The United States became an imperialist power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This imperialism is not a label imposed on the United States by other countries, and the Americans themselves think so, which is universally recognized in their history books.
Do not think that imperialism is a very pejorative term, it does not equal military aggression against other countries, so it is only a pejorative term. Imperialism is generally a form of civil struggle, but armed struggle is an extreme form.
There are three most important figures who guided the United States toward imperialism, and Jackson Turner was one of them. He was a very mediocre historian, who had nothing famous in his life, nor did he. But his only famous achievement was the frontier theory for confused Americans.
Jackson Turner
What were Americans confused about at that time? Because Americans have been busy with two things, one is expanding to the West Coast, and the other is adjusting internally, including dealing with the rifts after the Civil War.
By the time Turner came out, the Americans had done both of these things and were confused. It's that kind of confusion that has no place to make it.
There are three main things that Americans want to do.
The first is, of course, to get rich, which is the ambition of capitalists, and this is easy to understand.
The second is the desire to change society, and the third is mission. During the Qing Dynasty in China, many American missionaries came to China for this purpose. Sandstorm thinks you can oppose their actions, or their imperialist tendencies, but don't accuse them of their personal virtues for this.
American missionary Lottie Moon during the Qing Dynasty
By Turner's time, Americans had found that they could no longer happily do these three things in North America. But expanding abroad was not in line with the style of Americans, because they were isolationist at the time.
And Turner adapted to this situation and proposed the frontier theory. In fact, in order to vent the energy of Americans, we should continue to expand overseas.
Frontier theory is an important idea in the United States. Later, President Kennedy's program was the New Frontier Policy, borrowing this concept, but not referring to geographical concepts of spheres of influence.
John F. Kennedy's New Frontier Speech
Turner became famous for this, when he was probably in his early thirties. He is said to have stammered a bit on a speech that presented his thoughts. However, just as the so-called times create heroes, his ideas just fit the mentality of the people at that time, so this theory was immediately disseminated, or a kind of ideological liberation. Funny, right?
Then there are complementary theories and actions in military and political terms, which is a later story.