"what was the purpose of american imperialism? did the benefits outweigh the costs? "it's for an essay. if you may, could you give me an answer with a good structure?

American Imperialism refers to a period of time between the 1890 and 1910 when America, fueled by manifest destiny (the belief that America was predestined by God to settled land out to the Pacific ocean) extended its economic, military, and political control over weaker lands. America aimed to spread all their beliefs and values from coast to coast, and then to other lands. This Imperialism was driven by the desire of greater military strength; the search for new markets industrialization and by the fact that they believed their culture was superior, in order reach those goals, they considered that they should claim one Empire.

America had surplus of goods, so that they needed new territories to sell them, thus, they engage in international trade. They can export more American goods to foreign markets and thus they ensure profits.

They also believed that they were the best so they needed to civilized inferior cultures and reformed them.

However, imperialism led to war and dominated foreign policies for decades.

The benefits outweighed the costs as they became very powerful leading the world in terms of trade, military expansion, economy; they conquered lands and spread their values.  

on this day in 1939, in response to hitler’s invasion of poland, britain and france, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on germany.

the first casualty of that declaration was not german—but the british ocean liner athenia, which was sunk by a german u-30 submarine that had assumed the liner was armed and belligerent. there were more than 1,100 passengers on board, 112 of whom lost their lives. of those, 28 were americans, but president roosevelt was unfazed by the tragedy, declaring that no one was to “thoughtlessly or falsely talk of america sending its armies to european fields.” the united states would remain neutral.

as for britain’s response, it was initially no more than the dropping of anti-nazi propaganda leaflets—13 tons of them—over germany. they would begin bombing german ships on september 4, suffering significant losses. they were also working under orders not to harm german civilians. the german military, of course, had no such restrictions. france would begin an offensive against germany’s western border two weeks later. their effort was weakened by a narrow 90-mile window leading to the german front, enclosed by the borders of luxembourg and belgium—both neutral countries. the germans mined the passage, stalling the french offensive.