1. The Early Days
In the first 70 years of our nation, we expanded both our influence and territory in North America, making our way to the Pacific Ocean in a wave of expansionism that sadly cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who called the land their home. President Barrack Obama would eventually sign a resolution that “urges the President to acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes in the history of the United States in order to bring healing to this land.”
After the expansion from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, the early American colonists were divided as to whether our young nation should expand its influence further afield. After the end of the Civil War, this topic became hotly debated with then United States Secretary of State William H. Seward arguing that America should seek to be a global power.
He would partly get his wish when he negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, but his attempts to buy Greenland and Iceland, as well as annex territory in the Caribbean, were promptly blocked by Congress as anti-imperialist sentiments were strong with both politicians and the public alike.
