Roosevelt and Beveridge Thoughts

I thought the progression from Turner's paper to these essays gave us some insight. We as Americans have progressed from the era of "frontier expansion" to the era of "island expansion". Our nation has not stopped at the boundaries of our country; we have continued on to overtake smaller islands for their resources and land.

I believe Beveridge supports this logic of conquer and move on. He repeatedly states in his paper that every new piece of land conquered is another strong empire added to the Republic. His belief is that Americans should stop at nothing to bring every country under the fair ruling of the Republic.

Despite some of his barbaric and selfish points, he also addresses the opposition. He made the point across that the islands are good for the economy by bringing in goods like fruit and timber. He believes that our expansion will be more prosperous for us in the future than in the present.

Roosevelt's opinion is somewhat the opposite of Beveridge's opinion. He believes that good will only come from war when a noble cause is at stake. I believe that Roosevelt would've considered our expansion to the Phillipines and to Hawaii a noble cause. Our expansion was a peaceful one, and it was for the good of the people.

At this point in today, I believe our government sides with Roosevelt's opinion. We haven't conquered new territory in years, and our meddling in overseas affairs is more to help democracy spread than to help our borders spread.