Final answer:
Evangelist Josiah Strong believed in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and argued that the United States had a moral responsibility to expand its influence and spread its values and institutions to other nations. He aligned with other progressive reformers and religious leaders, advocating for the spread of Christian ethics and American virtues overseas. This desire for expansion was underpinned by the belief in American exceptionalism and the idea of Manifest Destiny.
Step-by-step explanation:
Evangelist Josiah Strong's position about the United States, expansion, and the world at the dawn of the 20th century can be described as one that emphasized the idea of American exceptionalism and the responsibility of the United States to spread its values and institutions to other nations. Strong believed in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and saw it as America's divine mission to bring liberty and Christianity to less enlightened races.
He argued for American expansionism as a means of fulfilling this mission, aligning with other progressive reformers and religious leaders who also sought to increase the influence of democracy and Christianity abroad. Strong's book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, influenced many missionary societies and advocated the spread of Christian ethics and American virtues overseas.
At the dawn of the 20th century, a new generation of American leaders, including Theodore Roosevelt, expressed a desire for expanded global influence, seeing it as a way to demonstrate American might and secure overseas expansion. This desire for expansion was underpinned by a belief in the divinely ordained mission of American exceptionalism and the idea of Manifest Destiny.