American foreign policy between 1890–1920 was a policy of territorial expansion and political assertiveness inspired mainly by the Manifest Destiny doctrine. It also sought to achieve economic supremacy over the rest of the world, notably European colonial Empires.
- The countries that the United States occupied or acquired. The more accurate question would be <em>territories </em>that the USA occupied or acquired since not all lands that the USA occupied were countries.
- Annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1898)
- Annexation of The Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.
- The Panama Canal Zone
- The Banana wars, where many Central American countries were subject to various degrees of American intervention and/or occupation. These countries were Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
- The reasons some Americans supported imperialism:
- Racism (White man's burden)
- Economic Supremacy (over other colonial Empires that obtained enormous economic proceeds from their colonies)
- Political Supremacy in the American continent (over Spanish speaking countries and in order to force them into compliance with American dictates).
- Manifest Destiny (spread of democracy and civilization).
- The reasons other Americans opposed imperialism:
- Racism (annexing countries with non-White majorities would inevitably alter the racial and ethnic makeup of the USA).
- Morality (contradiction with the democratic ideas of American democracy (the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights).
- Isolationism (the USA should remain outside of global affairs).
- Economic concerns (new territories would cost much to develop and assimilate into the fabric of mainstream American society, culture and economy)
