Download The Progressive Era

EXPANSION AND EMPIRE
1890-1908
THE ROOTS OF EXPANSION
•
A dramatic change
• In 1890 the United States still played a minor role
in the game of global power politics. With the
exception of its Revolutionary War alliance with
France, America carefully followed Washington’s
admonition (earnest warning) to avoid entangling
foreign alliances. For most of the nineteenth
century America had been a continental republic
focused on settling the western frontier and
building democratic institutions.
• In less than a decade America became an
imperial republic with interests in the Caribbean,
Latin America, and the Pacific. The speed of this
change astonished President McKinley. The
proud but perhaps a bit perplexed President
correctly noted that “in a few short months we
have become a world power.”
THE ROOTS OF EXPANSION
•
The quest for new markets and raw materials
• The total value of goods and services produced by America’s farms and factories
quadrupled between 1870 and 1900. This burst of productivity transformed America
into the world’s foremost industrial power.
• As an ever growing stream of sewing machines, reapers, textiles, and household
goods poured out of the nation’s factories, business leaders worried that they were
producing more products than Americans could buy. Many corporate executives
looked to Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific for new markets and new sources of
raw materials.
• The deep depression from 1893 to 1897 exerted a powerful influence on American
political leaders. Fearing renewed labor unrest, they linked economic growth and
social stability to their quest for foreign markets and raw materials.
THE ROOTS OF EXPANSION
•
Alfred Mahan and new strategic thinking
• In 1890 Captain Alfred T. Mahan published The Influence of Sea
Power upon History. Mahan argued that sea power is the key to
commercial prosperity and national greatness. He forcefully
argued that the United States must no longer view the Atlantic and
Pacific as protective barriers. Instead, these oceans were best
understood as commercial highways that could only be controlled
by a powerful navy.
• Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and other influential
leaders championed Mahan’s recommendations. As a result, his
views on sea power soon became the cornerstone of American
strategic thinking.
THE ROOTS OF EXPANSION
•
The ideology of expansion
• Social Darwinists believed that Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest could be
applied to the rise and fall of nations. During the late nineteenth century strong
European powers led by England, France, and Germany began to dominate weak
nations in Africa and Asia. Proponents of expansion warned that the United States
had to play a more aggressive role in world affairs. If the U.S. failed to accept this
challenge, it risked falling behind its rivals in the global race for markets and natural
resources.
• Americans also believed in the inherent superiority of their political and economic
systems. During most of the nineteenth century, America fulfilled its manifest destiny
by spreading its civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Now America had a
responsibility to bring the benefits of its civilization to less advanced people in Latin
America and Asia.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
•
What happened?
• Congress declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898. The
“splendid little war” lasted just 114 days.
• The United States suffered minimal casualties as it quickly
defeated the Spanish forces in the Philippines and Cuba.
• The war produced two military heroes. Commodore Dewey led
the U.S. Navy’s mighty Asiatic Squadron to a decisive victory
over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay. Grateful
consumers nicknamed a chewing gum “Dewey’s Chewies” to
honor their hero. Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt led
a volunteer regiment called the “Rough Riders” in a dramatic
charge up San Juan Hill. Grateful voters in New York promptly
elected TR governor of their state.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
•
What caused the Spanish-American War?
• Cuban rebels waged a guerilla war against
Spanish rule. The Spanish commander
Valeriano Weyler herded Cubans into
detention centers in a brutal attempt to
suppress the rebellion.
• William Randolph Hearst’s New York
Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York
World were locked in a furious circulation
war for readers. Both papers published
daily stories about the atrocities committed
by “Butcher” Weyler. These sensational
and often lurid (deliberately shocking)
stories sparked widespread public
indignation against Spain.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
•
What caused the Spanish-American War?
• The 7,000-ton U.S.S. Maine, the navy’s newest
battleship, arrived in Havana Harbor on January 25,
1898 on what was called a visit of “friendly courtesy.”
Three weeks later a deafening explosion tore through
the vessel sinking the ship and killing over 260
sailors. Although the cause of the blast was never
fully determined the press and most Americans
blamed the Spanish. A New York Journal headline
screamed “Whole Country Thrills with War Fever.”
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
•
What caused the Spanish-American War?
•
Popular passion against Spain now
became a major factor in the march to war.
President McKinley faced mounting
pressure from an outraged public and from
belligerent (warlike) leaders of his own
party such as Theodore Roosevelt and
Henry Cabot Lodge. Faced with the
imminent prospect of war, the Spanish
yielded to almost every American demand.
