American History Apclass

The United States of America was an expansionist country since the colonial era. Americans have been expanding their borders up until the Civil War, which brought a temporary stoppage to the expansion. After the Civil War, however, Americans were looking to expand again. This time the expansion turned out to be in the form of Imperialism, which was the acquiring of land possessions in order to extend the power of the nation. This new expansion was to an extent, a continuation of the old expansion in the terms that the old expansion did not have any specification about how far to expand, but it was more of a departure from the old expansion, in which new market, social Darwinism, and religious aspects fueled the extension. America's hunger for land and power led it to depart from its original foreign policies and expand worldwide, such as large parts of Asia and the Caribbean. For example, doc A. shows a world and people [with country “grab bags”], like Germany & Britain, taking land, which shows the world dividing.
The departures have grown on a parallel with US power. The growth of the navy gained bargaining power for the US. With our big stick we had the means to venture into non contiguous lands, such as the Philippines and even China. We began expanding to find markets for our ever-growing production. Once we had conquered the continental United States we saw that we had the ambition to take on the world, as well as a faith in God that expanded Manifest Destiny across bodies of water into previously unobtainable lands. Document C underlines the importance of naval power, as well as outlining the three necessary obligations. “First, protection of the chief harbors, by fortification and coast-defense ships…Secondly, naval force, the arm of offensive power, which alone enables a country to extend its influence outward. Thirdly, no foreign state should henceforth acquire a coaling position within three thousand miles of San Francisco…” (Doc C). The importance of...