Did the imperialists acquisitions during the late 19th and 20th centuries have a positive or negative impact on the United States? We are going to have to look through all the evidence to find out. After the civil war, the Americans showed most of their interest on rebuilding the South, building industries and settling over the West. Their minds were not on the expanding out of the country. In in the 1800’s the economic and military competition was growing in Europe. The United States seemed to be falling behind. Many Americans were starting to become convinced that we needed to become a world power, just like the fellow countries in Europe.
A development called New Imperialism was coming along. New Imperialism was the expansion of European nations overseas. There were many reasons why they were expanding overseas. They needed to import raw materials like coal, cotton, wood, etc for manufacturing. The industrialized nations had high tariffs. The high tariffs intended to reduce trade, which forced companies to look for new markets overseas and intended to protect domestic industries. There were also many investment opportunities that have slowed in Western Europe, so they had to begin to invest in overseas. To protect their investments, they had to begin giving out control on some territories. As the United States was industrializing, many Americans kept noticing the expansion of Europe overseas. The Americans thought that the nation needed new overseas markets to keep the economy strong. The United States was also working on a Navy, that would soon make them be one of the biggest world powers.
Europe extremely helped the United states with imperialism. They basically seemed to be the main inspiration. Now it is time to look into the very important imperialists acquisitions. President Millard Fillmore ordered Commodore Matthew C. Perry to negotiate a trade treaty with Japan. Japan feared the influence of western ideas and had limited...