Download imperialism

IMPERIALISM
• The policy or practice of extending the
power and domination of one nation by
direct territorial acquisitions or by
control over the political or economic
life of other areas.
A Growing Support
• After Civil War most Americans were
focused on rebuilding America,
industries and the West.
• After Reconstruction feelings started to
shift toward becoming a world power.
• Economic and military competition
from European countries.
• Sense of cultural superiority
• Willing to go to war to protect
American interest overseas
Powerful Navy
• Alfred T. Mahan, naval officer who saw
the need of a large navy with overseas
bases.
• Protect the interest of Americans
overseas and defend its right to trade
with other countries.
European Expansion of Power
• High tariffs reduced trade between
countries
• Investment growth had slowed due to
the built out infrastructure (railroads,
factories, mines…)
• Started looking to other countries to
sell product
• Needed to protect their interest
(protectorate)
Anglo-Saxonism
• Feeling of superiority by English
speaking nations (Josiah Strong)
• Felt is was part of the idea of Manifest
Destiny
IMPERIALISM
• Extending military, political, or economic
influence over a foreign country
• Technological changes of the late 19th
Century had made the world smaller, more
accessible (cross-Atlantic cable, faster ocean
travel)
• The powers of Europe had been extending
their influence into Africa and Asia during
the 19th century
Pacific Ocean
• Perry’s expedition to Japan in hope of
forcing Japan to trade with the United
States
• Japan begins to Westernize (building of
a strong and modern navy)
• Hawaii was a stopping point between
US and Asia
• Settlers soon discovered Hawaii was
fertile and profitable
Expansion of power
• Hawaii – overthrowing the Queen of
Hawaii, Liliuokalani.
• John L. Stevens (American Minister to
Hawaii) wanted Hawaii part of the USA
• Hawaii had profitable sugarcane
plantations
• “The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe
and this is the golden hour for the
United States to pluck it.”
Pan-Americanism
• United States and Latin America should
work together
• Keep European influence out of the
Western hemisphere
Causes of the Spanish-American War 1898
Cuban
Rebellion
against Spain
•1868 Cubans
declare indep.
against Spain
•Guerilla war
fails
•Many flee to
U.S. to plan
new attack
•Jose Marti
-writer/poet
-trained
troops for
new invasion
of Cuba
-rebellion of
1895 seized
control of E.
Cuba
-Republic of
Cuba
Yellow
Journalism
•New York
Journal and
William
Randolph
Hearst
•New York
World and
Joseph
Pulitizer
•Competed
for circulation
through
sensationalist
stories
•Exaggerated
stories
Spanish
brutality
against
Cubans
•“Weyler the
Butcher”
-sent Cubans
to
reconcentratio
n camps
-caused
1,000s of
deaths
de Lome
letter
•Spanish
ambassador
Enrique de
Lome
•Writes
private letter
describing
McKinley as
weak
•NY Journal
prints letter
the Maine
•Feb. 1898
•Maine
explodes in
Havana
Harbor
•266 U.S.
officers/sailor
s die
•Spain
blamed for
explosion
U.S. declares
war
•Jingoism:
aggressive
nationalism
•Teller
Amendment
•April 1898
-Congress
declares Cuba
independent
-Congress
declares war
on Spain
Results of the Spanish American War
• Treaty of Paris 1898 – Cuba becomes a free
nation and the United States acquire Puerto Rico
and Guam while also paying Spain $20 million for
the Philippines.
• “The White Man’s Burden” – written by Rudyard
Kipling explaining how the United States was
responsible for uplifting the other races to the white
man’s level.
• Puerto Rico – Foraker Act, makes Puerto Rico an
unincorporated territory and today continues as a
commonwealth, or part of, the United States
• Platt Amendment – Outlined the conditions for
Cuban Independence including not allowing any
foreign nation to take over and allowing the U.S. to
keep naval bases on the island.
The Open Door Policy/ Boxer Rebellion
• The Boxers, also known as the Righteous and
Harmonious Fists, were members of a secret society
opposed to foreign influence in China.
• The “last straw” before the rebellion broke out may
have been a reaction to a made up story from a
Denver, Colorado newspaper that reported that
China had contracted an American company to
demolish the Great Wall of China as a
demonstration of their commitment to open up to
world trade.
• The story made its way to the east coast and then
to China, and once the Boxers got hold of it they
felt it was an insult for a Western firm to be hired to
destroy something that represented the past glory
of China.
IMPERIALISM
• What follows is the story of the U.S.
emergence as a world power
• Did the actions of the United States
during this time conflict with or
promote the ideals stated in the
Declaration of Independence?
The Filipino War (1899-1902)
• The U.S. chose not to grant
independence to the Filipinos
• What followed was a brutal three year
war in the Philippines (1899-1902)
• The war brought to question American
ideals and whether our government
was upholding or betraying these
ideals
President McKinley
• “When I next realized that the
Philippines had dropped into
our laps I confess I did not
know what to do with them. . .
