Question

According to Albert Beveridge, what is one reason to support American expansion overseas?

Answer 1

Albert Beveridge was a prominent American politician and orator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who was known for advocating American expansionism. In a famous speech he delivered in 1898, Beveridge laid out his reasons for supporting American expansion overseas. One reason he cited was that it would provide new markets for American goods and thus stimulate economic growth.

Beveridge argued that American industry had reached a point of saturation and that there were not enough domestic markets to absorb all of the goods produced by American factories. By expanding overseas and opening up new markets, he believed that American businesses could increase their profits and create more jobs, which would benefit both the economy and the American people.

In his speech, Beveridge famously declared, "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." He saw American expansionism as a way to address this economic challenge and promote American prosperity.

Answer 2

According to Albert Beveridge, one reason to support American expansion overseas was to spread American ideals and values to other parts of the world. He argued that it was the duty of Americans to civilize and uplift other peoples and nations, and that this could only be achieved through expansion and colonization. In his famous 1898 speech "The March of the Flag," Beveridge stated that "God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation and self-admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns." This view became known as the "civilizing mission" and was used to justify American expansionism and imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.