As the United States reached her "natural borders" of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the mid-1850's, her population began to turn their attentions overseas. This process was a natural outcropping of the belief which pervaded many American minds by the time, called Manifest Destiny. It was the belief of many Americans that they were chosen by God to spread civilization across the North American continent; the logical extension of this was the belief that it was their duty to civilize all peoples who were deemed "uncivilized." In the early 1850s, America began this process by visiting Japan with a flotilla of ships. The process would continue through the end of the 1800s and into the 1900s.
1. Who was Alfred Thayer Mahan, and what was his argument for why the United States should have a strong Navy?
a. Extended Response (NOT in the reading): What nation was the strongest imperial power during this time period? Why?
2. Scroll down to the Letter to the Emperor section of this web page to answer questions a-b.
a. What was the purpose of Commodore Perry’s trip to Japan in 1853?
b. What did the Japanese agree to in this letter from U.S. President Fillmore? Why?
3. In March of 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from the Russians for how much? Why was this purchase known as Seward’s Folly? Why did this perception change in the 1890s?
4. Who was Sanford B. Dole?
a. What was the United States’ relationship with Dole’s government?
On to the next...
Area 2 - The Spanish-American War
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