Using the following prompts as a point of departure, write a brief response paper incorporating your assessment and analysis of American Imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From republic to empire seemed a fateful step. What caused the sudden change from liberator to oppressor? Empire provided a diversion from injustices at home. It served big business interests [according to some]. Much of the ardor may have come from the sense that an empire had become the kind of status symbol that would distinguish major powers from insignificant ones. (Summers, p. 271) Most Americans emerged from the conflicts of the 1890s into the prosperous, imperial twentieth century with a great sense of relief. Although the minority of anti-imperialists, particularly blacks, often cited the trampling of human rights that accompanied colonialism and white supremacy, empire, with its colonialist rule, exclusionary rhetoric, and ranking of races, reinforced the hierarchical side of American values and downplayed fairness. In discussions of politics and economics, too, the new century brought and identity-of-interest emphasis on prosperity that minimized questions of equity. (Painter, pp. 168-169) What do you think? Why did the . become an imperial power was it as simple as the country growing up and reaching adulthood, reaching equality with the great powers of Europe?
