Why was America isolationist in the 1870s to 1900 when we had such potential...

Why was America isolationist in the 1870s to 1900 when we had such potential? We easily could've handled african colonies and subjugated all of North America assuming Britain stayed out?

Also american prussian aesthetic never dies

The better question is why didn't you stay that way? You couldn't just lay down and die, you had to ruin as much of the planet as possible on the way down.

>ywn be an American Colonial Marine
>ywn conquer the dark corners of the World for the USA
>ywn get the first pic of the native QTs and secure the way for American interests

Best part is the Marine Corps for the most part of the 19th Century did just all that, they were pretty much an honest to God raiding force rather than what they are today

>Country based on Le Freedom from Colonial overlords.
>Do unto others as the British have done unto you.
Oh wait, you eventually did betray your own ideals.

how would african colonies benefit america in anyway when we already had cheap labor and untapped resources?

>assuming Britain stayed out
Why would they stay out? Also, that'd just lead to Germany filling the void

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because America already had the resources of the west to exploit

because manifest destiny was more important than white man's burdening Africa. We also lost our invasion of the british empire which was to be expected.

Satan confirmed for against America. Not surprising.

To answer your question, we got forced out of it by the world wars.

Also, we'd been conquering our way east prior to 1890 and that appetite for conquest led to a series of conquests afterwards.

America had already ended their isolation by the time of the world wars. Did you not wage a global war against Spain on dubious charges and establish a global empire in the Philippines and other places?

You can see a few distinct periods of American foreign policy during this period.

Post-1890

>the frontier is closed
>what do we do now
>well, there's brown people nearby, aren't there
>proceeds to annex Cuba, Hawaii, the Panama Canal, and a bunch of other shit, for the same reason we rolled over the Indians

World wars

>man, Europe is fucked
>let's unfuck them so we can go back to being isolationist

After world wars

>you mean to tell us that all of the world powers other than us and the USSR have committed suicide, and the USSR is literally a conspiracy to enslave mankind?
>crap
>time to quadruple military spending, bite the pillow, and prepare for Mr Bones's Wild Ride

>Why was America isolationist in the 1870s to 1900 when we had such potential?
it wasn't, just look at the spanish-american war and hawaii
though the US tended more to practice economic imperialism, this is especially evident in japan (who was it who forced japan out of isolation again?) and china

It all started when the european powers started pressuring venezuela to pay debts and teddy roosevelt used that to modify the monroe doctrine. blame europe (and venezuela)

Cause the country was just recovering from the Civil War you dunce.

Why would Americans try to colonise Africa when they had huge swathes of their own land still untouched for them to expand into? America was still vastly empty

That's precisely the reason why it would be easier, the military industry was already in full swing. What's another 5,000 men to annex some African port when then cuvil war was si much harsher in comparison. We already annexed samoa by the 1870s

good thing too because our own ideals are fucking gay

The USA had no interest in true colonialism both for ideological reasons and because it recognized that colonialism was fucking retarded and you'd be far better served by trading with independent countries. What little colonialism the USA did get up to was entirely for military basing purposes, not economic ones. And after they got that arrangement without the actual rule they had no reason to even try to colonize anything.

The only rationale America would have for pursuing an African colony is as a mass dumping ground for ex-slaves.

the american colonial experience was never a betrayal of our ideals. we fought Spain to stop their genocidal actions in Cuba and the Philippines. once we had finished the war we gave Cuba independence and help to rebuild their nation as for the Philippines at the time they were about as ready for self governance as Zimbabweans were after English rule we spent the next 20 years teaching how to run a country then we gave them independence. this was all quite different from Europeans who colonised the natives and attempted to eternally incorporate. them

Literally why Liberia exists.

Imagine if America was like Soviet Union and aggressively pushed their own ideology on the entire world...oh wait, that's our timeline.

>this is your brain on McDonalds

>Burger education

Wasn't independence the idea with the United States? To declare independence then to go and subjugate a bunch of people seems a little hypocritical.

>implying that the bongs royal marines didn't do that to an even greater extent

>Help to rebuild their nation as for the Philippines at the time they were about as ready for self governance as Zimbabweans were after English rule we spent the next 20 years teaching how to run a country then we gave them independence. this was all quite different from Europeans who colonised the natives and attempted to eternally incorporate. them

Lmao, Americans originally TRIED to make the Philippines a territory.

Its when there was nothing they were getting in return, in addition Philippine agriculture bankrupting American farmers, and realizing that they'll integrate millions of future non-white civilization.

Not sure what you mean about isolationist, if you mean not claiming land and starting an empire then sorry to say but they kinda did.

They had "territory" in what is today Liberia, they butted heads with the Germans over Samoa, twice. invaded Korea which contributed to the fall of the Joseon, and tried to make Nicaragua, Haiti and other island part of their domain with the help of Filibusters.

Not to mention Hawaii and the Philippines following the Spanish-American war.

By isolationism they meant staying out of Europe's problems which they failed to do.

We had all we needed here.

America didn't give a fuck about the rest of the world until after WWII and the fucking commies were threatening to eradicate the entire planet with their nukes.

Infinitely superior to yours.

>the USSR is literally a conspiracy to enslave mankind

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