Like John Adams in the Quasi-War with
France, McKinley could have defied public
opinion and avoided war. However,
McKinley decided that the political risk of
ignoring an aroused public was too high.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
•
Why should you remember the Spanish-American War?
• The war marked the end of Spain’s once powerful New World empire.
• The war marked the emergence of the United States as a world power.
• The Treaty of Paris ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States. Spain
recognized Cuban independence and agreed to cede the Philippine Islands to the
United States for $20 million.
• The war gave McKinley a pretext (excuse) to annex Hawaii in July 1898.
AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES
AND CUBA
•
The debate over the Philippines
• The provision in the Treaty of Paris ceding the Philippines to the United States
aroused a powerful anti-imperialist movement to block ratification of the treaty. The
Anti-Imperialist League pointed out the inconsistency of liberating Cuba and
annexing the Philippines. They also insisted that annexation would violate America’s
long-standing commitment to human freedom and rule by the “consent of the
governed.”
• Expansionists countered by arguing that the Philippines would provide a strategic
base from which the United States could trade with China. While acknowledging that
the Philippines offered lucrative commercial opportunities, President McKinley
stressed America’s duty “to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and
Christianize them.” Although McKinley’s argument ignored the fact that most
Filipinos were already Christians, his views prevailed. After a heated debate, the
Senate approved the Treaty of Paris with just one vote to spare.
AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES
AND CUBA
•
The Philippine Insurrection
•
Most Americans were unaware that Filipino patriots had
been fighting a war for independence since 1896. Filipinos
hoped the United States would assist them in expelling the
Spaniards and establishing an independent Philippine state.
•
Despite strong evidence that Filipinos wanted independence,
the McKinley administration decided that they were not ready
for self-government. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, the Filipinos
resisted American control of their country.
•
The Philippine Insurrection, called the War of Independence
by Filipinos, foreshadowed the guerrilla wars fought in the
twentieth century. As the scale of fighting rose, both sides
committed atrocities. Mark Twain bitterly noted that, “We
have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried
them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned
their widows and orphans out-of-doors.” After three years of
fighting, America’s overwhelming military power finally
crushed the rebels.
AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES
AND CUBA
•
The Philippine Insurrection
• The Philippine Insurrection cost the lives of more
than 4,000 American soldiers and between 16,000
and 20,000 Filipino rebels. Disease and starvation
may have claimed the lives of as many as 200,000
civilians.
• In 1916 Congress passed the Jones Act formally
committing the United States to eventually granting
the Philippines independence. The Filipinos finally
gained their full independence on July 4, 1946.
AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES
AND CUBA
•
Cuba and the Platt Amendment
• Congress attached the Teller Amendment to its resolution declaring war on Spain. The Teller
Amendment guaranteed American respect for Cuba’s sovereignty as an independent nation.
• The United States surprised many skeptics by keeping its promise not to annex Cuba.
However, in 1901 Congress made the withdrawal of U.S. troops contingent upon Cuba’s
acceptance of the Platt Amendment. This amendment prohibited Cuba from making any
foreign treaties that might “impair” its independence or involve it in a public debt that it could
not pay. The amendment also gave the United States the right to maintain a naval station at
Guantanamo Bay on the southeast corner of Cuba. The Platt Amendment was incorporated
into the Cuban constitution and provided the grounds for American intervention four times in
the early 1900s.
THE OPEN DOOR POLICY
•
Many American business leaders blamed industrial
overproduction for the economic slump and social
unrest during the 1890s. They looked to China’s
“illimitable markets” to spur American economic
growth. America’s victory in the Spanish-American
War gave it possession of strategic coaling stations
in Wake, Guam, and the Philippines. As a result,
American commercial ships could now reach the
fabled Chinese market.
•
Great Britain dominated trade with China for most
of the nineteenth century. However, during the
1880s and 1890s Germany, France, Russia, and
Japan all began carving out their own spheres of
influence in an ever-weakening China. Each
foreign power controlled trade, tariffs, harbor duties,
and railroad charges within its own sphere of
influence.
THE OPEN DOOR POLICY
•
Secretary of State John Hay became increasingly
worried that the European powers and Japan
would restrict American trading opportunities in
China. On September 6, 1899 he dispatched a
series of notes to Great Britain, Germany, Russia,
France, Italy, and Japan asking the governments
of these six nations to agree to respect the rights
and privileges of other nations within its sphere of
influence. In short, no nation would discriminate
against other nations.
