7.1 Imperialism: Debates

The closing years of the nineteenth century marked the emergence of the United States as a global power. Expansionists argued that the nation’s economic strength, strategic security, and moral duty required it to extend influence beyond its continental borders. Advocates such as Alfred Thayer Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Cabot Lodge believed that national greatness depended on overseas markets and naval supremacy. Their ideas linked economic ambition with racial and cultural hierarchy, portraying nonwhite peoples as beneficiaries of American civilization.