Imperialism in the Western World

Prompt: Using the following sources, discuss the main arguments of the imperialism debate in the turn-of-the-century Western world and its specific effect on United States foreign policy of that time period.

In the early 20th century, the issue of imperialism was an extremely important issue. Imperialism, the thought of increasing wealth through free trade, determined the future of the entire world. Instead of dealing on a continental basis, the ocean was used to expand countries into colonizing other lands such as Cuba and Puerto Rico. With the expansion of countries, conflict was inevitable. Two sides of the imperialism debate were established, imperialism and anti-imperialism. Advocators of imperialism believed in national security, economic gain, and improving the world morally. Those against imperialism thought of moral consequences and the fear of the natives. Imperialism affected the United States foreign policy through the different thoughts and the different conflicts that occurred. With these conflicts, an imperialistic point of view was mostly made, and as a result United States foreign policy grew economically but sunk morally.

The view of modern imperialism is the thought of increasing wealth through free trade and receiving more power through the acquisition of more land. Through this diversification, trading would take place and more diverse products would be traded. Imperialism is based on capital investments, as well as extracting as many resources from the land as possible. There was a problem presented with imperialism: in order to extract as many resources as possible from the land, one would need the cooperation with the native peoples. Natives do not cooperate with the imperialist ideals, as the sophisticated ideals of a global economy and efficiency were unknown. In order to bring upon the natives a new system in which they did not agree with, physical violence was necessary. Europeans and imperialists sent their own representatives and armies en masse into colonies. They brought upon the native lands Fordism and Taylorism, thus teaching the natives to be more efficient as well as bringing upon new technologies in which the natives can use, increasing efficiency even more. In the early 20th century the state of native technologies in Africa and other colonized lands was extremely unsophisticated. Sticks, stones, and wooden huts were used in the native African lands. Europeans brought steel tools, and advanced weaponry.

There were many reasons why European and American colonists wanted imperialism. A large reason is the ease of taking over the native peoples. In the early 20th century, a huge technological gap was between the natives and the colonists, thus making it extremely easy for imperialists to invade native lands and gaining control of the native society. With the occupation of native lands, imperialists also had a religious motivation. The imperialists imposed religion upon the natives,