{"id":156,"date":"2018-09-07T19:50:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T19:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/primary-sources\/?page_id=156"},"modified":"2018-10-30T23:36:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T23:36:12","slug":"global-expansion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/primary-sources\/sources-and-more\/global-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Placing U.S. Global Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In the 21st<\/sup> century, the United States is defined as a world power for its economic and political influence.\u00a0 This status did not happen overnight, but was a step-by-step expansion that occurred across a century.\u00a0 After the United States won the War of 1812 over Great Britain and solidified itself as an independent nation, the country moved towards its own territorial expansion.\u00a0 To take a stand against continuing European interference in the Western Hemisphere, President Monroe issues his doctrine announcing to the world that the U.S. is the leading power in the Americas.\u00a0 Europe should stay an ocean away.\u00a0 After fulfilling its Manifest Destiny, the US expanded globally through purchasing territory, winning conflicts, and putting diplomatic pressure on other nations.\"\"<\/p>\n

In East Asia, the US pushed the door open by landing the fleet of Commodore Perry on Japanese soil laying the foundation for years of future trade.\u00a0 At the end of the 19th<\/sup> Century the US stood up to European powers in its push to make China open to trade with all nations.\u00a0 At the same time, the Spanish American War provided the context for gaining the majority of U.S. territories after fulfilling the Monroe Doctrine promise and aiding Caribbean and Southeast Asian nations in the movements for Independence against Spain.\u00a0 The larger than life personality of Theodore Roosevelt emerged as the face of American global expansion.\u00a0 Through his rise to notoriety in the Spanish American War to his display of military power with the Great White Fleet, and then the economic investment into the Panama Canal, Teddy took center stage.\u00a0 The annexation of territories that desired their independence such as Hawaii and the Philippines, gained the U.S. the reputation as an imperial nation from conquered peoples who saw the U.S. as hypocrites.\u00a0 Finally, the United States moved from a peripheral world influence to taking the center stage with victory in WWI.\u00a0\u00a0 Having crossed the Atlantic to aid European nations, the United States would be the leading diplomatic and military influence on world affairs.<\/p>\n

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