Why does the united states become imperial power at the end of 19th century?

Same reason a dog licks his, well you know...





Because it could.





Also because it was fashionable. Having an empire and being on the gold standard were considered the hallmarks of the Great Nations of the world, and we already were on the gold standard, William Jennings Bryan notwithstanding.





Edit: In fact, America has been an imperialist power since Day One. Read the ENTIRE Declaration of Indendence sometime. Specifically, this passage:





"He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands."





That's Jefferson's way of complaining that the British are preventing the colonies from advancing west into (colonizing) the lands taken from France in the French and Indian War; the British instead wanted those lands to remain in the hands of their Indian allies, in recognition of their loyalty.





Jefferson's also the one "buys" Louisiana from Napoleon a few years later, with no consideration of the wishes of all this land's actual residents. The American empire doubles in size in the first thirty years.





Forty years later, it's Mexico's turn. The empire doubles in size again, and now extends to the Pacific.





That's not good enough, though. Alaska is "bought" from Russia, again taking no account of the wishes of the people who live there. Hawaii's sovereign government is toppled and the empire has a mid-ocean naval base. Turns out to be an excellent staging point for the empire's advance to Asia (Philippines) while it also expands into the Caribbean (Cuba, Purto Rico).





Just like you can't say you don’t torture just by defining everything you do as “not torture”; you can’t say you’re not an empire just by saying the word doesn’t apply.

Why does the united states become imperial power at the end of 19th century?
We had conquered the continent and felt we needed to expand with Hawaii, the Philippines, Panama Canal, and Puerto Rico. We had a navy on two coasts. We wanted to be a big power.
Reply:Excuse me. But the United States has never become an imperial power. It is not an imperial power today nor has it ever been.





As vice president Dick Cheney correctly pointed out that if the USA were an imperialistic power we would certainly be occupying a greater landmass on the planet than we are now.





Every U.S. military base in a foreign country is being paid for by the United States after we received permission to be there.





The U.S. has not increased its territory since the Spanish/American War which we justly acquired reparations from a hard-won victory.





Whoever told you that the USA was imperialist is feeding you a lot of anti-American/anti-Bush propaganda.

scooter