Question

Why did Americans increasingly support imperialism during the 1880s?

Accepted Answer

Many Americans began to support imperialism in the late nineteenth century for a number of reasons. Let us look at a few of them.
Many believed that the United States needed new markets for its manufactured goods. Without these markets, it was thought, industry would overproduce, leading to a catastrophic economic meltdown and depression like the Panic of 1873. So many leaders advocated expanding American influence around the world through imperialism. Also, as business interests expanded to other places (like sugar plantations in Hawaii and the Caribbean) Americans demanded that these interests be protected by U.S. foreign policy.
As the United States emerged as an economic power, many Americans wanted to assert its role as a great nation in the world. Germany had just become unified in the 1870s, and was already beginning to gain colonies in Africa. So many in the United States thought it a matter of national honor to seize possessions in the Pacific and the Caribbean.
The late nineteenth century was a time when whites around the world were becoming even more convinced of their own racial and cultural superiority. The United States was no exception, and people argued that the white men of the United States had a moral duty to spread the benefits of civilization to people deemed "inferior." American Christian missionaries were strongly influenced by this ideal. Still others, strongly influenced by the collection of beliefs known as "Social Darwinism" saw global affairs as a pitiless struggle where "superior" Americans should be open and remorseless in dominating peoples around the world.
Americans came to belief in the importance of naval power, and sought to gain navy bases around the world. This went hand-in-hand with the idea of expanding markets.
All of these were reasons why many in the United States supported imperialist policies. But it is important to remember that many Americans did not. Anti-imperialism was a powerful sentiment in American politics, attracting a broad coalition of people that included businessmen and Progressive reformers.

Answer

During the 1880s, many Americans supported imperialism. One reason for this was to find new markets for American goods. American industry was producing goods faster than American consumers could buy them. Many looked to Asia as a new market. This meant acquiring coaling stations in the Pacific.
Another reason was for national pride. By the 1880s, the Western frontier was starting to close. Frederick Jackson Turner in the next decade would write that Americans would lose their frontier ethos if there were not new places to explore and settle. Already Britain, France, and Germany had major holdings in Africa. Some in the United States believed that a colonial empire was synonymous with national pride. There was also the possibility of gaining raw materials from these colonial possessions—raw materials that could help feed an industrial machine with unlimited production potential.
Finally, there was the issue of spreading American culture and democracy. Americans were aware of the poor treatment that native people in Africa received from their colonial masters. Without acknowledging the generations of land theft perpetrated by the US government against its own Native Americans, many in the United States thought that they could rule overseas colonies more benevolently than the Europeans. American missionaries wanted colonial possessions in order to spread Christianity all over the globe. Some in the United States saw spreading American culture and religion as a duty from God that must be fulfilled.

Answer

In his Farewell Address, George Washington had advocated for isolationism, believing rightly that the new, young, relatively weak nation had to look inward and consolidate itself rather than getting involved in European conflicts that could sap its strength.
By the late nineteenth century, however, the situation in the United States had changed. Industrialism after the Civil War turned the country into a very wealthy nation, poised to become a world superpower. At the same, by the end of the nineteenth century, the US had run out of territory to conquer on the North American continent. With money and muscle to flex, and nowhere else to go, the United States began to look outward, seeking to build an empire as the powerful European countries had done.
The United States was strategic in its acquisitions, taking over countries it felt were in its sphere of influence, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, all of which it won in the Spanish-American War. These countries consolidated US power in the Western hemisphere and provided new markets for US goods.

Answer

In 1845, newspaper editor John O'Sullivan coined the term "Manifest Destiny." This philosophy claimed that it was the moral responsibility of the United States to spread its culture and bring civilization to "uncivilized" lands. The argument was used to help persuade the country to annex Texas from Mexico. Later in the nineteenth century, the term was used by President William McKinley as he argued that the US should annex the Republic of Hawaii.
The Second Great Awakening, a movement of Christian religious fervor, helped bring support for Manifest Destiny. People believed it was God's will that they move west and bring Christianity to what they perceived as the heathen Native Americans. The same motive was applied to occupying lands like Texas, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged these attitudes by giving free land in the western territories to those willing to move and build on that land. It became part of the American culture to continue expanding, which encouraged the popularity of imperialist attitudes later in the century.

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Why did Americans increasingly support imperialism during the 1880s?

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