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           How did america feel about expanding?

Before america became interested in obtaining more 

property, or becoming imperialistic, opinions of expanding 

became extremely positive. However, when george 

washington quit being president, he told us to beware 

alliances. 

Imagine if you made a large LEGO castle. Naturally, you’re 

scared knocks it down. Rather than make a big target castle, 

some people want smaller castles in different places. But 

others think the smaller castles would be knocked down 

easier, and want the castle in the same place, but taller!  

What would you do?

                         Failed expansion plans

In some cases, the US failed to obtain property, like with the 

philippines, which the US got in a treaty with spain, only to 

have the phillipines rebel from US control.

    Now imagine you’ve found the perfect table to build your 

castle on, but someone else has it. You try to negotiate, but 

in the end, you don’t get the table. Not even fighting works. 

And when you get it, someone else takes it. That’s how the 

US felt

                              Acquisition of alaska

Some in the U.S. also wanted alaska, but most everyone didn’t. 

William Seward thought the land had potential, but no one else did. 

they called it Seward's folly. When alaska was obtained in 1867, it 

had lots of gold.

So, you get a box of pieces, but you don’t know if the pieces are 

good. you open it, and it’s full of good stuff! That's essentially the 

US with alaska 

                              Acquisition of Hawaii

Hawaii was another territory the US wanted. Many companies 

wanted the land, and the US needed a foothold in the Pacific. 

Trading started in the 1790s, and despite the natives and the 

current queen, Liliuokalani, wanting their islands to themselves, the 

islands were overthrown by whites and became a US territory in 

1900. 

Imagine another great table, which has all the cool pieces, and you 

can use it. but after a while, the person you took it from wants it 

back. but other kids take it and you get it in the end. 

                   Economic motives for expansion

America had many economic, or money based, reasons to expand. 

For example, Hawaii had fertile land, which the US could use to 

grow food to trade (and even some new types of plants and 

animals) , and alaska had surplus amounts of gold (but we didn't 

know that!)

                         Strategic reasons to expand

So you want to defend your lego castle. you get a brilliant idea to 

take over other lego castles to keep your enemies at bay, or to just 

watch them. thats why the US wanted a foothold in the pacific. 

                              Race-driven motives

Americans also thought it was their duty to “educate the 

uncivilized”. They believed they had to share Christianity and 

Western civilization. One minister, Josiah Strong, said we needed an 

“ Imperialism of Christianity and religion”.

                                  Cuban Rebellion

Before the Spanish-American War, Cuba wanted to rebel. When 

the Maine (a US ship sent to protect americans from cuban riots) 

sunk on February 15th, 1898 at Havana Harbor, Newspapers 

immediately blamed spain.   On April 19, Congress recognized that 

Cuba was free, and demanded the spanish leave. on the 25th, they 

declared war on Spain, and assisted the cuban rebels the their 

fight. 

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                                Yellow journalism

Yellow journalism sprung up during the age of imperialism. Yellow 

Journalism was sensational, biased (talked on one side), and were 

often false. Yellow journalistic papers reported on spain mistreating 

cubans, and started the spanish american war after blaming spain 

for the maine sinking

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