Thursday, September 24, 2015

Imperialism, part 1

What are some examples of the influence of the imperialism questions in modern American life?

This post will be available for comments until Thursday, October 1.



21 comments:

  1. It was briefly mentioned in the textbook that yellow journalism had a lot to do with persuading the public into that thinking a certain way. It had affected the way people thought about foreign policies and imperialism. A case of this was the explosion of the battleship Maine (pg 667). The press sensationalized news before making sure it was true and blamed it on Spain, leading many people to believe the false information. This has somewhat carried into today's news outlets, appearing in a less extreme way. For example, reporters may write sensationalized headlines in order to capture the readers attentions, but the content may not be such a surprise.

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  2. Those who later began to immigrate from foreign countries (after the establishment of immigration policies) to come to America for employment opportunities better than their homeland's boils down to the reason why people formulate their thoughts and opinions the way they do. From an outdoor lens, America was a picture painted with a chance to prosper, freedom, and power. Because this opinion of America was shaped at an early time, it has become a huge part of modern life. With the help of media (social platforms, advertisements, etc) top American companies that do the most business abroad such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's, and thus American culture, are exported on a global scale.

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    1. Edit* Though there were mixed opinions regarding imperialism at large, America did not see it as particularly a bad thing. Though America claimed one of the primary intents was to help the poor countries build a better life under her wing, it was a benefit to America by extending power to foreign countries.

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  3. Imperialism is the policy of extending the country's power and to implement that power through diplomacy or military force. Though many influential people had both points for and against imperialism, America still became imperialistic. One way America justified imperialism was to convince the states that they were doing it to help and better the other countries. Imperialism was shown to be a positive thing through yellow journalism and one specific part about it that strongly promoted the good of imperialism was political cartoons, those depicting before and after, showing the countries going from poor to wealthy. Through these cartoons Americans were shown the "good" things imperialism did and made them more pro-imperialism.

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  4. Imperialism is when a country influences another whether by military force or none at all. One example of this in modern day American life is by food chains and there commercials displayed on televisions across the globe. Starbucks and McDonald's are two prime examples of food chains that have influenced and invaded the life of other countries. When I traveled to Europe, I was able t find one of these everywhere; the golden arch is especially accomplished. Another example is the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The US invaded these countries and wanted to change their way of life and government into a democratic system.

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  5. Imperialism influence in modern day is the fact that many people still have a strong belief that these land/property are theirs. Also there is a sense that if a new land exists it would immediately be taken over. Such examples would be the wars the Iraq and against terrorist thought at first it was revenge but slowly it seems to become more about power to control. Even to this day America tries to be the Big Brother to the rest of the world and give them rules and instructions on what they should do like with Cuba and the Nuclear deal in recent times.

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  6. Imperialism influence in modern day is the fact that many people still have a strong belief that these land/property are theirs. Also there is a sense that if a new land exists it would immediately be taken over. Such examples would be the wars the Iraq and against terrorist thought at first it was revenge but slowly it seems to become more about power to control. Even to this day America tries to be the Big Brother to the rest of the world and give them rules and instructions on what they should do like with Cuba and the Nuclear deal in recent times.

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  7. The war in Iraq can be an example of an imperialistic ideology in modern times, large companies drilling for oil in Alaska can be an example that is closer to home.

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  8. Imperialism, which is the policy of enforcing one country's authority or influence, still has an impact in the modern day period. Another way to look at imperialism is applying one country's beliefs and/or practices to other nations. One example would be the Coca Cola soft drink company, which seems to be everywhere in the world.

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  9. The examples of imperialism are all around us, trading, politics, military and so fourth. The main thing about imperialism is obtaining goods and expanding, as a country it is important to have relations for economic and military reasons. The rich control politics in my opinion, it takes a lot of money to run for senator and of course president. An example of imperialism would be Africa, it has been divided into so many directions that Africa is still suffering from poverty and its unstable. Basically imperialism is all about the dominant country obtaining and its expanding while the country that is being controlled suffers from economic, political and religious benefits.

