Was the United States justified in their Imperialistic policies of the late 1800's and early 1900's? Social, Economic and Military reasons for...

When looking at the justified reasons for American
imperialism, through 21st century lenses, it easy to break down the argument for
imperialism.  However, what were the objectives of policy makers leading America at that
time?  Competing economically, on an international scale, was at the forefront of the
argument that would make American imperialism necessary, in order to meet those economic
goals and compete on a global scale.

Great Britain, France,
Germany, Japan, and Russia had been implementing imperialist policies throughout the
19th century and influential thinkers of the time gave similar reasons to justify those
policies.  Thinkers such as John Hobson & Vladimir Lenin spoke of the
problematic issues caused by overproduction, which had been caused by the rapid
innovations of the industrial worlds, and one of the remedies to that problem was to
colonize outside of a nation’s borders.  Through colonization, the dominant imperialist
countries could create vast increases in their markets to help alleviate
overproduction.  So if American policy makers implemented the popular 19th century idea
of Realpolitik, which stresses the practical and realistic need and
concerns facing nations, those leaders could easily justify imperialism over the ideals
of human rights and self-determination.  However, some Americans would not have been
satisfied with a purely economic justification for imperialism, so pro-imperialists had
to create other avenues to push their agenda.

As mentioned
in the prior post, Social Darwinism, spreading Christianity, and Mahan’s The
Influence of Sea Power upon History all played a supporting role for the
pro-imperialist cause.  One might also examine the thesis presented in Frederick Jackson
Turner’s “The Significance of the Frontier in American”, where Turner argues that
territorial expansion promotes social, economic, and political stability, so with the
frontier now “closed”, Americans had to look beyond North American borders to stabilize
the country.  Domestically, there was economic and social instability at the turn of the
century, and policy makers had to find ways to stabilize the country.  An imperialist
policy would help bring the economy out of immediate crisis caused by the Panic of 1893,
help create conditions that would allow for future investments and help reduce class
conflicts by reducing unemployment, passing on economic benefits to more Americans, and
utilizing the passion of patriotism to mute the voice of class
conflict.

Again, imperialism is not acceptable in the
modern world despite the numerous amounts of arguments which could be posed, but we
should avoid applying modern views when judging actions of the past.   However, if the
main goal of American leaders and policy makers was to make the United States a world
power and empower the economy, than one could have a strong argument that imperialism
was justifiable as a way to meet that goal.