The United States became a wealthy, fully industrialized country in the years between 1865 and 1900. American companies exported goods to different parts of the world and American businessmen invested around the world. Its economic interests became global. Industrial might also meant the development of a powerful army and navy to protect American interests abroad.
So, by the end of the 19th century, just as in the case of European industrial powers, there was an increasing pressure to guarantee access to sources of raw materials and new markets for industrial goods. The 1898 Spanish-American War marked the advent of an epoch in which the US got more involved in international affairs and was ready to use its military muscle to protect its interests globally.
D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation chronicled the early days of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and had its premiere at Woodrow Wilson’s White House in 1915. The statements that describe the movie are as follow:
The movie depicted African-Americans as unworthy of participation in government and dangerous to white women.
The movie glorified the Ku Klux Klan not as racist terrorists, but as heroes protecting virtuous white southerners from "uncivilized" blacks.
