Transformation Of American Sense Of Mission From A National Identity Perspective

This thesis investigates the transformation of the American sense of mission from religious idealism to secular expansionism from a national identity perspective.The striking persistence of the idea of the American mission deserves scrutiny.The United States derives largely from the religious heritage when a host of pious puritans arrived taking along with them their robust faith in building “a city upon a hill”.Such a belief not only helps America gain independence as a nation-state but also forms the basis of the national creed,which in the long run,generated other movements such as Westward Movement,imperial expansion and the spread of American-styled democracy.The motif of movements ranging from religious to secular indicates a gradual transformation of the American idea of mission.The most salient landmark of such changes is the Spanish-American War during the imperial era when the then incumbent President William McKinley claimed to do nothing but to obey God's will,and his claim could fit the political rhetoric at that time so incredibly that people in this era can never imagine,because it was a time when Americans believed in their sense of mission whole-heartedly and depended on it to forge their self-image as “Americans”.Tocquevillean American Exceptionalism and Weberian capital expansion also contribute to and help explain the forging of American identity in an imperceptible but impactful way.All in all,the United States firmly believes in its mission to improve and enlighten the world,whether passively,by setting a political and moral example,or actively,by resorting to religious evangelicalism to promote liberal democratic values abroad.And the moral aspiration is to some degree a prerequisite to understand U.S.foreign policy and in a far-reaching sense to comprehend why Americans may feel uncomfortable when pursuing political objectives without moral back-ups,at least verbally.Consequently,it may be argued that the whole process of the transformation of the American sense of mission from the original religious idealism to the later secular expansionism has a twofold impact: one is the finding and forging of American national identity,and the other is seeking and consolidating U.S.dominance in the world.