Imperialism Discussion

For class on Monday/Tuesday of next week, please read the following links and quotes and prepare written answers to the questions below. If you did not participate in the seminar last time, you can expect to speak in class on this topic.

Chart to help with this whole timeline (just a resource, don't need to print or do anything with)

Read me:

American Imperialism? No Need to Run From Label

World Sees "Imperialism" in American Reach, Strength

"I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."  --Mark Twain, New York Herald, 1900. 


"It is in the general interest of the United States to encourage the development of a world in which the fault lines separating nations are bridged by shared interests. And it is in the economic and political interests of the United States to ensure that if the world is moving towards a common language, it be English; that if the world is moving toward common telecommunications, safety, and quality standards, they be American; that if the world is becoming linked by television, radio, and music, the programming be American; and that if common values are being developed, they be values with which Americans are comfortable. These are not simply idle aspirations. English is linking the world. American information technologies and services are at the cutting edge of those that are enabling globalization. Access to the largest economy in the world--America's--is the primary carrot leading other nations to open their markets." --David Rothkop, Foreign Policy, 1997. 

"[It is] difficult for many Americans to come to grips with social flaws associated with the "Old World," such as militarism, imperialism, inequality, and the misuse of power. The tendency of highly patriotic Americans is to deny such abuses and even assert that they could never exist in their country. At the other end of the scale, overly self-critical Americans tend to exaggerate the nation’s flaws, failing to place then in historical or worldwide contexts. - Stuart Creighton Miller (1982). "Benevolent Assimilation" The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903.

Answer Me:

1) Briefly summarize the various attitudes towards American imperialism today and in the period 1890-1910.
2) Can the U.S. be described as an empire? If so, in what sense and when did it become one? If not, why don't you think that label applies?
3) Are some types of imperialism (cultural, economic, military) better than others?
4) In what ways is our foreign policy today similar or different from that of the late 19th century? Was imperialism justified in the 19th century?