U.S. Imperialism Begins

Title: U.S. Imperialism Begins Labels: Hawaii, Imperialism, Mahan, Frontier_Thesis, Alaska





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1. Name at least five factors that fueled American Imperialism.
The five factors that fueled American Imperialism were the technology factor, economic factor, nationalist factor, military factor, and the humanitarian and religious factor.


2. Choose two of the above five factors and describe them in your own words.
The technology factor was that the Industrial revolution provides the ability to travel around the world. Industrialists created machniery that made it possible to do things that were not able to be done before the Industrial Revolution.


3. What was known as “Seward’s Folly” and why?
William Seward propsed the idea for the United States to buy Alaska but it was so expensive that people called it "Seward's Folly." The country bought it for 7.2 million dollars.



4. What plantation-based product accounted for three-quarters of Hawaii’s wealth in the mid-19th century and who controlled this product? Sugar that was controlled by the Americans.


6. Using as much detail as possible, outline the sequence of events that led to America gaining possession of Hawaii? In other words, why was the United States interested in these Pacific islands? In 1867 the United states took interest in the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian Islands had been economically important to the U.S. for a long time. American merchants would stop there on their way to China and the East Indies as early as 1790. Most of the sugar crop in Hawaii was sold to the United states. American owned sugar plantations accounted for about three-quarters of the Island's wealth. Immigrants came from China, Japan and Portugal to find work in Hawaii, and not long after they arrived, immigrants outnumbered native Hawaiians three to one. The McKinley tariff put Hawaiian sugar growers in competition with the American market. U.S. military and economic leaders understood the importance of Hawaii for its large ports, like Pearl Harbor.