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  10. One example of the influence of imperialism in modern American life is America's missile 'defense' shield project that has been accepted by Poland.

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  11. Imperialism still continues to influence modern American life in how the economy works. American markets still continue to expand their companies overseas and monopolies still exist. Monopolies are now government regulated and not as powerful as before but they still influence the government when it comes to elections.

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  12. An example of imperialism that affects America in modern times is how this country maximizes its military component to invade other countries and wage war against them in order to reserve America’s “right” and “duty” to interfere with foreign affairs when we believe that human rights are being violated on an international scale. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were employed under the excuse of searching for “weapons of mass destruction” and eradicating “Islamic” terrorist groups in the wake of 9/11. These wars failed to do either of these things as they found no weapons of such caliber and terrorists are still at large. Imperialism is the influence of military/economic/political power on a country from a foreign nation. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are prime examples of this.

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    1. I agree that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are prime examples of how imperialism is portrayed in modern day life. Similarly to occasions in the past, certain powers in America found it their duty to impose their power against another nation for reasons that the majority did not agree with. It was malicious feelings for Islamic extremists that resulted in war and the killing of many innocent people for these "weapons of mass destruction" that, as you mention, were not even found.

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    2. I also agree that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of imperialism in modern time. The United States has always felt that it is its job to preserve peace in the world by interfering with foreign affairs, but there is also more to the reason why the U.S. wanted to step into the issues in the middle east. The U.S. wanted access to the energy sources in the middle east for our own benefit. So America waged a war and made it clear the intentions were to end global terrorism, which it was, but the other reason was a long term plan to control the region's oil.

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  13. Modern imperialism is as relevant today as it was back in this era. The United States is essentially part of every world decision made that has any chance to effect us. Personally I have no problem with it because for the most part it benefits our safety. For example like many said was the Iraq war where we attempted to impose a democracy on the nation while also benefiting from natural resources such as oil and on top of all this was the safety concern that they may be attempting to create nuclear weapons which we didn't want then to have for obvious reasons. This is no doubt a nation using imperialism in modern times, but it was also for the safety of our nation.

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  14. Imperialism in the modern era is no longer the taking over of lands and countries, but more so the taking over of businesses and corporations. Many people would love to take over a whole business by themselves and create a monopoly, however, modern laws don't allow that. However, some companies will do things that will come close to a monopoly. For instance, Comcast is a telecommunication company that many people in America use. Despite that, they have terrible ratings, prices, and support, however, it is the only service that most people can use due to Comcast's actions. They buy up smaller providers and merge with some bigger ones to completely take over many areas in America.

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  15. In modern American life we can find some examples of the influence of the imperial question by reviewing our militaristic ventures under the code name of Operation Enduring Freedom- Philippines, Afghanistan, Horn of Africa. Although not explicit ventures for expansion and influence ,they help establish their own independent governments capable of self rule with a particular view of freedom that mimic western ideologies. In effect these territories also hold key markets capable of influencing economic growth for those who find themselves overseeing said territories. This type of militaristic ventures can be seen to share similar threads to previous American ventures even so that the one such venture in the Philippines has continued in some form under a name shared by modern ventures of interest.

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  16. Imperialism in our modern American life is shown in our big companies like McDonald' s and Coca-Cola being all our the world in major countries. Only through a big sphere of influence and the resources and power would we be able to make a big name for themselves. Also the war in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that we wanted to make their government like our own, like a democratic one.

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  17. Like my classmates stated above, the first thing that came to mind when reading that question was the middle east and the continous disputes between America and counties like Iraq and Afghanistan. These disputes occurred and continue to occur because of the resources that exists in both countries primarily oil and America's ambition to control those resources.

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  18. I agree with many classmates that modern examples of imperialism are dealt with the middle east, mainly for economic gain and resources. The U.S gets involved in other countries and creates agreements to also preserve peace, sometimes by influencing a democratic policy.

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