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U.S. Imperialism: Document-Based Question (DBQ)
 Document 1: William Graham Sumner, "Conquest of the United States by Spain" (1898)
Source: Albert Galloway Keller (ed.), War and Other Essays (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1919) pp. 303-305.
"There is not a civilized nation which does not talk about its civilizing mission just as grandly as we do.... We assume that what we
like...must come as a welcome blessing to Spanish-Americans and Filipinos. This is grossly and obviously untrue. They hate our ways.
They are hostile to our ideas. Our religion, language, and institutions and manners offend them. They like their own ways....[The]
reason why liberty, of which we Americans talk so much, is a good thing is that it means leaving people to live out their own lives in
their own way, while we do the same. If we believe in liberty, as an American principle, why do we not stand by it? Why are we
going to throw it away to enter upon a Spanish policy of dominion and regulation?..."
Question 1: Did William Graham Sumner believe the United States should keep the Philippines? Explain why or why not?
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 Document 2: Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, "March of the Flag" Speech given September 16, 1898
As published in Annals of America, Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 12, 1968, pp. 198-202.
".... But today we are raising more than we can consume. Today we are making more than we can use.... Therefore we must find
new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for our labor.... Ah! As our commerce spreads, the flag of
liberty will circle the globe and the highways of the ocean--carrying trade to all mankind--guarded by the guns of the republic. And as
their thunders salute the flag, benighted [ignorant] peoples will know that the voice of liberty is speaking, at last, for them; that
civilization is dawning, at last, for them...."
Question 2:Why did Beveridge believe the United States should expand overseas?
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 Document 3: Reverend Josiah Strong, "Our country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis" Source: Josiah Strong, Our
Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (New York: The American Home Missionary Society, 1885)
"It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race for an hour sure to come in the world's
future.... There are no more new worlds. The...lands of the earth are limited, and will soon be taken.... Then will the world enter
upon a new stage of its history--the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled....then this [Anglo-Saxon]
race of unequaled energy, with all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it--the representative, let us hope, of the
largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization...will spread itself over the earth.... And can anyone doubt that the
result of this competition of races will be the 'survival of the fittest'?"
Question 4: What was Strong's position on overseas expansion?
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Question 5: How did he justify his position on overseas expansion?
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 Document 4: "Uncle Sam: "By gum, I rather like your looks!"
As adapted by New York State Board of Regents from the Denver Rocky Mountain News, 1900
Question 3: How did this cartoon from the early 1900s reflect a new United States role in the world?
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 Document 5: Bertrand Shadwell, "The Gospel of Force" (1899) Source: Bryan, William Jennings et al., Republic or
Empire? The Philippine Question (Chicago: Independence Co., 1899).
Take up the sword and rifle,
Send forth your ships with speed,
To join the nations' scramble,
And vie with them in greed;
Go find your goods a market,
Beyond the western flood,
The heathen who withstand you,
Shall answer it in blood.
Question 6: How did Shadwell view the United States' motivations for expansion?
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Question 7: What did he believe were the goals of the expansionists?
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