The United States' approach to foreign policy had not changed
conceptually from the days it signed its independence. These ideas were
primarily based on protecting US interests overseas and restricting foreign
influences in the Americas. Once they furthered themselves politically and
economically, they gained the status of being a world power and they still
wanted more. They figured they had to strengthen the country industrially as
they needed worldwide markets for its growing industrial and agricultural
surpluses as well as sources of raw materials for manufacturing. They could
only achieve these foreign markets with more concentrated efforts on its foreign
policy as America was principally guided by economic motives.
The internal economic growth of the United States made them want to
look outward for foreign markets. Export earnings increased from 450 million to
over a billion from 1870 to the early 1890's. US business's were soon
overpowering foreign competition as even American steelmakers could easily
compete with any British producer in the world. Everything seemed to be inciting
the US to expand abroad. Expansionists throughout America emphasized the
resources of what other lands could provide and the wealth that could result from
their establishment. For example, Cuba offered an abundance of sugar
plantations and land in Panama would offer America control of the canal.
The economic benefits of a foreign land can be seen through an example
of Americans exploring the distant islands of Hawaii. During the course of the
early 1800s, missionaries from America traversed on a laborious voyage to
Hawaii and ended up settling there. They offered accounts of incredible
economic opportunities and possibilities in the Hawaiian islands. Consequently,
other Americans proceeded to Hawaii to become sugar planters and to establish
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