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Western Europe and the United States' imperialist surge at the end of the nineteenth century transformed societies at home as well as abroad. At home, imperialism helped to define what it meant to be a member of the nation and a race. With the emergence of photography, advertisers and other image makers were able to create a sense of national and racial superiority as they celebrated imperial triumphs abroad.
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Advertisers often used imperial motifs to sell their products. To view some of their efforts, see Images 1 and Images 2. How did these images depict imperialists efforts? How did they portray indigenous peoples abroad? What myths about peoples and lands overseas did the perpetuate? |
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At the turn of the century, the three dimensional stereoscopic viewer was a popular form of entertainment. For further information, read Document 1. What kinds of people used this medium? Who or what supplied the images they viewed? To analyze how stereoscopic images depicted United States imperialist adventures, see Images 3 and Images 4. Do these cards accurately portray the American experience in the Philippines and Caribbean at the turn of the century? What assumptions do they convey about race and ethnicity? For white Americans, what attitudes towards gender to they display? |
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Imperialism also led to the emergence of new heroes and new types of leaders in the United States and Western Europe. To explore the linkages between American imperialism and the popularity of the Theodore Roosevelt, a politician who would become President, see Document and Images 1. How did Theodore Roosevelt capture definitions at the time of what it meant to be male and an American? |
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