The Empire And The People

1 Pages 257 Words

“The Empire and the People”

Americans have the need to expand and set their goals high. Oversea expansion wasn’t a new idea that just popped up, but revived again. There have been many oversea probes and interventions by the 1890s and from that, ideology of expansion was widespread. The Monroe Doctrine even glanced southward into and beyond the Caribbean. Captain A. T. Mahan (well-known propagandist for expansion) was influential to American leaders as well as Theodore Roosevelt. He said that the biggest navies would inherit the earth, which was their Manifest Destiny. Now, it’s time for them to set their eyes on inheritance other than within the boundaries of the United States. It’s progress for the Americans to expand and want what they do not have (expand their sight and goals; take more land).
Trade is very important to American merchants, and foreign trade was of greater relevance. Theodore Roosevelt talked about expansion and that it wasn’t just for manliness and heroism, but also for the “trade relations with China.” In 1898, 90% of American products were sold at home. The 10% was sold abroad and amounted to about a billion dollars. Oil was a huge export in the 1880s and the 1890s. Thanks to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, which accounted for 90% of American exports of kerosene, controlled 70% of the world market. This made oil the second leading overseas product nest to cotton. If it weren’t for foreign trade and exports, the United States would have a surplus of goods and that would lead to a depression....