TWO US EVENTS
An important US event during Europe's New Imperialism was the Louisiana Purchase. This event is significant it both French and US history. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the region to the US on April 30, 1803 for $15 million. Thomas Jefferson was President at the time and although such a treaty and purchase was a possible violation of the Constitution, Jefferson and Congress simply could not pass the opportunity by. The purchase doubled the US in size, giving it open land for settlement and free navigation of the Mississippi River
In the 1850s, American expansionists looked south of America's borders for new territory to acquire. Mostly Southerners, they targeted Cuba, a slave-holding Caribbean island held by Spain located ninety miles from the Florida coast. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce instructed his minister to Spain, Pierre Soule, to try to buy Cuba from Spain. But Soule was a poor diplomat and outraged Spain by issuing threats. Afterwards, Pierce organized a conference in Ostend, Belgium, led by future president James Buchanan. Buchanan and pro-slavery diplomats produced the Ostend Manifesto, which suggested the United States seize Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell it. When the manifesto became public, a national debate began over the South's efforts to extend slavery. The controversy led one of the manifesto's authors to repudiate it, and the U.S. government formally ended its pursuit of Cuba. Too many voices were raised over the wisdom of annexing a territory with so many inhabitants who were neither white nor Protestant. While the United States failed to take Cuba, it did acquire a series of sparsely populated or uninhabited islands in the Caribbean and North Pacific in the 1850s. These possessions included Navassa Island, a tiny Caribbean island used for guano mining, and Baker Island, and the Johnston Atoll in Oceania. They were annexed through presidential proclamation.
Louisiana Purchase
An important US event during Europe's New Imperialism was the Louisiana Purchase. This event is significant it both French and US history. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the region to the US on April 30, 1803 for $15 million. Thomas Jefferson was President at the time and although such a treaty and purchase was a possible violation of the Constitution, Jefferson and Congress simply could not pass the opportunity by. The purchase doubled the US in size, giving it open land for settlement and free navigation of the Mississippi RiverCuba:
In the 1850s, American expansionists looked south of America's borders for new territory to acquire. Mostly Southerners, they targeted Cuba, a slave-holding Caribbean island held by Spain located ninety miles from the Florida coast. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce instructed his minister to Spain, Pierre Soule, to try to buy Cuba from Spain. But Soule was a poor diplomat and outraged Spain by issuing threats. Afterwards, Pierce organized a conference in Ostend, Belgium, led by future president James Buchanan. Buchanan and pro-slavery diplomats produced the Ostend Manifesto, which suggested the United States seize Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell it. When the manifesto became public, a national debate began over the South's efforts to extend slavery. The controversy led one of the manifesto's authors to repudiate it, and the U.S. government formally ended its pursuit of Cuba. Too many voices were raised over the wisdom of annexing a territory with so many inhabitants who were neither white nor Protestant. While the United States failed to take Cuba, it did acquire a series of sparsely populated or uninhabited islands in the Caribbean and North Pacific in the 1850s. These possessions included Navassa Island, a tiny Caribbean island used for guano mining, and Baker Island, and the Johnston Atoll in Oceania. They were annexed through presidential proclamation.These expansions in the territory can be connected with the expansion of British Empire throughout the Asian and African world. The British East India Company started the expansion with Government of Britain and Crown taking over. It is said that ‘Sun never sets on British Empire’ which shows how big the British Empire was. Like these British taking over other countries peacefully or forcibly these territories annexed by USA were taken peacefully or forcibly.
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