American foreign policy at the end of the XIX - early XX centuries and Social Darwinist ideology

This paper presents a historiographical review of American foreign policy, as well as analysis of the causes of the emergence of American expansionist paradigm in the late XIX – early XX centuries. Soviet historians give us an idea about the economic aspect of events in the U.S. during the specified period. However, foreign scientists have multidimensional view on the events. A. Schlesinger as one of the most popular authors insisted on the secondary importance of economic reasons for an active foreign policy of the United States, indicating that political reasons were of paramount importance. Social Darwinism, as a phenomenon that could shape foreign policy is considered by historians indirectly. In the Russian-Soviet historiography Social Darwinism is denoted as a factor that influences policy indirectly. American historiography considers the subject of our study more wholly, but in the context of the analysis of the liberal ideology. The author points to the role of ideological reasons for the American administration’s foreign policy decision-making. The paper is an attempt to find out whether there was a connection between foreign policy and the Social-Darwinist discourse, which can be traced in political, economic and intellectual elites of American society at the turn of the century.