The motivations for American expansionism at the turn of the twentieth century are deeply rooted in its long history of territorial expansion and in its emerging prominence on the world stage. In the 19th century, the United States had expanded from the relatively small combination of thirteen colonies on the eastern seaboard to a country spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, gaining the largest portions through the Louisiana Purchase and the spoils of the Mexican-American War. After Americans had conquered all of this land, though, they were wont of more territor

Economically, the reasons the US had for expanding were many in the sense that it had a lot of products that depended heavily on foreign sales. A popular fear of the growing US economy was that the available markets would be potentially lost to other powers seeking the same raw materials and merchandise. As soon as the US Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, it imposed its rule and made a presence in each of those nations. Its presence was strongly felt in each of the areas. The possession of territories beyond its shores virtually guaranteed the US markets for its goods even in times of economic trouble at home.

y to acquire in their ongoing hunger for expansion. Naturally, they turned to international waters, and this is where the late 19th Century left the country as it entered the Spanish-American War. In addition to this hunger for land, though, Americans felt that to establish their prestige internationally, they would need to become an imperialist nation. This was in part because of Alfred T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History, which claimed that the nations with the greatest might on the seas would determine the future course of history. Buying into this feeling, many Americans felt that their country must undertake conquests on the high seas, and thus another motivation for imperialism arose. By the turn of the twentieth century, these factors all combined to create a United States that was emerging as a prominent and crucial player in international politics.

The influence of industry on United States expansion is vital to its sudden desire to expand overseas. The United States at the turn of the century was quickly rising to become the world's strongest producer of industrial goods and agricultural yield, and though ex

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