U.S. Shift from Isolationism to Imperialism: Causes

Introduction

America's so-called "shift" from isolationism and continental expansion to imperialism by the late 19th and early 20th centuries was really nothing more than a natural evolution of America's Manifest Destiny. Before the U.S. could enter its imperial phase — beginning with the Spanish-American War at the turn of the century — it had first to square accounts on the continent by pushing its borders as far as they could go. Once the West had been thoroughly settled and the Union held together (the major domestic conflict of the 19th century), the U.S. could turn its attention to foreign lands and global plans to facilitate the spread of American power.

It would have been impossible for the U.S. to achieve imperial objectives any earlier, for up to the end of the 19th century it had its hands full defining itself at home, securing the land from other groups, tribes, and nations, and staving off collapse from internal opposition. The victory of the Union over the Confederacy settled the matter once and for all regarding who controlled the destiny of the U.S.: it would be the central government — not the individual states. Even though Hamilton had argued in the Federalist Papers that a central government would be needed to prevent individual states from becoming entangled in foreign wars, the opposite proved to be the real truth: the central government would now have free rein to entangle the whole country in foreign wars, and it would do so throughout the entire 20th century. The only dilemma would be how to convince the American public that entanglement in foreign wars was truly in their best interest.

The yellow journalism used to justify the Spanish-American War was not the first case of the government using the press as its own public relations department, but it did start a trend that grew into what the press has become today: a vehicle for official messaging, often masked under a cloak of humanitarianism. The cry of "Remember the Maine!" was how sensationalist journalists motivated the average American to back the war against Spain for possession of colonial territory in the Philippines. Other Americans — notably figures in the women's movement as well as literary figures like Mark Twain — deplored the imperial plans of the federal government. When Woodrow Wilson ran for re-election, he campaigned on the promise of keeping America out of World War I, but he soon betrayed that promise after the sinking of the Lusitania. He still needed to curry favor with the public, and he did so by persuading Carrie Chapman Catt and the women's movement to set aside their anti-war principles in exchange for the right to vote. With women now supporting the war effort, America's transition into an imperial nation became considerably smoother (Peck 1944, 43).

The Social Dimension of American Imperialism

Before all this, the concept of Manifest Destiny had paved the way for the notion of American exceptionalism. O'Sullivan (1845) coined the phrase, arguing that it was America's manifest destiny to take control of the West from indigenous and native populations, including Mexicans and Native American tribes. This notion fed into White Anglo-Saxon Protestants' view of themselves as God's chosen people. The same idea was later used to justify the American colonization of the Philippines: it was, in this view, the United States' "white man's burden" to civilize the Philippines by instilling Protestant values and displacing its existing Catholic culture.

Politics and economics were always intertwined in America. The War for Independence was essentially a war waged by the Founding Fathers so that they could expand their land holdings. The spoils of that war were further increased through the Indian Removal Act, which forced Native Americans out of the Southeast. The Louisiana Purchase expanded America's boundaries, and the annexation of Texas did the same. As America pushed westward, European nations expanded globally in a race for resources. It had become a global contest for dominance by the end of the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed the nature of the world economy.

Conclusion

The primary motive of America's shift from isolationism to imperialism was business, plain and simple. America had really only been isolationist for a time — time enough to take over the land to the West and prevent secession. The Industrial Revolution substantially altered global markets and created an environment in which nations scrambled to secure their footing around the world in the race for natural resources. Smith's vision in Wealth of Nations devolved into a zero-sum game: rather than all nations sharing in the wealth, one nation would seek to control the board and dictate terms to weaker states.