America and Neo-Imperialism

AMERICA and Neo-imperialism

In today’s modern society, it is a matter of understanding to an extent, of learning about the ways of the world and its past history, values and the power relations among other nations which have changed over time. Two key sources of power such as Neo-imperialism and Neo-colonialism contribute to the many ways of power.

Before the 1890s, roughly speaking, most Americans had adhered stubbornly to the belief, as old as the Revolution itself, that their country should remain aloof from European affairs and offer an example of democracy and peace to the rest of the world; but slowly in the 1880s, and more rapidly in the 1890s, new currents of thought eroded this historic conviction. The United States had become a great power by virtue of its prodigious economic growth since the Civil War; numerous publicists suggested to the United States that it ought to act like one. After the disappearance of the American frontier in 1890, the conviction grew that the United States would have to find new outlets for an ever increasing population, and agricultural and industrial production. This belief was particularly rife among farmers in dire distress in the 1890s. Social Darwinists said that the world is like a jungle, with international rivalries inevitable and that only strong nations could only survive. Added to these arguments were those of idealists and religious leaders that Americans had a duty to “take up the white man’s burden” and to carry out their asserted superior cultures and the blessings of Christianity to the backward peoples of the world.

Since the Second World War, the United States of America had achieved itself the title and status of being a ‘superpower’ when it established the military alliances of NATO, CENTO and SEATO. The prevailing aim of its foreign policy has been to maintain its supremacy over the world, including the underdeveloped lands of the neo-colonial world and, until the demise of Stalinism in Eastern...