And one night late it came to
me this way. . .1) That we
could not give them back to
Spain- that would be cowardly
and dishonorable;
President McKinley
• 2) that we could not turn them
over to France and Germanyour commercial rivals in the
Orient-that would be bad
business and discreditable;
President McKinley
• 3) that we not leave them to
themselves-they are unfit for
self-government-and they
would soon have anarchy and
misrule over there worse than
Spain's wars; and
President McKinley
• 4) that there was nothing left for
us to do but to take them all, and
to educate the Filipinos, and uplift
and civilize and Christianize them,
and by God's grace do the very
best we could by them, as our
fellow-men for whom Christ also
died.”
William Jennings Bryan
• “Imperialism is the policy of an empire.
And an empire is a nation composed of
different races, living under varying
forms of government. A republic cannot
be an empire, for a republic rests upon
the theory that the government derive
their powers from the consent of the
government and colonialism violates
this theory.
William Jennings Bryan
• We do not want the Filipinos for
citizens. They cannot, without
danger to us, share in the
government of our nation and
moreover, we cannot afford to add
another race question to the race
questions which we already have.
Neither can we hold the Filipinos
as subjects even if we could
benefit them by so doing. . . .
William Jennings Bryan
• Our experiment in colonialism has
been unfortunate. Instead of profit, it
has brought loss. Instead of strength,
it has brought weakness. Instead of
glory, it has brought humiliation.”
Emilio Aguinaldo (President of the Independent
Philippine Republic)
• “I published the grievances suffered by
the Philippine forces at the hand of the
[U.S] army of occupation. The constant
outrages and taunts, which have
caused misery of the people of Manila,
and, finally, the useless conferences
and the contempt shown the Philippine
government prove the premeditated
transgression of justice and liberty. . . .
Emilio Aguinaldo (President of the Independent
Philippine Republic)
• I have tried to avoid, as far as it has
been possible for me to do so, armed
conflict, in my endeavors to assure our
independence by pacific means and to
avoid more costly sacrifices. But all my
efforts have been useless against the
measureless pride of the American
government. . .”
Senator Albert Beveridge (R)
• “. . . [J]ust beyond the Philippines are
China's illimitable markets. . . We will
not renounce our part in the mission of
our race, trustee of God, of the
civilization of the world. . . Where shall
we turn for consumers of our surplus?. .
. China is our natural customer. . .
[England, Germany and Russia] have
moved nearer to China by securing
permanent bases on her borders. The
Philippines gives us a base at the door
of all the East. . .
Senator Albert Beveridge (R)
• They [the Filipinos] are a barbarous
race, modified by three centuries of
contact with a decadent race [the
Spanish]. . . It is barely possible that
1,000 men in all the archipelago are
capable of self-government in the
Anglo-Saxon sense. . . The Declaration
[of Independence] applies only to
people capable of self-government.
Senator Albert Beveridge (R)
• How dare any man prostitute this expression
of the very elect of self-government peoples
to a race of Malay children of barbarism,
schooled in Spanish methods and ideas? And
you, who say the Declaration applies to all
men, how dare you deny its application to
the American Indian? And if you deny it to
the Indian at home, how dare you grant it to
the Malay abroad.”
• Resolved, That the colored
people of Boston in meeting
assembled desire to enter their
solemn protest against the
present unjustified invasion by
American soldiers in the
Philippines Islands.
• Resolved, That, while the rights of
colored citizens in the South,
sacredly guaranteed them by the
amendment of the Constitution, are
shamefully disregarded; and, while
frequent lynchings of Negroes who
are denied a civilized trial are a
reproach to Republican government,
• the duty of the President and
country is to reform these
crying domestic wrongs and
not attempt the civilization of
alien peoples by powder and
shot.
Mark Twain
(Anti-Imperialist League)
• “It should, it seems to me, be our
pleasure and duty to make those
people free, and let them deal with
their own domestic questions in their
own way. And so I am anti-imperialist.
I am opposed to having the eagle put
its talons on any other land.”
Mark Twain
(Anti-Imperialist League)
• “[The Filipino War is] a stain upon our
flag that can never be effaced. Yet
today in our public schools we teach
our children to salute the flag, and this
is our idea of instilling patriotism…but
if there is a stain on that flag it ought
not to be honored, even if it is our flag.
Mark Twain
(Anti-Imperialist League)
• The true citizenship is to protect the
flag from dishonor—to make it an
emblem of a nation that is known to all
nations as true and honest and
honorable. And we should forever
forget that old phrase – ‘My country,
right or wrong, my country!”
The Big Question!
•Did the actions of the United
States during this time
conflict with or promote
the ideals stated in the
Declaration of
Independence?
AMERICAN IDEALS
• “…That to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among
men deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed…”
• The right of SELF-DETERMINATION
• The right of a people to determine
their own form of government
The Philippines
• Video Clip 1900
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal
Roosevelt Corollary
• Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine stated that the
United States would intervene in Latin American
affairs when necessary to maintain stability in the
Western Hemisphere.