РефератыИностранный языкDoDoes Imperialism Really Work Essay Research Paper

Does Imperialism Really Work Essay Research Paper

Does Imperialism Really Work? Essay, Research Paper


Period 3 Novermber 9, 2000


Does Imperialism Really Work?


Imperialism is a policy by a stronger nation to create an empire by


dominating weaker nations economically, politically, culturally, or militarily. It


doesn’t work for the most part. It strains relations between countries and generally


creates bad feelings. Almost every time the United States got involved in a foreign


place it caused trouble. The main times that strained relations occurred were


durring the late eighteen hundreds in Latin America and the far east. Hawaii, for


example, was annexed when the government that was in place there was working


perfectly fine. The Filipino people rebeled against the United States forces when


they became a territory of the U.S. Cuba was helped toward independence by the


U.S., but they also put an amendment in their constitution that limited their trade


and involvement with countries other than the U.S. very greatly. I agree with the


statement “Imperialism usually causes strained relations between the countries


involved.”


The United States involvment in Hawaii was definetely an example of


imperialism causing strained relations. The original reason that the U.S. got


involved with Hawaii was for trade. They were also leasing Pearl Harbor from


them as a naval fueling station. The king of Hawaii was forced to sign a revised


constitution that essentially gave the U.S. control of Hawaii. In 1891 his sister


came to power. She opposed U.S. control in Hawaii and because of this was


removed from power. Shortly after this Hawaii was annexed by the United States


with little thought to how the natives felt or whether they could govern themselves.


The Hawaii annexation is a good example of strained relations caused by


imperialism.


The Phillipines also didn’t respond well to American imperialism. When


the U.S. bought the Philipines from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American war,


they justified themselves by saying that the Filipino people were unfit to govern


themselves. They also said tha

t if the U.S. hadn’t taken over someone else would


have. When the Filipinos found out about this they felt that they had been stabbed


in the back. They had fought with the American troops against Spain durring the


Spanish-American War expecting to get independence in the end. Now they had a


new owner instead. A vicious war broke out between the U.S. and the Philipines


that lasted over three years. That would be a definite example of strained relations.


America’s involvement in Cuba was also not as friendly as most would have


liked for it to be. After Cuba had been having problems with Spain for a while,


America got involved to protect their trade interest. After the Spainsh-American


War got it’s independence, but because of the chaotic environment at the time,


President McKinley installed a military government there. It remained there for


three years. When the Cuban government finally did start to draft a constitution


the U.S. made them include a bunch of provisions outlined in the Platt


Amendment. The provisions included not letting the Cuban government enter in


any foreign agreements, Cuba must allow the U.S. to have two naval bases on the


island, and Cuba had to give America the right to intervene whenever they felt it


was necessary. All of these things couldn’t help but cause some strained relations


between Cuba and the U.S.


The statement “Imperialism usually causes strained relations between the


countries involved” is definitely true. America’s involvement in the far east and


Latin America are good examples of this. When the U.S. annexed Hawaii they did


it without even consdering the well being of the natives of the islands. The


Philipines was expecting independence when they helped America in the Spanish-


American War, but instead they got a new owner. Cuba was helped toward its


independence by the U.S. but then the Platt Amendment was added to their


constitution limiting their contact with countries other than America. Any one of


these things would be enough to get on a person’s nerves. For the most part


nothing good comes from imperialism.

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