Arthur Administration - Foreign Issues
Foreign Issues
A few short years after Chester Arthur's presidency, U.S. opinion makers had once again embraced the goal of a larger role for the United States in the world. The concept of the United States's "manifest destiny" to "o'er-spread the continent"—a notion that dated back to the western migration of the 1840s just before the war with Mexico—was, by the end of the century, being applied to a larger mandate to carry the U.S. flag and the Christian religion to the benighted regions of the Pacific Ocean. The confidence of these end-of-century Americans stemmed in part from the fact that most of the emerging leaders of that generation, such as Teddy Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president, had never fought a war. They yearned to "earn their spurs" in war. The leaders of James Garfield and Arthur's generation, however, had seen all too much of war. The American Civil War (1861–65) had chastened them. They were ready to profit, if...
[The entire page is 570 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
