Expansion of America: Institutional Affiliation Expansion of America

Expansion of America
Name
Institutional affiliation Expansion of America
The twentieth century has been regarded as the period of the expansion and self-realization of the American people. It is during this time that America was able to expand its territory and became actively involved in matters concerning world peace. According to Emily Rosenberg, it was the period between 1890 and 1912 that expansion became a prominent feature in the lives of Americans. Researchers argue that the expansion was a result of Americans favoring territorial colonialism while others claim that there was a need to expand private economic and cultural ties. Some conclude that it was because the nation was superior and there was an intense need to spread its products and messages around the world. Alfred Mahan claims that the invention of the Navy played a significant role in the expansion of territory. He argues that national prosperity and power greatly relied on the control of the sea (Alfred T. Mahan, 1890). In this regard, America began changing their wooden ships with strong metallic ones that were powered by coal and oil. This gave immense strength to the nation, as its ships could not be easily destroyed in battle (Roosevelt & Mahan, 1894).
John Stevens was the American minister to Hawaii in 1898 during the annexation of the Hawaiian island into the United States territory. He argues that the primary goal of this expansion was to secure commercial interests (John, 1893). This acts as proof that the country was not an empire as claimed by many scholars but rather and imperialist nation where commercial interests were put first. First Christian missionaries were sent to the islands with the intention of spreading the gospel, but as time passed, the nation seized the opportunity and expanded its borders. Albert Beveridge argues that America had the potential to unite in their land and become a larger and stronger force that the whole of Europe. The Republican senator from Indiana was a strong Christian who argued that God gave Americans the land, as they are the chosen ones. He advocated for the move by the nation towards commercial supremacy of the globe.
In 1898 the then-president William McKinley was coerced by public opinion to go to war with Spain against his advice. This followed a publication of a leaked letter from Spain, which considered him as weak and not capable of winning a war (William McKinley, 1898). America had just surpassed Britain to become the world’s largest industrial power and a world power. The war played a significant role in the expansion of the United States, as it was during the war that the US captured the Philippines and Puerto Rico William (McKinley, 1900). The war was instigated when an American ship exploded in Havana in Cuba. This caused a lot of public out roar as a commission established that a mine caused the explosion. A war ensued, and a military government was established in Cuba and the US made sure that it signed an Amendment, which gave the US power to intervene to protect loss of life and property in the country. The president did not want to go to war because he believed that the country was not an empire, which was seeking to expand, but rather a nation only interes...