The time between the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century was met with the new idea of expansionism, as per the United States. Due to the new advancements in the fields such as technology, economic, and the common “knowledge” made the expansion of nations much easier. During this time, many things contributed to the continued motion of expansionism in the United States, these contributions would include situations such as the American Diplomacy in China and the Gentleman's Agreement in Japan, along with many other contributing factors and figures.
All around the world, there was a lot of “unclaimed” land; this made it possible to have the ideas of expansionism take flight. This problem with the unclaimed land is portrayed in Thomas Nast's comic, The World's Plunders. This shows the exact thing that was previously stated- the fact that the world “was up for grabs.” This grab bagging of land will be a platform for World War I. Alfred Mahan states that “America must now look outward. The growing population of the country demands it.” This statement shows that we as a nation should not allow our ports, both Atlantic and Pacific, should be controlled by, and only by, the United States of America. At the end of his “essay” he states that there are three things that must be done to protect the expansionism of the United States, and they are as followed: The chief harbor should be protected, the naval force should be projected outward, in hopes to protect the waters around the U.S. and finally, that no foreign force should be able to claim position anywhere within three thousand miles of San Francisco.
Senator Beveridge also made a statement that ties into the idea of expansionism. He said to congress “The Philippines are ours forever…” by saying this, he is telling the United States that we should not give up on the economical connections between the United States and the Pacific countries. He goes on to say that, the Pacific is ours, and that we should expand our water borders to assume the position of all the land that it groups. The final thing he says is that the Pacific is the future of our country and our commerce. A cartoon known as American Diplomacy shows the interest in acquiring the Pacific water mass. In the court case, Downes v. Bidwell, the Supreme Court Decision shows the concern for expansion in the United States, and how no matter the different cultures taken over will still be part of the United States.
In the early twentieth there were some sings that expansionism was beginning to stop. This, was because there was not as much land left to take. The only other way to obtain war was war, or some sort of treaty. Josiah Strong thought that the end of expansionism would come, as less land was available and would eventually lead to war. This is one of the first foreshadowing of WWI. In 1899, the Platform of the Anti-Imperialism League talked about how there was no need for the United States to take over the Philippines and bring upon more bloodshed to the people; instead, the country should be focusing on moving away from the idea of expansionism and to help build the main land. In Theodore Roosevelt's annual message to Congress, he says that the country has established a successful place in the World Status, and that there is no need to spread our arms, because we are a strong enough country that we do not need anyone.
All of the articles stated show that there was great tension between the expansion of the United States, and the idea of keeping “our land” and nothing more. Overall, it seemed that there was a lot of expansionism ideology that helped provokes the beginning of WWI. Instead of alleviating the tension between fellow countries, they went for land, thereby increasing said tension and resulting in war.
