U.S. Imperialism Begins

1. Name at least five factors that fueled American Imperialism.
1.a desire for military strength
2. a thirst for new markets
3. they believed in cultural superiority
4. establish colonies overseas
5.spread christanity


2. Choose two of the above five factors and describe them in your own words.
other nations had a strong military so America wanted to strengthen its military. so the United States built more ships between 1883 and 1890. The battle ships that were built made America's military stronger. New technology helped American farms in factories to make more goods than the Americans needed. So the Imperialists thought that foreign trade was how America could get riid of the goods that they couldnt use.

3. What was known as “Seward’s Folly” and why?
the purchase of Alaska was known as "Seward's Folly because some people thought it was silly to buy what they called Seward's icebox

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

sugar was the plantation based product that accounted for three-quarters of Hawaii's wealth in the mid 19th century and the Americans were the people that controlled the sugar product


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? After Hawaii's Queen Lil's reign came to an end the United States ammbassador to Hawaii said that this was the time for the United States to occupy Hawaii. This was between 1893 to 1900. America then expanded their control toward the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian Islands had been important to the U.S. since the 1790's because ships had stopped there on their way to China and India before that time no one had ever lived on the islands in the 1820's Yankee Missionaries founded christian schools and churches on the islands and their children became sugar planters. Sugar planting was an important business to Hawaii. In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state