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Pre-imperial attitudes toward expansion

Before Imperialism started, many Americans wanted to expand 

their territory which means to make their space bigger. 

However, before that people had the opposite idea about 

expanding their territory. For about 100 years Americans didn't 

want to make their land bigger at all. The few people who did 

want to expand, moved west and south. This expansion drove 

American history to change more and more and this was the 

end of the American “frontier”.

                                                    EJY 1

Failed Expansion Schemes

One of the failed expansion schemes was Dollar Diplomacy, 

created by William Taft. It had positive and negative effects. It 

was made to help U.S. Investments in Latin America grow. 

American Investments were used to help build roads, railroads, 

and harbors. This also created a stronger role overseas for 

America. If U.S. business interests in Latin America were 

threatened then it usually led to war. This created feelings 

against the U.S. in Latin America. Another failed expansion 

scheme was the Roosevelt Corollary. It was an addition to the 

Monroe Doctrine. This helped prevent European intervention in 

Latin America. This gave the United States permission to help 

the affairs of Latin America. Wilson's Moral Diplomacy was 

another failed expansion scheme. It helped teach democracy in 

other countries to stop wars. This rule faced a big issue when 

Civil War broke out in Mexico.

                                                    ELK 2

Acquisition of Alaska

    In 1867 Seward moved to Alaska because he had a dream 

and wanted to make it happen. He bought Alaska from Russia 

for 7.2 million dollars! That's a lot of money! Alaska is twice 

the size of Texas! Also, Alaska is very cold and icy so everyone 

made fun of Seward and called Alaska a “polar bear garden” 

because polar bears like the cold and they live in Alaska. Then, 

after everyone made fun of Seward he found gold and became 

very rich and everyone was very jealous of Seward. After that, 

Alaska became part of the United States and Seward lived 

happily ever after. 

EJY 3

Acquisition of Hawaii

In the early 1800’s Hawaii was just an independent island in 

the middle of the pacific ocean. It was in the perfect place for 

America to have a naval base and serve as a stopping place for 

American trade ships on their way to China. Hawaii also had 

lush environments perfect for farming and fishing. When 

American missionaries moved to Hawaii to establish schools in 

1820 many Americans started to control the land. Hawaiians 

had their own life and didn't want these strangers to change it! 

Unfortunately for the Hawaiians, Hawaii became a state of 

America in 1900 when William McKinley was elected president.

ELK 4

Economic motives for Imperial Expansion

    Money in some countries kept the expansion from 

happening because their economies were bad which 

meant that they didn’t have enough money to buy more 

land and expand. A lot of nations competed for colonies 

in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world because they 

provided new markets and raw materials. Raw materials 

are materials like metal and coal and stuff that people 

would use to make machinery. However, when one 

European nation expanded, they usually got into a fight 

with another country because a lot of countries didn’t 

like Europe very much. 

EJY 5

EJY

Strategic Motives for Imperial Expansion

America tried to buy land and islands that would serve a 

purpose. Islands in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans could 

be used a naval bases. Islands could also serve as refuel 

stops for American ships. This would give America sea 

power since they had colonies all across the ocean. The 

idea of imperial expansion was more land means more 

power. Another reason they favored expansion was to 

bring religion to other places in the worlds that were 

"Uncivilized". More expansion also created more options 

of trade. The more land America got, the more power 

they had in the world.

                                                       ELK 6

Racial Motives for Imperial Expansion

 Ethnocentrism is the belief in the inherent superiority of one's 

own ethnic group or culture. This means that wherever you are 

from, you believe in the same beliefs as everyone else in that 

country. When countries tried to expand their territory, they 

had a hard time because they wanted to buy other countries 

that had diferent beliefs than them. This made it hard for them 

to expand because the two different countries both wanted to 

still believe their own beliefs. 

EJY 7 

Cuban Rebellion against Spain

Cubans has lived under spanish rule for 

centuries. Jose' Marti was a big name for 

Cuban Independence. He went to the U.S. and 

collected troops, weapons, and money. The 

rebels burned buildings and fields which 

destroyed their sugarcane trying to get the 

Spanish to leave. Spanish troops fought back 

by separating Cubans into camps. Many 

Cubans faced death by disease and starvation. 

Later, Cuba was eventually granted full 

independence by the United States, in 1901.

                                                                 ELK 8

Yellow Journalism

Yellow journalism is writing that is very dramatic and exaggerates, which means to 

make something sound worse than it actually is. A lot of times the writings weren't 

even true! They just made up things to get people to read it and the people who 

read it actually believed it. Yellow Journalism also had an effect on the opinion of 

the war for many people before the war happened. Yellow Journalism started 

because the different newspapers all had the same stories to tell from the war so 

they made up very dramatic things that weren't true to make people want to read 

it. This wasn't a good thing because people now thought things about the war that 

weren't right and they got very confused.

EJY 9

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