Business, Religious, And Social Interests Set The Stage For Empire

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) American Foreign Policy 1890-1914 Business, Religious, And Social Interests Set The Stage For Empire The United States was altering its internal operations even as it gradually expanded its borders and attempted to include the borderlands and the native cultures residing there. The United States adopted a more expansionist foreign policy as a result of economic concerns as a new industrial nation started to develop in the 1870s. The United States would be able to access foreign markets for exports and negotiate cheaper prices on the raw resources required domestically by establishing new and deeper relationships abroad. Businesses needed to enter new markets even at the risk of being entangled in international affairs, as the economic crisis of the early 1890s prompted worries. American exports to foreign countries increased dramatically in the years after the Civil War, from $234 million in 1865 to $605 million in 1875, as a result of these mounting economic pressures. Before the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, US exports were valued at $1.3 billion per year. Over the same time span, imports rose significantly as well, rising from $238 million in 1865 to $616 million in 1898. Americans' interest in international issues was bolstered by this greater involvement in foreign markets. It wasn't only businesses looking to grow. Growing interest in American expansion was shared by businessmen, progressive reformers, and religious leaders who aimed to expand American influence overseas, particularly in the areas of democracy and Christianity. Many reformers believed that the Progressive impulses for democracy at home also applied abroad, so imperialism and progressivism were compatible. Editors of publications like Century, Outlook, and Harper's supported an imperialistic stance as the democratic responsibility of the United States. In the years following the Civil War, a number of Protestant denominations established missionary groups in an effort to reach a wider audience, especially in Asia. Missionaries worked to disseminate the gospel both domestically and internationally, drawing inspiration from publications like Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885). Missionaries, under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and a number of other organizations, confused American values with Christian principles and set out to fervently propagate both gospels. This was especially true for women missionaries, who made up more than 60% of the total number of missionaries. By 1870, foreign missionaries were devoting as much of their time to promoting the American vision of contemporary society as they were to imparting biblical knowledge. Early Progressive Era social reformers also carried out missionary-like activities overseas. Many accepted the implications of social Darwinist theory, which claimed that lower races were doomed for poverty due to their lower evolutionary standing, and were inspired by current research on race-based intellect. While many of these reformers believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was mentally superior to others and owed the presumed less evolved populations their stewardship and social uplift—a service that British writer Rudyard Kipling dubbed “the White Man’s Burden”—many of these reformers also hoped to contribute to a noble cause by working to raise living standards and improve people’s understanding of democratic principles in less industrialized nations. While not all reformers espoused a racist view of intelligence and civilization, many of these reformers did espouse a racist view of intelligence and civilization. Reformers and missionaries shared many techniques whether they worked with indigenous people abroad, in inner cities like the Salvation Army, or in borderlands like New Mexico. The letters and articles they sent from the field were full of good intentions and demonstrated their readiness to labor under trying circumstances. They frequently expressed in their writings a sense of heavenly empowerment to improve the lives of less fortunate and, most likely, less enlightened individuals. They shared the same paternalism yet benefited from the same passions whether they were in the city or outside.