While Minister Josiah Strong backed expansionism by claiming it was God's Will, Senator Alfred Beveridge justified it by stating that the emerging businesses demanded imperialism and it was America´s destiny to bring trade, liberty, and civilization to benighted people. Strong argued that it was America´s manifest destiny to acquire new lands in a race with the other nations to dominate the world and acquire the limited resources. Beveridge argued that the increased business abroad had made it necessary to protect investments overseas.
<span>While in the nineteenth century
Houston's economic well-being depended on cotton and commerce, in the twentieth
century Houston's economy was fundamentally transformed by</span> oil. This resulted
in a more diversified economy as compared to its past economy as the oil
industry sparked the growth of other industries.
