Immigration of Late 19th Century a Motivation to American Imperialism

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03 02 2022
American Imperialism
American imperialism often denotes the U. S's cultural, military, and economic influence on other countries globally. It was a term first promoted during President James K. Polk's administration, consequently paving the way for the actualization of the "American Empire" concept in the latter half of the 1800s. The U.S experienced massive immigration in the late 19th century, which was primarily advantageous to its aggressively expanding economy. For most Americans in the late 19th century, imperialism, industrialization, and immigration were all intertwined. Imperialism's central driving concept was the desire for markets for American goods as the country was experiencing a production boom due to cheap immigrant labor. Therefore, while it is true that the late 19th-century massive U.S immigration motivated American imperialism, the primary factors that led to the imperialism movement dwell around economic, political, social, and racial influences, as will be subsequently elaborated.
To begin with, as I had affirmed earlier, massive immigration into the U.S in the late 19th century greatly motivated imperialism. The U.S experienced an influx of immigrants between 1870 and 1920. It was a continuation of a process that had begun before the Civil War. The U.S immigration was fashioned by several "pull" or "push" factors; that is, certain factors in the U.S encouraged migrants to relocate, or specific unfavorable conditions in their home countries forced them to leave. Ultimately, the U.S provided numerous appealing possibilities like industrialization and rampant economic growth for the migrants to choose it as the preferred destination. Consequently, the immigrants' influx motivated the U.S to produce more goods due to readily available cheap labor provided by the immigrants: to source for outside markets and acquire more territories through Manifest Destiny.
During the last half of the 1800s, the United States was astronomically industrializing, forcing American entrepreneurs to seek international markets. Besides, social Darwinism's increasing influence inspired the U. S` belief that it was innately responsible for spreading concepts like democracy, Christianity, and industrialization to underdeveloped societies. However, when President George Washington left office, he warned his successors to embrace isolationism and avoid foreign alliances entanglement in his famous 1796 Farewell Address (Elliot). He argued that although France had played a pivotal role in helping the U.S overthrow British colonial rule, the European powers' assistance always came with conditions. The entanglements usually proved potentially dangerous and dragged the United States in its struggle to develop and thrive (Elliot).
Indeed, for a century, most of Washington's successors adhered to his advice of isolationism policy that prove...