U.S. Imperialism In 20th Essay Example for Free

U.S. Imperialism In 20th Essay The United States’ first attempt at imperial expansion can be traced back to 1898. Feeling the effects of economic recession and depression up to 1897, many felt the future security of the U. S. capitalist system rested heavily on expansion, not only on the North American continent but even into the Caribbean, Hawaii and Asia. Given the United States’ agenda to expand its territorial boundaries their involvement in Cuba, beginning at the Spanish-Cuban-American war, comes as no surprise. The implications of the United States’ involvement in Cuba, however, have been quite considerable. The argument that the U. S. imperialism was the primary cause of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, therefore, bares some amount of weight. The United States’ presence in Cuba, the de facto power they wielded over that country’s economy and politics, was one of the major forces that drove the Cuban people to rebellion and fuelled the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. Before any further discussions it must be pointed out that, long before the United States began its territorial, economic and political expansion outside its continental borders, the Cuban people were opposing colonialism in all its forms. While it would be useful to determine just how influential the U. S. was on Cuba’s political and economic landscape and to understand what historical events contributed to this state of affair, it must necessarily be understood that imperialism was nothing new to the Cuban society. Beginning in 1894 nationalist sentiments arose in Cuba not only among the elites and colonists, but even among the working class. All desired to see a liberated Cuba, free from the colonial control Spain had long wielded over the island. According to Spalding this struggle â€Å"represented a class war as well as an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist one. † The struggle between the European colonial power and its colony was heated but up to 1898 seemed no where near resolution. Popular sentiments among the United States populace were that U. S. intervention in the struggle between Spain and Cuba was necessary. Simons argues that the United States’ perspective was that â€Å"the Spanish presence in the Western hemisphere was an impediment to economic expansion of the US. † It is with this that the United States entered the struggle. The Cuban people of course may have assumed that U. S. intervention in the war had no strings attached. But the U. S. government saw such intervention as a way of advancing its â€Å"Manifest Destiny. † As Cordero highlights â€Å"†¦ the principle of Manifest Destiny and the pursuit of economic expansion made Cuba a target of opportunity. † Lazo believes that U. S. involvement in other nations’ affairs is inevitable because of â€Å"the great power which it wields by virtue of its prestige, wealth, and strength† . At the time of the Spanish-Cuban war, the U. S. was just rising to super-powerdom and thus successfully defending Cuba against its imperial aggressor was an unavoidable move by the U. S. government. The economic and political power that the United States wielded over the Cuban economy subsequent to the Spanish-Cuban-American war of 1898 is probably the most significant factor that contributed not only to the 1959 revolution, but to the other failed revolutionary attempts prior to 1959. After successfully winning the war for the Cubans, the United States, on paper, promised political freedom to the Cubans. This, however, was not practiced in principle and did not prevent the United States attempting economic expansion on the island. In fact, one of the United States’ first order of business in Cuba was to open up the Cuban economy to U. S. investors. Additionally, even though the U. S. turned over political rule to the locals, they maintained a strong influential hold over the leadership of the country. As a matter of fact, the U. S. ’ political influence was so strong that after their approved candidate lost elections the Platt Amendment was imposed as a condition for independence. Therefore, though the U. S. government was not successful in maintaining direct control of the local government, they were able to control the island’s foreign relations via this new plan. The Platt Amendment gave the U. S. the final say in foreign related issues. This meant that the country could not independently enter into foreign treaties or borrow on the international capital market. Above every other provision of the Platt Amendment was the unilateral right the U. S. took to intervene militarily in Cuba whenever it saw fit. Essentially all these provisions meant that, even though the United States did not exercise direct control of the island in the political arena, in terms of foreign affairs, militarily and economically the U. S. had a tremendous amount of control over the island. Ibarra, in the first chapter entitled â€Å"Finance Capital and Economic Structures of the Republic,† demonstrates how critical U. S. investments became to the Cuban economy. With the boom in the sugar industry in the 1920s a number of U. S. investors were attracted to the Cuban agricultural economy specifically as it relates to sugar production and export. During the period of greatest economic prosperity for the sugar industry a number of U. S. investors offered reasonable prices to Cuban plantation owners. Unwilling to resist these attractive rates, many planters quickly transferred their property to U. S. investors. Overtime U. S. investors controlled a significant portion of the country’s economy. Ibarra mentions the increasing importance of â€Å"U. S. investments in all sectors of the Cuban economy, agricultural exports, transportation, banking, utilities, and industry. † This economic control severely hindered the island’s economic development as, not only were local planters unable to compete with the U. S. investors, but the Cubans at the lower class found themselves to be benefiting very little from the growing sugar industry. When the price of sugar began to fall in the early 1930s because of international shifts in the demand and price of sugar, the country suffered even further. It is therefore not surprising that, with the growing economic downturn in the country, the population became increasingly disgruntled with the status quo. In their struggles for independence against Spain they had cried for a free Cuba ? Cuba Libre! What they got instead was a substitution. They were traded one imperialist power for a next. In the same way that Spain had exploited the country’s prospering sugar industry and reaped the profits without it filtering down to the masses that needed it the most, so the economic presence of the Americans in Cuba did nothing to improve the situation. The American policy of opening up the country’s economy to U. S. investors, and the later disgruntlement with the diminishing returns that were being filtered into the island from these investments contributed significantly to increasing calls for not only political but also economic and military independence.

Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. :: essays research papers

Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest masters of English Prose. He revolutionized not only the subject matter but also the mode of expression. He has in him a happy blend of greatest philosopher and a great writer. He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1950. The subject matter of his essays may be very difficult but his manner of expression is so lucid and simple that even a layman can understand him without any special difficulty. It is a rare privilege which only few prose masters enjoy. The precision and clarity which Russell’s prose style possesses are very rare in the bulk of English prose. Russell has justly been regarded as one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century. Although he is not a literary writer yet his work devoted mainly to problems of philosophy, ethics, morality, political, social life and economics, etc. impresses us greatly by its literary qualities. Of course, Russell's style sometimes becomes difficult for the average reader who comes across sentences which he has read for more than once in order to get the meaning. Russell’s style appeals mainly to our intellects and very little to our feelings or emotions. He uses words simply as tools, to convey his meaning plain and effective and not to produce any special effects. It is not a coloured or gorgeous style. Nor is there any passion in it. It is somewhat cold. There are no â€Å"jeweled phrases† in his writings nor sentences over which we would like to linger with the aesthetic pleasure. Russell’s style is intellectually brilliant. He can condense an idea or a thought in a few words if he so desires. Russell is always direct, simple and lucid. He knows that the complexity of expression leads to ambiguity. Nothing can be more lucid than such opening lines: â€Å"Happiness depends partly upon external circumstances and partly upon oneself.† â€Å"Of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so disorganized and derailed as the family.† Russell’s sentences clearly show Bacon’s terseness. They are replete with so deep thoughts like those of Bacon that we may elaborate them in countless pages. Many sentences are like proverbs, replete with deep meanings like: â€Å"Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.† â€Å"One of the most powerful sources of false belief is envy.† â€Å"Pride of a race is even more harmful than national pride.

How do government bodies cater for sport development at grass roots level? Essay

How do sports bodies get people involved? The RFU was established in 1871 and now has approximately 200 member clubs; their mission statement can be found in (appendix 1). The RFU is affiliated to the IRB, the international rugby board. The IRB is the international governing body and law making body for rugby union they are responsible for the game at an international level see (appendix 2). There is also a European rugby union board called the FIRA-EAR who fund and organise various competitions across Europe including the under-19 world championships. There are also various associations such as the BARA, the British Asian rugby association. They aim to increase participation by encouraging people from the south Asian countries living in the U.K. to take part in rugby at all levels more information on BARA can be found in (appendix 3). There are roughly 2500 rugby union clubs in England but only 853 offer a youth programme. The RFU have 2 main schemes for encouraging participation at grassroots level. The main one is tag rugby which is a kind of mix of rugby league and rugby union which will develop into rugby union. The rules of tag rugby can be found in (appendix 4). The other RFU scheme to raise participation at grassroots level is, beach rugby. In the Bournemouth area there is an annual beach rugby tournament which is usually held by Boscombe pier, it is usually organised and run by Bournemouth’s sports development team, the RFU, leisure rugby and Oakmedians rugby football club. This is roughly the same game as tag ruby but it is played on the beach and can be played by people of all ages. Beach rugby rules and competitions can be found in (appendix 5). The RFU is committed to supporting the development of grassroots rugby. Over 5% of their annual income is given to help support grass-roots schemes. The breakdown of the estimated central government and lottery funding can be found in (appendix 6). The CCPR, which is the national alliance of governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation, will give the RFU à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½9.4 million for a three year project, how this will help grassroots participation and about the CCPR can be found in (appendix7). Tag rugby, which is the main way of increasing participation at grassroots level, has two main sponsors these are Ford and Sportsmatch, see (appendix 8). O2 the mobile phone network are a large sponsor of rugby in England, they are currently giving the RFU à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3 million a year in their latest sponsorship deal see (appendix9). There are many local clubs including Oakmedians and Bournemouth, a list of local clubs can be found in (appendix 10). Bournemouth are the largest and most successful club in the area and information about them and there sponsors can be found in (appendix 11). The path from starting playing rugby to playing for your country is sometimes a confusing one, but the basic outline is consists of: Tag rugby will be ware a young player starts they can either start by joining a rugby club, playing at a local leisure centre or by playing at school. This will then progress into a contact game with different numbers of players until it is built into a 15 a-side game, all of these games can still be played at rugby clubs and at schools. Then a player can play for their county for example Dorset or Wiltshire. The next step is to play for a region for example the south west. The next step is to hopefully be invited to attend an England youth trial, the most successful players will be fast-tracked to the team England Academy; from there the players will possibly enter into the England teams and possibly the final England squad. There are many other pathways to the England squad; these and a more in depth look at the pathways to elitism can be found in (appendix 12). Women’s rugby started in 1983 and is growing fast, there are now over 8000 players in England and the RFUW is the national governing body for this sport in England. Out of the 2439 rugby union clubs in England just 956 have a women’s section. More information about all aspects of women’s rugby is in (appendix 13). In wheelchair rugby the game takes place on a regular basketball court using volleyball, for about the rules and how it is played can be found in (appendix 14). GBWR, great British wheelchair rugby, is a not for profit charity that has been going for 20 years for the fast growing sport of wheelchair rugby. Their objective is to develop a fully inclusive sport, enabling players to achieve and reach their full potential regardless of financial status or disability. For more details about funding of the GBWR see (appendix 15). The RFU’s grassroots schemes are working fairly well as there are a large amount of young people playing tag rugby that are then filtering through to the higher stages of the game. This is seen in the success of the England team in recent years in both winning the world cup in 2003 and reaching the final in 2007. however out of nearly 2500 clubs in England only 853 have a youth section, this shows that although the young players are playing rugby there are not as many as many would like to see.

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