Justifying American Imperialism 

Four intellectuals named Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin all had ideas and philosophies that were used together to justify American imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy. During the early nineteenth century Social Darwinism, Anglo-Saxonism, and the Frontier Thesis, was a big aspect of how American imperialism was justified. Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer used social Darwinism as a term to describe the practice of misapplying the true evolutionary language.

Anglo-Saxonism was English men with a native tongue, whose culture was strongly influenced by the English culture. Each man had a different ideology that had its own effect on the justification in America. In this essay you will learn what their overall arguments were, how their philosophies were used together, and the imperialism affected the comprehensive ideologies of Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin.

Frederick Jackson Turner was an American Historian most known for the “frontier thesis.

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” Frederick Turner’s powerful analyses of American history and culture that he studied were very dependable and changed the direction of many American historical writing. Frederick Turner argued, “Imperious will and force” had to be replaced by social reorganization, and he called for an development system of educational chance that would supersede the geographic mobility of the frontier. Turner’s ultimate argument in 1893, the American democracy, was formed by the American frontier. Turner wanted expansion through his studies of history. Alfred T. Mahan was also an historian and he argued that “Our self-imposed isolation in the matter of markets.

.. coincided singularly with an actual remoteness of this continent from the life of the rest of the world.” Alfred Mahan argued somewhat for equal terms of endurance with the combatant. Meanwhile, neither of the adversaries of international law nor the justice of the differences between the two was trying to get on equal terms. He says that with Great Britain being our biggest rival nation, we have to be “controlled by a sense of law and justice drawn from the same source, deeply-rooted in their instincts.”

Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin philosophies were all used in very many ways, but the most important was how they put their ideas together to help with the imperialism. In the recent paragraph you should have learned about Social Darwinism, Anglo-Saxonism, and the Frontier Thesis, and how they were used by the men. During the late nineteenth century, the numbers of politics and intellectual leaders began to grow; it started to make America be more aggressive with the American foreign policy.

This became very important to Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin because of the way it affected them and their philosophies. Frederick Turner mourned the end of the Western frontier, which made him fear that it would put an end to America’s inimitability and eccentricity. Since Frederick Turner was so involved with the frontier thesis it really worried him. Expansion was close to come, so that increased the worry about global colonization by other countries. Alfred T. Mahan convincingly connected his economic success with the stipulation of world power, for a modern navy. Therefore, by the end of the nineteenth century, the United States Navy was transformed into a world-class force, which was what he was determined to get. Herbert Spencer adopted Charles Darwin’s theories of Social Darwinism and applied them to human’s lives. Social Darwinist argued that life was a never-ending struggle for existence, and only the strongest and most will-powered survived.

From the sixteenth into the early nineteenth century, an era dominated by terms of the old imperialism. The imperialist mostly affected Alfred T. Mahan, out of the four men. Some historians argue that President William McKinley stood at the forefront of imperialism, but others sustain that he reluctantly embraced the fortitude of imperialism. Adopting the Imperialist, they did not believe that people were capable of self-govern and they view annexation as “benevolent assimilation.” Charles Darwin was associated with the Social Darwinism, meanwhile Social Darwinism fostered imperialistic expansion by proposing that some people were more advanced than others.

There were many intellectuals that came up with philosophies to try to justify expansion, but only few like Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred T. Mahan, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin were successful. In this essay, you should have learned what their overall arguments were; such as Social Darwinism, Anglo-Saxonism, and the Frontier Thesis, how their philosophies were used together for the justifying American imperialism, and how imperialism affected the comprehensive ideologies of the four intellectuals. Overall their philosophies helped bring power to the United States nation and helped improve America with the expansion. In the ideologies of the men, it helped America improve their dominance in the world, meanwhile making American businesses make big money, ultimately making the United States a creditor nation.