Mrs. Hannon
American History Honors II
16 February 2018 Imperialism: A Necessary Evil
Imperialism. Something that wasn’t even thought of when America was first was created but was one of the most transforming points of our nation. Imperialism is expanding a country's power and culture to other countries. It really is taking over a country. Although, this would make us a superpower for decades to come. Imperialism would transform trade, military, and cultural superiority.
One of the main things that made us a world superpower was because of our military. Our military would install fear into those smaller countries for decades to come. This was all because of a man who is still relevant to the navy now, Alfred T. Mahan. …show more content…
Because of these ports being placed in specific locations that allowed for the military to have access to countries, we also had access to trade with these other countries. For example, we were able to trade with Asian countries due to Hawaii being a “Pit Stop” in the Pacific. There is one canal that was built that is just as important now as it was then, the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal was originally supposed to be built by the French, but they went into debt. America’s interest in the canal grew, and in 1902 the Senate voted to build the canal in Panama. Although, when the terms were shown to Colombia's Congress, they agreed the financial terms weren’t good enough and rejected the offer. To gain trust, Roosevelt sent U.S warships to Panama City to support Panama’s independence. This directly shows imperialism because Roosevelt was acting as the “international police”, Roosevelt supported them to have the ability to build the canal. After Panama gained independence, the United States had gained the right to build the canal. On top of that, America agreed that Panama would keep their independence (“Building the Panama Canal.”); which is Roosevelt playing the “international police” again. This transformed the United States and the World. Trade was a slow, costly, but necessary thing. The Panama Canal sped up shipping and cut down costs since traveling was cut short. The Canal would make it, so ships could cross between the Pacific and Atlantic without having to scale the entire South American