In the late nineteenth century, the United States showed a heightened interest in establishing an overseas empire. The example of European nations and Japan, which were seizing colonies in Asia and Africa, stimulated this expansionism. As a result, America’s territorial boundaries will extend beyond its borders, and its territory will include colonial possessions.

INSTRUCTIONS:

In order to prepare you must complete the following readings:

• Review and identify the sections of Chapter 21 that address the topics that are relevant to this essay.
• Read the linked articles and use at least one of them for your essay to support your discussion:
  1. Henry Cabot Lodge on expansionism
  2. New York Herald Tribune on the War and yellow press
  3. De Lôme Letter transcript
  4. Platt Amendment 1903 transcript
• Identify and incorporate at least one additional outside source to support your discussion. In addition to the textbook, you may use any material outside of the textbook that is recommended in the Additional Reading section at the end of each chapter. You are also encouraged to do your own research and identify relevant sources. Please keep in mind that WIKIPEDIA is not an acceptable reference.

PREPARE AND SUBMIT:

Write a well-organized essay, a minimum of 700 words (but not limited to), including supporting details from the documents/textbook/other sources, in which you analyze the assigned readings and address the following question:

Discuss the economic, strategic and ideological factors that contributed to American interest in overseas expansion in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and how the U. S. achieved this expansion. As part of your analysis and discussion identify the arguments of both critics and supporters of imperialism, evaluating and explaining who had the stronger arguments.

Reminders

• Paragraphs in an essay are not numbered. Any questions that are associated with an assigned reading are there to serve as a guide for your discussion.
• Your discussion should incorporate all of the information from the documents and or textbook, and outside sources as one essay.
• Students are required to research and incorporate into their discussions additional sources that relate to the content. Recommendations can be found in at the end of the textbook chapter in Additional Reading.
• All statements must be supported and all sources must be identified and cited, and included in your reference list. This also applies to the textbook. Failure to do so constitutes Plagiarism, and the college has strict policies and penalties for failure to comply. Under the Resources,  you will find links to sites that review how to format a paper or essay. I recommend that students use APA or Chicago Style to format their essay. Students should ask their instructor which format style they prefer you to use.
• Proofread your work. Make sure that you have looked for all of the spelling and grammatical errors and corrected them, and that you have organized your work into coherent paragraphs.
• Prepare the assignment as a Word Document, double-spaced and using a standard font of 12 points.
• Submit via the Dropbox as an ATTACHMENT. Any work that is submitted directly into the box will be graded as a 0.

Point Value: 100

Grading Criteria:

• Analysis and discussion (60%)
• Support for discussion (30%)
• Organization (10%)

Reminder: All written work must comply with standard English rules, such as proper capitalization, grammar, and spelling. The assignment must be submitted by the deadline listed in the calendar.