Word: expansionism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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But the history of 19th century U.S. expansion is precisely a history of territorial takeover beginning with a revolution which, if anything, diminished the prospects for self-determination among non-white oppressed groups in North America.
Once the North had won the Civil War, the direction of future expansion, both in the West and overseas, was set. Markets, outlets for investment and, secondarily, sources of raw materials were what the North wanted, not slave labor territories to support a landed upper class.
The great problem arose once the United States reached the Pacific, and the territory that it had been her "manifest destiny" to occupy had been taken. Half of the 25-year period between the end of reconstruction and the Spanish-American War were years of depression. Workers employed in railroad...
Historians have rightly insisted that U.S. expansionist efforts cannot be explained along the lines of a strict cost-benefit analysis of businessmen's profits. Social conditions in the late 19th century just as domestic unrest today established the context within which expansion might be pursued.
The solution to the Far East dilemma emerged in the form of the "Open Door" strategy, a plan to protect prospective U.S. commercial expansion while renouncing any intention of formally occupying Chinese territory. Through a series of notes to England, France, Germany and Russia, Secretary of State John Hay proposed...