Anti Imperialist League

In the late 19th century the U.S. got possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines and the Anti-imperialist league were people who disagreed with U.S. 's colonial expansion and how it was becoming an imperial power. Both Moorfield Storey and Carl Schurz were Anti-imperialist. Storey believed that a country 's worth should not be measured by its might or size rather it should be measured by its moral standing. Carl Schurz believed that fake patriots always call for war but are unwilling to fight it, they do it just so they can be called brave and patriots. The War prayer was the antiwar piece that was written by mark twain.

Those who favored colonial expansion and the foundation of foreign colonies had different justifications for believing so. There were those who believed their race to be the superior race, and that because God had given them the gifts of knowledge and land, it was their mission to educate and govern the inferior races. Albert Beveridge, a former Uniter States Senator in the late 18th century, was a strong supporter and defender of imperialism. Using religion and divine right to justify the taking over of other nations, Beveridge claimed that God had given them the means and power to reach out to inferior nations and spread the ideals of Christianity. He even went so far as to state that it would be immoral and selfish of the American people to rise to this call of expansion.

Imperialism in third world countries was a very good thing that impacted the world in a very positive way. The countries that we have today would not be here without the hard working civilized America and Great Brittan. True that they benefited; but we owe our gratitude for our world today to them. Civilizing the uncivilized is no easy feat.

The most powerful objection raised by the Antifederalists, however, revolved around on the lack of protection for individual liberties in the Constitution. Most of the state constitutions of the era had built on the Virginia model that included an accurate protection of individual rights that could not be intruded upon by the state. This was seen as a central deserved fate of people's rights and was considered a major revolutionary improvement over the unwritten protections of the British constitution. The bill of rights was supported as an essential by anti-fed because in the original Constitution was seen as a real threat to individual citizens’ liberties. They believed that they didnt need to get rid of the articles of confederation but all they needed was to ammend it.

I). These people were scared that the new governments would benefit the selected few in office but would hurt the general population, which in reality, is a valid and understandable fear considering that the beginning of the United States had to deal with an unfair King of England taxing and hurting the colonist while benefitting himself from the newly settled economy of the original thirteen colonies. All in all, although the anti-expansion thinkers had valid issues and arguments that sometimes did show to be true, they didn’t have nearly as much influence as the pro-expansion thinkers due to the fact that the United States did extend from sea to shining sea successfully and

“The Declaration of Independence” The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would now regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these states formed a new nation – the United States of America .

The Anti-Federalist wanted a middle class as representatives because by perusing their own interests, they would peruse the interest of most citizens, preserving their

Declaration of Independence Precis Thomas Jefferson in his historical document, The Declaration of Independence (1776), asserts that the colonies should break free from Britain’s tyranny. Jefferson supports his assertion through the use of anaphora, parallel structure, imagery, emotional appeal to patriotism, and logical appeal to the colonist’s basic rights. Jefferson’s purpose is to advocate for the separation of Britain and the colonies in order to escape the British tyranny that King George imposes on the American colonists. Jefferson writes in a measured tone for the British parliament, King George, and for colonists who have been a victim of Britain’s oppression.

Their efforts were not successful on a large scale because of the great momentum the movement had taken up in the end of the 19th century. The political cartoonist Thomas Nast, renowned for exposing the infamous misdeeds of Boss Tweed, created the cartoon depicted in Document A. It shows the great powers England, Germany, and Russia divvying up the world into their spoils bags, which parodies imperialism and shows its viewed immorality. Nast’s drawing is an attempt to detach the United States from similarities to the expansionist nations by showing the injustice of their actions. More blatant in desire against expansionism and imperialism was the American Anti-Imperialist league, who attempted to dissuade the Americans from continuing to pursue overseas ventures, especially in the Philippines.

The reasons did United States foreign policy change between 1920 and 1941 was mainly because of World War II. In the 1920’s, historians have considered the United States to be an isolationist country. Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding said that he opposed the League because it does not correspond with our constitution, even saying it would be a “deadly blow at our constitutional integrity”

At the start of the 19th century, America was already expanding its territory. In 1803, the United States of America had bought the Louisiana Territory, it was bought from France which had made the country two times larger. In 1819 Spain had given up their territory of Florida to the United States. President Monroe issued the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823, its main purpose was to warn the European countries to not enter the Western Hemisphere. In order for America to achieve its goal of becoming an imperialist nation they had conquered other countries economically, culturally, and with a strong military in the late 1800’s.

Imperialism was not justified for multiple reasons because imperialism did improve the lives of many natives and increased global trade, but the majority of the world ended up hurting from it. The negatives outway the positives

Imperialism was motivated by, “political ambitions… Nation’s will to power… or glory or national greatness,” (Doc 3). Imperialism for many countries is caused to improve the nation’s overall power. Additionally, according to President Mckinley, the U.S.’s involvement of Imperialism in the Philippines, was due to the fact that, “They were unfit for self-government,”(Doc. 7). The U.S. believed that there was nothing else for them to do, but take them over.

In being an anti-imperialist the worrisome is not that one opposes the idea of expansion of religion, commercial, and constitutional. It’s that with the annexing of these tropical islands would come to a result of the American system of self government would be that America might abandon this idea that makes America that nation it is to this point. Three reasons why the U.S should avoid imperialism is because it fails to follow that criteria of the constitution, could lead to tyrants like behavior, and could lead to conflict One argument that can’t be missed is the fact that the constitutions sets forth a principle that states “consent of the governed” after further research this means that to imperialize and annex other islands would violate

President Woodrow Wilson established America’s goal for joining World War I as “making the world safe for democracy.” At the conclusion of the War, President Wilson declared fourteen principles for peace to be used during the Paris Peace Conference, called the Fourteen Points. The most important of these points was the final point: a general association of nations with the guarantees of political and territorial independence and security. As the Peace Conference progressed, more nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles and joined the League of Nations, the embodiment of President Wilson’s fourteenth point. However, Senate the United States, from President Wilson’s own country, did not ratify the treaty.