The goal of this current proposal is to analyze and discover what evolved the United States from a traditionally isolationist nation into a major world power. What turned a country founded on isolationist ideals and strong desire for personal freedom from tyranny into a land-hungry imperialist nation? The simplest answer reasons out to be the best: Money. The United States morphing from an isolationist nation into a major world power was simply a byproduct of its chasing of financial profits masked under the guise of a self-perceived moral imperative. 
On that fateful day back in July of 1776 when The United States declared itself into existence, it threw off the yokes of oppression from not only the British but also the entire world.  For the entirety of the American Revolution, The U.S was fighting for the “right” to have an isolationist existence. Upon earning their freedom from imperialism, the country was fairly satisfied to spend the next hundred years or so focusing on their own issues and building up its own space, peoples, economy, and government. These attitudes and ideals were the driving force behind a young country. In the mid to late 19th century a confluence of events started pulling the country away from its ability to maintain being an isolated entity. As the U.S gathered its faculties after the brutal Civil War, it found itself living a new lifestyle. Complete with new inventions and comforts coming at a furious pace.  In the latter part of the century, even while the country was dealing with the last bits of the American Indian Wars and finalizing the expansion of the Western American Frontier, it started to lift its eyes and look at the world around it. The first robes of isolationism were eventually cast off with the Spanish-American War. “The Spanish American War called cherished American ideals into question, spawned leagues of anti-imperialist, and fostered resilient strains of pacifism that would endure in American cultural and political life until at least World War 2”. Most importantly, it showed that the interest of American business would be protected abroad with means up to and including military force. There were a few bad economic years for the United States directly following the Spanish-American war, but the precedent had been set. In order for the country to expand economically it needed to also expand its empire and influence. To explain away the ironic change from the principles the U.S was founded upon, an attitude of moral superiority was adopted by the country as a whole. The combination of these circumstances added to the Progressive Era that followed, along with all of these new views on generating and protecting profits at all cost, drove the country along its route away from isolationism. The draw of profit was too much for the now money-hungry United States to handle. 
