Unit 5.1

Unit 5 Lesson 1

Imperialism

Essential Question:​ Why did the United States assert its power over other countries during the Age of Imperialism?

Start

Engage

Engage

What is a Territory?

• Manifest Destiny was a prominent belief in the 1800s that American settlers were entitled to conquer and control North America.​
• President James Polk made Manifest Destiny a part of his administration's national policy in 1845 to 1849. ​
• During this time, the United States expanded to the Pacific Ocean—"from sea to shining sea”​
• Contiguous United States, the region of the 48 adjoining states that touch one another as they are today.

End of the "Frontier"

American West

"Age of Manifest Destiny"

Manifest Destiny

Engage

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• the desire for military strength

• the belief in cultural superiority

• the desire for new markets and natural resources

Imperialism

American motivations for imperialism included:

• During the time of Reconstruction, the U.S. government showed no significant involvement in foreign affairs. ​
• Western expansion and the goal of Manifest Destiny still held the country’s attention and reconstruction of the South took up most of the nation’s resources.

Content

Imperlialism

Strategy 3

Military Strength

Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote The Influence of Seapower upon History. Suggested three strategies that would assist the United States in both constructing and maintaining an empire.​ ​

Strategy 1

Strategy 2

CONtent

New Markets & Natural Resources

As a new industrial United States began to emerge in the 1870s, farms and factories produced more food and goods than Americans could consume.

CONTENT

Farmers and industrialists supported new and stronger overseas connections so the United States would gain access to export goods to international markets.

American industries wanted greater and cheaper access to raw materials for their products.​

Chinese schoolchildren and their American teacher (top row, center) at the American Board of Missions in Peking, China, about 1900. Today, the capital city is known as Beijing.​ Photo by: Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images​ ​

CONTENT

Social Darwinism

Cultural Superiority

• Missionaries abroad not only taught Christian ideals and the Bible but also preached the American version of modern civilization and behaviors.​
• Many of these reformers believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was mentally superior to others and owed it to the presumed less evolved populations to improve their lives.

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CONTENT

American Imperialism

• American imperialism reached its height from the late 1800s through the years following World War II. ​
• The United States practiced imperialism or the political, social, and economic control over Native American people within its borders.​
• During this Age of Imperialism, the United States exerted imperialism in countries such as the Philippines, Cuba, and China.

Reflection

REVIEW

Imperialism...

Is a policy in which a stronger nation extends its economic, political, military, and social control over a weaker territory. ​ Example: British Imperialism in India: Britain controlled India for its resources, markets, and strategic value, transforming it into the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire.

Territories

DIfferent types:

Territory: A region under the direct control and administration of a country but not fully incorporated as a part of that country Colony: A land politically and economically controlled by a more powerful nation, often used for economic gain, resource extraction, or strategic purposes. Protectorate: A territory that maintains some local governance but is under the "protection" or oversight of a more powerful country, often justified by claims of cultural or political superiority.

The era from the War of 1812 to the acquisition of Alaska in 1867 has been called the "Age of Manifest Destiny." Manifest Destiny was the belief in the 1800s that the United States was destined to expand across North America. Americans thought it was their right and duty to spread their culture, democracy, and way of life.

What is Manifest Destiny?

The West

By 1890, settlement in the American West had reached sufficient population density that the frontier line had disappeared.

End of the Frontier

In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau, the agency that counts the population every ten years, announced that the frontier region of the United States no longer existed and it would no longer track the westward migration of the U.S. population.

Strategy 1

• First, he called for the government to build a larger, more powerful navy.

Strategy 2

• Second, he suggested establishing a network of naval bases around the globe to fuel this expanding fleet.

Strategy 3

• Finally the future construction of a canal across the isthmus of Central America, which would decrease by two-thirds the time and power required to move the new navy from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans.

Naval Act of 1890, which set production levels for a new, modern fleet.​ As a naval power, the country catapulted to the third strongest in world rankings by military experts, trailing only Spain and Great Britai

Naval Act of 1890

Rubber

The growing automobile industry had great demand for rubber used in the production of tires. Rubber trees grew mainly in tropical climates along the equator in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.​ ​ Picture: Rubber is first harvested as sap from the tree. Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began in 1900 with 12 men, and by 1906 reached over a million dollars in sales.​

Social Darwinism...

is the theory that alleged inferior races were destined to poverty on account of their lower evolutionary status.​

Several Protestant faiths formed missionary societies seeking to convert others to the Christian faith, particularly in Asia. Women missionaries composed over 60 percent of the overall missionary force. Their good intentions and willingness to work in difficult conditions shone through in the letters and articles they wrote from the field. Often in their writing, it was clear that they felt divinely empowered to change the lives of other, less fortunate, and presumably, less enlightened, people. Not all reformers held this racist view of intelligence and civilization.

Missionaries

Picture Caption: On the left, Native American students upon arrival at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and on the right, the same students four months later after being made to assimilate to white culture.