another; the people did not
want America to become a Militaristic power country; and finally that America was not
an empire. William Graham Sumner says it quite literally in his speech given at Yale in
1899, The Conquest of the United States by Spain, The Americans have been
committed from the outset to the doctrine that all men are equal. We have elevated it
into an absolute doctrine as a part of the theory of our social and political fabric
(Document 2) What is meant by this is that our social and political ideas state that all
men are equal and that Americans are moving away from this and wanting to become
more imperialistic. Jane Addams says in her Democracy or Militarism speech given in
Chicago, 1899 Some of us were beginning to hope that we were ready to accept the
peace ideal to recognize that the man who irrigates a plain is greater than he who
lays it waste (Document 4) What Addams is trying to convey in this excerpt from her

speech is that America should not try to conquer and defeat every nation, instead, the
United States should attempt to help the countries of the world and make them better
places. ... an empire is a nation composed of different races, living under varying forms
of government. A republic cannot be an empire, for a republic rests upon the theory that
the government derive their powers from the consent of the governed and colonialism
violates this theory (Document 6) This piece from William Jennings Bryans speech in
his campaign for presidency in 1900 proves a very valid point that the Republic of the
United States is the exact opposite of an empire in which many people wanted it to
become. The image created by Puck symbolizes what America was essentially trying to
do. The cartoon displays a large eagle standing on the United States with its wings
touching the Philippines, Panama and Puerto Rico. The caption reads His 128th
Birthday. Gee, but this is an awful stretch! This article was published a week before the
Fourth of July and pokes fun at America saying that this is an awful idea to stretch our
power across two continents similar to how the United States was functioning at the
time.
In conclusion, America began as a Republic and remained one because it did not
have the capacity to sustain as an empire. The overseas expansion in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did divide the nations people but eventually
levelled out and America remained a non-imperialistic Republic.

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