Forces that Led America to the Path of Empire
America in its early years experienced civil wars. After the war Americans embarked on serious issues to develop their country’s economy (Horace, 2004). The urge to develop the nation brought about agrarian revolution where food from the farms was produced in large quantities.
They also produced industrial goods in large volumes. The large volumes of goods from the industries and agriculture created the need for greater market. In addition to that the industries needed a lot of raw materials for their industries to produce more goods. There was also the need to spread Christianity and civilization to other parts of the world. These reasons made America to create interest in controlling other countries to maximize their opportunities (Divine, Breen, & Fredrickson, 2010).
America wanted to show off its pride to other nations how it was becoming superior to them. This made the Americans to desire moving in all parts of the world. As they travelled around, they got interested in gaining control over strategic places. It prompted the either to buy the area, take the area by force or use tricks to control such areas. For example the Panama area was bought by the American president (Horace, 2004).
The Start of War between America and Spain
America had great interest to control Cuba during and after the civil war although Spain had already established its control over it. Then the Ten Year insinuation broke out in 1868. The Cuban government declared independence from Spain colonization in the process. The US tried to negotiate for peace but all went in vain then American secretary Fish ensured that America refrained from intervening into the matter (Horace, 2004).
In 1873, American gun runners were found providing support to the Cuban rebels by the Spanish troops. They captured Vessels of USS side then executed him including the US side. Before being apprehended, he sent a letter to his wife. This fueled the matter but Fish managed to resolve the matter peacefully. In 1895, the Spain sent over 50,000 troops to Cuba.
The troops fired at the US steamer. The Americans had a lot of investment in Cuba including mining and sugar cooperation’s. During the struggle for independence in Cuba, the Americans involved in negotiation by sending two ambassadors, the two ambassadors worked in different directions making the issue serious.
Journalists created competition in selling their articles thereby using lies to gain more customers to read their articles known as “the Yellow Pages.” This made the matter even more serious leading to the public pushing the president Mckinley to declare war against the Spain. The matter worsened when the American marine blew up killing more than 200 Americans (Horace, 2004).
On 25, April 1898, America indicated that it did not have any effort to annex Cuba. “Splendid Little War,” left the youth eager to fight for their country. The navy on the other side had good trim and destroyed the Manila Bay for the Spanish in Philippines. The Americans managed to defeat the Spain although they incurred minor injuries (Divine et al, 2010).
American Empire at the End of Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt came into power as the American president during the revolutionary time in the year 1901. This is the time when American had fought and won the war against the Spain in Cuba. Panama was part of Columbia at this time. Roosevelt wanted to extend the territory to other spheres so, he came up with proposal to join together with the revolutionaries from Colombia.
This was great for him because he was to put up a canal that would enable easier movement of people and goods across the island. During his time he put up government structures that required every governor to do whatever he could to develop his territory. He gave them authority to work within the provision of the law. He also participated in peace negotiations in the rest of the world although he had the interest of the America in his mind (Horace, 2004).
References
Divine, R., Breen, T. H. & Fredrickson, G.M. (2010). America: Past and Present: Volume 2: Since 1865. New York: Longman Publishing Group, ISBN 0205699952
Horace, G. (2004), The Gallup Poll, Public Opinion, New York: SAGE