Differing Views On Imperialism

Small states are of the past and have no future. The modern movement is all toward the concentration of people and territory into great nations and large dominions. The great nations are rapidly absorbing for their future expansion and their present defense all the waste places of the earth. It is a movement which makes for civilization and advancement of the race. As one of the great nations of the world, the United States must not fall out of the line of march.

—Henry Cabot Lodge, “The Business World vs. the Politicians,” 1895