Imperialism help!?

Question

I really need someone's help with this, please???
What were the imperialistic aspects of the America Revolution and the Civil War??? Could you give me websites with this info?
I am completely stuck on it and have been searching for any information most of the day.
Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Imperialism is a political term for a period when the country was trying to expand.

So think about it. In what ways was the United States trying to expand in both of those wars?

Not quite that difficult of a question.

Answer 2

Well, in the American Revolution, kid, the colonials were rebelling against the English Imperium, which imposed tyrannical taxation on the colonies as a form of oppression. See, the colonials had no voice in English government, yet were required to adhere to English laws, pay English taxes, and give England exclusive rights to the product of their labors. "Taxation without representation is tyranny," is as good a motto for that revolution as any.
In the American Civil War (what we in the South call "The War of Northern Aggression"), the Yankees (Unionists) imposed similar trade and taxation restrictions on the Southern planters, attempting to limit their rights under the Constitution. The Southern States seceded from the Union (a right under the Constitution) and the North initiated the war to maintain their immoral and illegal Union. This was another form of tyranny and led to the Imperialism of the Reconstruction, where the Northerners occupied the South, suspended all civil rights and self government, confiscated private property, and generally trampled all over the Constitutional Rights of the Southern citizens.
In case you are interested, the Emancipation Proclamation ending Slavery in the Southern states was not enacted until after the war was begun, thus it was NOT a "war to end slavery," that was just a side issue in the whole shooting match.
Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Your frustration is because the term imperialism were never really used for any group or nation until after these battles were fought. Classic imperialism doesn't exist until the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, perhaps under Queen Victoria.

However, having said that, imperialism is when one country seeks to control another country, to take total control of their land and economy, for the good of the dominant country. This is Britain's position, for example, over India. One might suggest that Britain was doing the same thing in their British North American colonies, the 13 American colonies, but there is a difference between a colony and imperialism. Colonies are meant to establish communities and exert control where none exists. Imperialism is meant to take over the mechanism that already exists.

The same might be argued for the Civil War: You have a dominant North attempting to take over and control the South, but actually it isn't an attempt at imperialism nearly as much as it is simply to "preserve the Union".

So throw out these imperialism ideas, check on wikipedia as to what imperialism really is, and in your argument show how neither of these wars was imperialistic.