Download Imperialism - Spring Branch ISD

Imperialism
Unit 3
Imperialism
▪ In the late nineteenth century, Europeans and the Japanese began to
construct empires in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific.
▪ Imperialism, the economic and political domination of a strong
nation over weaker nations, was a view held by many Europeans
nations as they expanded their power overseas.
Imperialism
▪ To protect their investments, European nations exerted control over
territories where they had invested capital and sold products.
▪ Beginning in the 1800s, Americans wanted the United States to
become a world power.
▪ Their change in attitude was a result of economic and military
competition from other nations and a growing feeling of cultural
superiority.
Imperialism
▪ Americans wanted to develop overseas markets to keep the
economy strong. Social Darwinists argued that as nations competed,
only the strongest would survive. Americans used these ideas to
justify expanding American power overseas.
▪ The United States had a contradictory foreign policy in the 1890s,
focusing on both isolationism and expansion.
▪ Nonetheless, despite wanting to avoid entanglement in European
affairs, Americans also wanted to expand their borders.
Markets and Missionaries
▪ Commercial expansion and Christian missionary work refocused the
nation's attention abroad.
▪ When American businessmen entered new markets, they expected
the government to protect their investments.
▪ But business was not the only reason for expansion; there was a
moral dimension as well.
Markets and Missionaries
▪ American Christian missionaries worked to spread the gospel,
particularly in China.
▪ They met with little success and inspired strong antiforeign attitudes
that culminated in the Boxer uprising of 1900 to 1901.
▪ The Boxers were an antiforeign society; they eventually terrorized
Chinese Christians and missionaries and attacked railroads and
telegraphs.
▪ Boxers invaded foreign embassies in Beijing and killed more than 200
foreigners and took others prisoner.
Markets and Missionaries
▪ In 1901, the European powers imposed the humiliating Boxer
Protocol, giving them the right to maintain military forces in the
Chinese capital and requiring the Chinese government to pay an
indemnity of $333 million for the loss of life and property resulting
from the Boxer uprising.
▪ In a commercial and moral alliance of sorts, business interests felt
that missionaries paved the way for trade, and missionaries argued
that they were fulfilling God's will by enlightening the heathen.
The Monroe Doctrine and the Open Door
Policy
▪ American foreign policy in the late nineteenth century rested on two
major statements: the Monroe Doctrine and the Open Door policy.
▪ The former declared the Western Hemisphere off-limits to European
colonization and set the United States up as its protector.
The Monroe Doctrine and the Open Door
Policy
▪ The Open Door policy, engineered by Secretary of State John Hay in
1899-1900, established the principle that China would remain free of
colonial domination and be equally open to trade with all nations.
▪ While inconsistent, both policies were intended to further American
economic and political interests.
War and Empire
▪ The United States did not enter the world stage until 1898, when it
went to war with Spain and successfully liberated Cuba.
▪ On the surface, the Spanish-American War seemed a contradiction: A
war that began in order to ease the suffering of a colonial people
ended with the United States becoming a colonial power (over the
Philippines) itself.
"A Splendid Little War"
▪ War with Spain began as a result of a number of issues.
▪ Cuba, a Spanish colony, provided wealth for Spain with sugarcane
plantations.
▪ In 1868 Cuban rebels declared independence and began a guerrilla attack
against Spanish authorities.
▪ The Spanish then killed tens of thousands of Cuban villagers.
▪ Outrage over Spain's treatment of Cuban revolutionaries sparked American
concern.
▪ At the start of the Cuban revolution, Americans were neutral. But after
reports by Publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer , trying
to outdo each other, began to use yellow journalism by running
exaggerated stories of Spanish attacks on Cubans.
"A Splendid Little War"
▪ To expansionists like Theodore Roosevelt, issues of building a navy
and gaining the Philippines as a stepping-stone to trade with China
made war with Spain an opportunity not to be missed.
▪ In the end, a reluctant President McKinley bowed to pressure for war
after an explosion sank the American cruiser Maine, which had been
dispatched to Cuba.
▪ In February 1898, the U.S.S. Maine, anchored in Havana, Cuba,
exploded, killing 266 American officers and sailors. Although no one
knows why the ship exploded, many Americans blamed Spain.
"A Splendid Little War"
▪ The war brought Americans together in a show of patriotism.
▪ The American army defeated Spain in a matter of weeks.
▪ The war made the political career of Theodore Roosevelt, who had
formed his own regiment, the Rough Riders.
The Debate over American Imperialism
▪ The Spanish-American War left the United States with a far-flung
empire.
▪ Cuba was not given the full independence it was promised.
▪ After the war, the United States set up a military government in
Cuba. Steps were taken to ensure that Cuba would remain tied to the
United States.
The Debate over American Imperialism
The Platt Amendment specified that
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cuba could not make a treaty with another nation that would weaken its
power or allow another foreign power to gain territory in Cuba
2. Cuba had to allow the United States to buy or lease naval stations in Cuba
Cuba’s debts had to be kept low to prevent foreign countries from landing
troops to enforce payment
the United States would have the right to intervene to protect Cuban
independence and keep order. Cuba reluctantly accepted the Amendment.
It was repealed in 1934.
The Debate over American Imperialism
▪ Many Americans supported annexing the Philippines because it
would provide a naval base in Asia, a stopover on the way to China, a
large market for American goods, and the ability to teach “less
civilized” peoples.
▪ The Treaty of Paris gave the United States control of Puerto Rico and
Guam, this treaty made the United States an imperial power, but
what to do with the Philippines was the most pressing problem.
▪ The United States paid $20 million for the islands and then had to
fight an expensive seven-year war to subdue Filipino revolutionaries
who wanted total independence.
The Debate over American Imperialism
▪ William Howard Taft, the first U.S. civilian governor of the
Philippines, introduced reforms in education, transportation, and
health care to try to win over the Filipino people.
▪ These reforms slowly lessened Filipino hostility toward American
rule.
▪ By April 1902, all Filipino resistance stopped. In 1946 the United
States granted independence to the Philippines.
The Debate over American Imperialism
▪ Critics like William Jennings Bryan argued that expansionism
distracted Americans' attention away from domestic problems and
provided few benefits.
▪ Yet many Americans continued to support imperialism, believing
social Darwinism had assured the Anglo-Saxons racial and moral
superiority.
Rallying around the Flag
▪ Patriotic fervor surrounding the Spanish-American War dominated
American life and both the labor movement and the Populists were
defeated.
▪ Nevertheless, the public increasingly questioned the politics of
laissez faire.
Rallying around the Flag
▪ Calls for greater government involvement in the economy, direct
democracy, and a more equitable balance of power between the
corporations and the people emerged as themes that would shape
American life in the years ahead.