The Spanish American War of 1898 was a turning point for United States foreign policy because it established us as a world power by becoming a Imperialistic nation. Although the United States had been debating about Imperialism for a period of time and had many rationales for it including Darwinism, Strategic reasons, and economical reasons, it kept an isolationism policy, except in trading and international affairs. We kept this policy until the mid 1890's when situations in Hawaii, Chile, Venezuela, and foremost Cuba sprung up. The Cuban Revolution, which eventually led to the Spanish American war, made us become a imperialistic nation and thus a world power.
             Long before the Cuban Revolution, intellectual leaders such as John Fisk took Social Darwinism and applied it to the United States. They believed the U.S. should compete with other nations for wealth and power in the world. They saw the territories, markets, and the raw materials Europe had gained by Imperialism, and concluded the U.S. had to do the same to prosper and develop as a nation. Using the beliefs of Darwinism we had a belief of Anglo-Saxon supremacy and it was out destiny to venture out into the world, which became to be known as our Manifest Destiny. To establish the Anglo-Saxon superiority we put on ourselves "The white mans burden" to establish our language, religion, politics, and customs in other countries. Other reasons for support of Imperialism included strategic reasons because we needed to protect ourselves from countries the could threaten our rule in the western Hemisphere. Alfred T. Mahan a Navy officer wrote a book called The Influence of Sea Power upon History, to convince the nation to build up our navy. This was highly supported by the people because it gave protection of international trade and markets. If we expanded trade we would have larger markets and more jobs, and wouldn't have to worry about overproduc...