Building an Empire: America and the Philippines - Essay Example

William Graham Sumner was an American politician about the same time that Roosevelt was president and active in politics and countrys decision making. as a scholar of sociology and political theory, William spoke his mind and sometimes could be the favorite politician amongst Americans because of his beliefs and utterances. He had a strong opposition to the American acquisition of the Spanish territory. This paper outlines the two leaders differences in ideology and their reasons with reference to the acquisition of the Spanish territory.

Roosevelt is famous for the presidential title of being the modern president and his ideas for foreign policy. In his foreign policy, he worked towards making America the most powerful nation in the world. He ensured that US interest dominated every issue that arose between US and any other country. Roosevelt came to power shortly after the American-Spanish War. It was up to him to deal with the consequences of going to war with other states and nations. After the War the Spanish lost Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico.

US took over the control of these places, spreading US influence more, beyond the nations territory (Gorn 2010, 88). Philippines was one of the first foreign issue for the President to handle after taking the oath of office. Philippines was an island in the Asian continent though with its own independent borders. (Gorn 2010, 94) Roosevelt appointed an American Governor to look after the territory after the Spanish left the control of the region. After the Spanish-American War, there were no signs that showed that the US would set the Philippines free after the War.

This was an easy way of making the area a US territory as many claimed that the inhabitants of the regions obeyed the American rulers in the region. Roosevelt wanted to acquire territories to increase US influence in the world. " England s rule in India has been of great benefit to England, for it trained up generations of men accustomed to