and this became an impetus for conflicts in places like Cuba and the Philippines.

Making such conquest palatable to a voting public that often is uneasy about spending money and lives fighting unnecessary wars happily found a rationale in an ideology that stated that, rather than exploiting resources in controlling other countries, we were taking on the humanitarian burden of civilizing "backwards" populations and bringing them a superior way of life.

The US, watching the European powers dividing up Africa in this period, saw that Europe had grown wealthy through imperialism and wanted a piece of this seemingly-lucrative pie. The nation had the resources to invest to become an imperialist power and took advantage of the possibility.

From about the time of the War of 1812 onward, the industrial interests in the U.S. held the American consumers as their own captive market through the tariff on imported goods. The tariff made foreign-made goods more expensive, so that most of the time, American consumers bought American-made goods. This was particularly difficult for the Southern states, where industry was less developed, and played a role in the tensions that led to the Civil War. Industry in the US could not produce goods as cheaply as did England or France, so the US had to acquire markets by force. So they set about acquiring for themselves captive markets outside of the United States: exclusive trading privileges in the Latin-American republics and part of China, as well as through outright possession of Hawaii and the Philippines.

American imperialism was motivated by four main factors: economic, political, geographic, and cultural.

The economic factors were desires to find new markets for trade. By extending colonial power throughout the world, the US would have new trading partners and markets. In addition, the US would be closer to new markets; when the US became a colonial power in the Philippines, it opened up trade with East Asia.

Politically, imperialism was spreading nationalism/patriotism. It would be a point of pride to maintain colonies globally. It also makes sense from a military standpoint to have colonies in different regions of the world in case a military operation needs to be launched; this is the case with Guam, which was an American base during WWII that allowed US military operations to be carried out in the Pacific theater against Japan.

Geographically, America has interest in competing for land alongside its European counterparts. In the late 19th century, Africa was carved into pieces by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference. Europeans gained land and resources in Africa, and the US wanted to join in on land gains across the world. This ties in with the economic factors; with more land, you are virtually guaranteed to expand your capacity for trade and gain new natural resources.

Culturally, the US wanted to extend its influence and way of life throughout the world. This reason also includes a desire for humanitarianism, wanting to help out countries and peoples the US perceived to be politically, economically, or culturally impoverished. This concept was outlined in Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden," where Kipling is making the argument that other countries are not civilized (read: living Western lifestyles) and it is therefore Americans' and Europeans' duty/burden to help them. Please understand that it is thinly veiled racism to assume that other cultures that are not Western are in any way uncivilized.

There are a number of reasons. First of all, American businesses looked for new markets abroad, and so some kind of imperial policy was thought necessary to achieve this goal. European colonial powers such as Great Britain and France had pursued such a policy for many years with much success; and as the American economy was rapidly becoming the world's largest, there was a certain logic to the United States emulating their example.

With growing economic power went growing political and military power. The United States was now recognized as a major player in international politics, and imperialism was a natural outcome of this. European countries had enhanced their standing on the world stage by the acquisition, development, and exploitation of their colonies, and it was thought that the United States might also do this. No longer was it enough for the United States to see itself as a beacon of liberty or the land of opportunity; it must also be respected in the old-fashioned way: as a colonial power.

Nevertheless, American imperialism was of a somewhat different character from that pursued by the Europeans. For one thing, strategic influence was considered more important than the simple acquisition of territory. Americans understood the value of soft power in addition to more assertive expressions of military might, or as Theodore Roosevelt famously put it, to "speak softly and carry a big stick."

Whatever the consequences of imperial policy may have been, there's no doubt that many of the architects of this policy genuinely believed that the United States was spreading the principles of American liberty abroad, a liberty that was presented favorably in comparison with European colonialism and its effects. American imperialism was often presented in an emancipatory guise. We can see this, for instance, in the assistance given by the US government to Cuban nationalists in driving out the Spanish and also in the occupation of the Philippines by the Americans after they had defeated Spain in the Spanish–American War. In both cases, US imperialism was presented as wholly benign, concerned to disseminate the benefits of American liberty while preventing European colonial powers from expanding their influence across the globe.

The United States pursued a policy of imperialism in the late 1800s and in the early 1900s for several reasons. One reason was that we had already expanded to the Pacific Ocean, and there were people in our country that believed it was our duty to spread our way of life to other countries. These people believed our way of life was superior to the way of living in other countries.

Another reason why we pursued a policy of imperialism was because we wanted to be viewed as a world power. World power countries, like Great Britain and France, had colonies beyond their borders. We didn’t have these colonies and felt we needed them to be viewed as a strong country.

Some people believed there would be economic benefits to colonization. They believed we would increase our trade if we gained colonies. This would help our businesses and our economy grow as we expanded our control over other places.

These forces helped drive the spirit of imperialism that existed in our country at this time.