The connection is (in short) that many of the most powerful progressives, like Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were also big time imperialists. For example, when Roosevelt issued his Roosevelt Corollary, he had it in mind for America to be the "policeman" of the Western hemisphere. When Wilson issued his ideas on what became known as "Missionary" diplomacy, it was clear that he wanted to "educate" the rest of the western world on how to live a good, clean, democratic life as a nation. My point being this, the changes made in the progressive era led to great American achievement and success. We needed to influence other areas of the world to maintain that success; be it for resources of some type or for trade purposes. In order to do that effectively, we had to assume a more prominent role in world affairs. In so doing, we increased the odds of having conflict with another nation. America's role in international conflict was all but inevitable at that point.
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