How Did American Imperialism Affect The Policy And Mentality Of The United States?

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the roots of imperialism had gone deep into the policy and mentality of the United States; this in turn affected the state's relations with other nations. It became an age of imperialism, with American influence increasing all over the world for various reasons, like economic interest, strategic interest, or even belief in cultural superintendence. Thus, imperialism defined the foreign policies of the country through a more aggressive application to international relations, created established views concerning American exceptionalism, and shifted the country's standing in the global arena.

An attitude change towards imperialism by the USA meant a change in foreign policy that got more aggressive towards territorial expansion and political dominance. This juncture came with the year 1898 and the
The Monroe Doctrine also offered a further rationale for the expansionist policy, originally designed to prevent European intervention on the American continents but later transformed in a way that allowed justifying American operations in the Western Hemisphere.

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine expanded this position by asserting the right of the United States to intervene in Latin American nations for the purpose of maintaining order, thereby making the U.S. the supreme power in the region (Herring 290). This notion was further inculcated in the American psyche as the era of imperialism took hold, where America would view itself as an entirely exceptional nation with a mission to civilize and spread democracy to regions spanning across the globe. It was founded on the notion of the "White Man's Burden," an ideal paraphrased from a Rudyard Kipling poem that described it as the Western world's responsibility to civilize nations that were