So long as there is Imperialism in the world, permeant peace is impossible – Hassan Nasrallan. Hassan is an anti-imperialist who believed peace could not be achieved with imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country’s power and influence over a weaker nation. Anti-imperilists didn’t want anything to do with other nations besides the one they were living in. Anti-imperialists and imperialists are different but they do have one similarity.

Imperialists believed they were doing the right thing by spreading their power over other nations. Two famous imperialists were President Theodore Roosevelt and President William McKinley. Imperialists wanted to take parts of Asia and Africa to use as colonies. They were thirsty for new markets. They got the resources from their colonies and used them at home for the factories. With more new resources, more people would be employed. Imperialists wanted to also improve the military. They thought they were right in taking over colonies because they were going to improve the military. Once they took over colonies their military was all over the world, thus making it more powerful. Alfred T. Mahan urged the president to build a bigger and better navy. He did this because he wanted to compete with other imperialists to take colonies.

Anti-imperialists believed imperialism was against the constitution. “They argued that a self-governing republic based on representative rule and protection of liberties cannot govern another country without contradicting its own ideas” (2). They also believed if you had colonies you couldn’t always trade with those countries. Anti-imperailsts feared higher taxes and lower wages. They feared higher taxes because in order to build a stronger navy they would need money. The people would have to pay taxes to improve the military. Anti-imperialists feared lower wages also. This was because, it was cheaper to make something in their colonies. They thought that they would pay their other colonies smaller wages to make goods causing people at home to be paid less.

Imperialists and anti-imperialists both thought they were the best. Imperialists spread Christianity because they believed it was their responsibility and it would “cleanse” the people they were taking over. Imperialists and anti-imperialists thought that other races couldn’t govern themselves. Anti-imperialists thought they were superior because they believed in excluding the people of color from the United States.

In conclusion anti- imperialists and imperialists have many differences, yet they do have one similarity. They both agree they are on the top of cultural superiority. Are you an imperialist or an anti-imperialist? The battle will go on!