The rising of the United States Empire started in the 18th and 19th centuries taking the westward expansion of the coast colonies and armed campaigns against the original North Americans. Following the extension of its grip to the Northern lands in the later years of the nineteenth century; the US overseas expansion started to take shape and culminated at the onset of World War I, a time that witnessed other major powers suddenly expanding their overseas territories.
Various causes prompted the rapid expansion of the US. First, the United States had concluded its occupation of available neighboring areas in the North American continent. Secondly, America had the belief that markets abroad were significant to advance economic growth. This was because production and farming in the United States had surpassed its need for utilization and venturing out was a viable option. The dominance of racial discrimination also propagated the U.S overseas expansion due to a feeling of superiority over others.
The growth of the “Frontier Thesis” was an assumption that overseas expansion was important in keeping up the American spirit. The Influence of Sea Power in 1890 leaned on the proposal that a powerful navy encouraged trade, and thus had a great influence on policymakers such as Theodore Roosevelt and others of a vast navy. All through the 19th century, a number of new states were incorporated into the union as the state stretched from corner to corner of the continent. The westward extension in the United States was stimulated by the philosophy of Manifest Destiny.
Population pressure from the Eastern states prompted a steady increase of immigrants, who trickled into the country and possessed much of the land formerly inhabited by the Native American Indians. In a number of areas, the American Indian populations had been attacked by unfamiliar diseases caught through contact with European settlers and US settlers who had come in to occupy the empty lands. On different occasions, American Indians were forcefully moved from their native lands. It is this displacement of American Indians that continues to be a matter of controversy in the United States, with many tribes trying to assert their original claims to different lands that were snatched away.
Even though some may argue that the U.S wasn’t a colonial power until when it captured territories during the Spanish-American War, the authority exercised on land in North America effectively implies colonialism. It is also within this period, that the nation emerged as an industrial power and a hub for modernization and technological improvement.
The conclusion arrived at from the above is that the urge for expansion overseas basically exhibited the strong desire for a number of things among them; the need for natural resources such as minerals and fossil fuels, the strong yearning for land for agricultural land, and a market for their surplus products. The steady growth of manufacturing, the associated need for a continental network of transport, the development of a commercial marine, and the financial earnings of these activities played a great role in influencing America’s growth. The supporters of the various expansionist goals came up with their unique reasons for why the overseas expansion was a must.