•
Hay’s Open Door policy was designed to protect
American commercial interests in China. The
European powers and Japan neither accepted nor
rejected Hay’s Open Door Notes. Although
America’s Open Door policy had no legal
standing, Hays boldly announced that all of the
powers had agreed, and their consent was
therefore “final and definitive.”
BIG STICK DIPLOMACY
•
“Speak softly and carry a big stick”
• Theodore Roosevelt was keenly aware that
America’s victory in the Spanish-American War
gave it a new role in world affairs. In his
Inaugural Address, TR proudly reminded
Americans of their new responsibilities: “We
have become a great nation, forced by the fact
of its greatness into relations with the other
nations of the earth, and we must behave as
beseems a people with such responsibilities.”
• Roosevelt believed that “civilized and orderly”
nations such as the United States and Great
Britain had a duty to police the world and
maintain order. To do that, he said that the
United States should, in the words of a West
African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big
stick.”
BIG STICK DIPLOMACY
•
The Panama Canal
•
Roosevelt and other expansionists focused on the
pressing need to build a canal through Central America.
The much-publicized voyage of the battleship Oregon
dramatically illustrated the need for a canal. When the
Maine blew up, seventy-one days passed before the
Oregon could reach Cuba because it had to sail from
San Francisco around the tip of South America.
Expansionists persuasively argued that the Oregon’s
12,000 mile voyage would have been 8,000 miles shorter
had there been a canal across Central America.
•
After much debate Congress approved a canal through
the Isthmus of Panama. At that time Panama was a
province of Columbia. The United States offered to pay Columbia ten million dollars for the right to
dig a canal across the isthmus. But the Columbian Senate refused to ratify the treat and held out for
more money. Encouraged and supported by Roosevelt, Panama revolted against Columbia and
declared itself an independent nation. Roosevelt promptly recognized Panama. He signed a treaty
with the new nation which guaranteed its independence and also gave the United States a lease on a
ten-mile-wide canal zone.
•
Construction of the Panama Canal began in 1904. A workforce of about 30,000 laborers completed
the 51-mile-long “Big Ditch” in just ten years. When it opened in 1914, the Panama Canal gave the
United States a commanding position in the Western Hemisphere.
BIG STICK DIPLOMACY
•
The Roosevelt Corollary
•
The construction of the Panama Canal made the security of the Caribbean a vital American interest.
Roosevelt became concerned when the Dominican Republic borrowed more money from its European
creditors than it could pay back. Roosevelt worried that financial instability in the Dominican Republic
would lead to European intervention.
•
Roosevelt responded to the crisis in the Dominican Republic by proclaiming the Roosevelt Corollary to
the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine stated America’s opposition to European intervention in
Latin America. Roosevelt updated the Monroe Doctrine by declaring that “flagrant cases of wrongdoing” in
Central America and the Caribbean “may force the United States to exercise an international police power.”
The Roosevelt Corollary, like the Monroe Doctrine,
was a unilateral declaration motivated by American
national interest. It changed the Monroe Doctrine
from a statement against the intervention of
European powers in the affairs of the Western
Hemisphere to a justification of the unrestricted
American right to regulate Caribbean affairs.
•
Roosevelt backed up his words with prompt action.
Citing the Roosevelt Corollary, American personnel
supervised the Dominican customs office to assure
the payment of debts to European creditors.
WRITING, WRITING, AND MORE WRITING!!!!
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Outline Requirements:
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Must turn in each outline until you receive a check mark from your tutors.
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If you receive your outline back without a check mark, you must edit it and resubmit it.
Write on a new piece of paper for each submission, stapling your earlier submission(s)
behind it.
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After 5 check marks, you are no longer required to write the outlines.
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BUT—for each additional outline you do over 5, you will receive 1 point on your FRE final
grade for your 4th comp (maximum of 10 points). For example, if you receive a 74 for your
FRE grade, your grade becomes an 84 if all 15 outlines have been checked off.
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Failure to complete (meaning check marks!!) 5 outlines before the 3 rd comp will result in a
5 point deduction for each missing outline. Points will be deducted from your FRE comp
grade. So…the 74 becomes a 69 if you’re missing one, a 64 if you’re missing two, etc.
Outline #1 Prompt:
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The Spanish-American War changed the status of the United States in the world. Assess
the validity of this statement.
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Here’s how to set your paper up each time:
Outline #____
Prompt
Thesis
Topic of Body Paragraph I
a. evidence
b. evidence
c. evidence
d. connection to thesis
Topic of Body Paragraph II
a. evidence
b. evidence
c. evidence
d. connection to thesis
Repeat as necessary
Conclusion
Name
Class