The United States has encountered controversial and turbulent eras in its history. Some of those periods that will be the focus of this essay are the Age of Imperialism and Reconstruction. For a vivid analysis of the specific events that took place in the eras, this paper will look at Alexander Stephens’s take on Reconstruction as well as President Wilson message of War during the Age of Imperialism. Alexander Stephens played the role of the Vice President during the life-changing event of Civil War the nation that led to up rise of the African Americans’ claim for equality. He believed that the new leadership in America should be founded on the ideology that the Whites were superior to the Blacks (Heath, 2014). Alexander Stephens was part of the joint committee that assessed the testimonies regarding the attitudes and conditions in the South during the Reconstruction period. Stephens raised several comments that challenged the ideas of the radicals concerning the restoration of the Union and the Negroes suffrage.
The joint committee also sought to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment that had been enacted by Congress to control the racial tension in the Southern States. The committee wanted to reunite the country and abolish the practice of slavery. Alexander Stephens’s remarks on Reconstruction indicated that the Southern States would be unwilling to cooperate with the restoration of the Union and the end of slavery. He thus called upon the State to act on behalf of the people to institute the final remarks regarding suffrage. Stephens recognized that the Civil War events were aimed at providing freedom to the African Americans (Stephens, 1866).
The Blacks had hoped that after the Confederate abandoned its mission that the Senate would allow them to take part in national activities and leadership (Byrd, 2015). However, the African Americans were disappointed when things did not go their way allowing the Southern states to resume their hostile behaviors. Alexander called for the restoration of the Union as the only way to regain prosperity, harmony, and peace in the U.S. American people did not want their identity and global leadership to shrivel away due to the incidents that took place during the Civil War (Stephens, 1866). The leaders were determined to maintain the supremacy of the nation in international and state matters (Heath, 2014).
Later in the 19th century, the concept of American imperialism began to emerge. The county entered the world stage and focused on international ventures such as wars and overseas relations. The citizens and leaders believed that they had the global mission to spread democracy and liberty. One of the notable occurrences in the Age of American Imperialism was the country’s declaration of the battle against Germany in the year 1917 by President Wilson (Conrad, 2013). In the presentation to Congress, President Wilson proclaimed that Germany had severed its diplomatic relations with the U.S. He had thus called a meeting for Congress to make policy choices since American lives and ships had been lost due to attacks from Germany (Woodrow, 1917).
The War messages were developed owing to the issue of the Great Battle that sparked a few weeks after President Wilson’s victory. The central powers in the war like Germany were unwilling to arbitrate or negotiate just as Wilson wanted. Hence, he we was left with no choice but to act to protect American lives (Conrad, 2013). The two primary sources portray the determination of the U.S. to handle both national and international affairs that affected the health and progress of the nation. They reflect two essential periods that affected the identity of the America, that is, the Reconstruction that from Alexander’s take would be affected by incorporating the Blacks and the Imperialism that would make the country grow to be an international leader in humanitarian efforts from President Wilson’s message.
The period of Reconstruction aimed at providing freedom and equality to the racial minorities (Du Bois, 2013). The Age of Imperialism, on the other hand, was an American attempt to restore balance in international relations and intervene in conflicts to restore world peace. Based on Wilson’s message, the planet had to be secure for democracy and peace to prevail and the U.S was willing to play the role of championing the rights of all mankind to end Communism and Nazism (Woodrow, 1917). However, even in the diplomatic endeavors, America still found a way to procure benefits that would assist in developing trade, supremacy, and international expansion (Brinkley, 2015).
References
Brinkley, A. (2015). The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume I (Vol. 11, p. 7031). McGraw-Hill.
Byrd, B. R. (2015). Black Republicans, Black Republic: African-Americans, Haiti, and the Promise of Reconstruction. Slavery & Abolition, 36(4), 545-567.
Conrad, S. (2013). Rethinking German Colonialism in a Global Age. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 41(4), 543-566.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2013). Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Transaction Publishers.
Heath, A. (2014). " Let the Empire Come": Imperialism and Its Critics in the Reconstruction South. Civil War History, 60(2), 152-189.
Stephens A. (1866). Alexander Stephens on Reconstruction April 11 1866. American History. Retrieved June 4, 2016 from http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1851-1875/alexander- stephens-on-reconstruction-april-11-1866.php.
Woodrow W. (1917). War Messages. 65th Cong., 1st Sess. Senate Doc. No. 5, Serial No. 7264, Washington, D.C. Retrieved June 4, 2016 from https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wilson's_War_Message_to_Congress.
