American participation in imperialism gained its momentum from both economic and cultural justifications which arose from the history of expansion of the America; American imperialism varied only slightly over the first generations of presidents, as we will explore a sampling from the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt through that of Woodrow Wilson. Previous American expansion to the West became fertile ground for American imperialist justification. Although cultural justifications have been used to maintain the public interest in favor of imperialism, economic justifications have been considered more important throughout the history of imperialism, even when uniting similarities of imperial programs of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. The most predominant justification for imperialism, at least for American business, was to expand its economic interests throughout the world. First, as the U.S. domestic market for manufactured goods appeared to be shrinking, many U.S. business interests began looking for ways to continue expansion; the best way to achieve this was to compete with European imperialism and therefore with European markets (Hewitt, 622-624). Additionally, during the 1870s and 1890s, the business cycle was characterized by booms and then busts, but it was not until the Depression of the 1890s that America experienced its greatest economic contraction; this led political and economic leaders to seek out and create foreign markets (Hewitt, 623). Furthermore, not only did business leaders seek to sell their products abroad by acquiring territories as a launching pad to new markets, for example acquiring Guam and the Philippines to gain easier access to the Chinese market, but business leaders also sought to acquire te...... middle of paper ......ninvestment there (Hewitt, 635). Although Woodrow Wilson tried to be a diplomatic imperialist, with so many American overseas business interests at stake, he often could not venture outside of Theodore Roosevelt's imperialist agenda of using military power . the justification was his body, or his prime mover. This was characterized by its birth during the first generations of presidents who wielded the power of imperialism; This was demonstrated by the fact that presidents were always willing to use American military power, even if a president such as Woodrow Wilson swore he was against it, whenever America's economic situation was threatened. American imperialism was accepted in the minds of Americans, both in terms of cultural and economic justifications, thanks to the Western expansion that preceded it..