Answer: Like other European nations, The United States viewed the addition of other territories as a requirement for their industrial development. Besides that, they also viewed themselves, as Europeans nations also viewed, as part of a superior race and superior nation that was destined to conquer the world.
Explanation:
Several prominent political and business leaders argued that sustaining rapid industrial development required the acquisition—or conquest—of foreign territories in order to gain easier access to vital raw materials. As the European nations expanded their control over much of the rest of the world, the United States also began to acquire new territories. A small yet vocal and influential group of public officials aggressively promoted the idea of acquiring overseas possessions. Claims of racial superiority bolstered the new imperialist spirit. Spokesmen in each industrial nation, including the United States, used the arguments of social Darwinism to justify economic exploitation and territorial conquest.
The desire of a nation to deploy direct control over another nation is noted to as imperialism <em>(from the same root word as 'empire')</em>, and has transpired throughout history, but most visibly in the closing half of the 19th century.
