Imperialism

1. Imperialism Conquest at home and abroad

2. “Indian Peoples Under Siege” • California (statehood when and why?) • Oregon (statehood…?) • Territorial status given to: UT, NM, WA, CO, NV, AZ, ID, MT, WY, Dakota • Homestead Act • Alaska purchased (aka “Seward’s folly”) • Transcontinental railroad completed

3. “On the Eve of Conquest” • Tribes had learned to adapt to various climates and available resources, and continued to try to do so after the arrival of Europeans (horse and buffalo culture). • By the end of the Civil War, an estimated 360,000 Indian people -- down from “perhaps” one million originally -- were mostly concentrated in the trans-Mississippi West and/or Great Plains.

4. “Reservations and the Slaughter of the Buffalo” • The reservation system was introduced by the 1840s as a way to try to: • Avoid confrontation over land and resources, namely by keeping Indians off land that was considered valuable • Help Indian people assimilate, with “guidance” from the BIA • By the 1850s, eight Western reservations had been established

5. “Reservations and the Slaughter of the Buffalo” • Gradually, tribes were forced to compete with each other as they were forced on to ever smaller reservations. • Land allotments became smaller as more (white) people moved to the Great Plains. • The mass slaughter of the buffalo became a key catalyst for violence.

6. “The Indian Wars” • Great Sioux War (1865-67)

7. “The Indian Wars” • The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) guaranteed Indians control of their land in South Dakota “as long as the grass shall grow.” • In 1871, the U.S. government ended the treaty system, “eclipsing without completely abolishing the sovereignty of Indian nations.”

8. “The Indian Wars” • “As long as the grass shall grow” turned out to be about eight years -- or until gold was discovered in the Black Hills; George Armstrong Custer encouraged Congress to purchase the land! • Many Sioux fled the reservation in the face of an onslaught from prospectors – Custer was ordered to pursue them (and capture them, and bring them back).

9. “The Indian Wars” • http://www.nps.gov/libi

10. “The Indian Wars” • On June 25, 1876, Custer found the people he was looking for: 2000-4000 NOT VERY HAPPY warriors at the Little Bighorn (”Greasy Grass”) in Montana

17. “The Indian Wars” • Needless to say, it’s called the “last stand” for a reason • http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/sd/military/big-horn.txt • http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/custerslaststand.htm • How was this Indian victory analogous to the Japanese victory at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

18. “Transformation of Indian Societies” • “First published in 1881 and reprinted in numerous editions since, Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor is a classic account of the U.S. government’s flawed Indian policy and the unfair and cruel treatment afforded North American Indians by expansionist Americans. Jackson wrote the book as a polemic to ‘appeal to the hearts and conscience of the American people,’ who she hoped would demand legislative reform from Congress and redeem the country’s name from the stain of a ‘century of dishonor.’ Her efforts, which constitute a landmark in Indian reform, helped begin the long process of public awareness for Indian rights that continues to the present day.” (From University of Oklahoma Press)

19. “Transformation of Indian Societies” • Dawes Severalty Act (1887) • Congressman Henry Dawes, author of the act, once expressed his faith in the civilizing power of private property with the claim that to be civilized was to "wear civilized clothes...cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property.” • http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/dawes.htm • http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=50

20. “Transformation of Indian Societies” • The Ghost Dance(1888) and its aftermath • http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost.html • http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKmscr.html • http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKIntro.html

21. “Transformation of Indian Societies” • Caption: The Ghost dance by the Oglala Sioux at Pine Ridge Agency, drawn by Frederic Remington from sketches taken on the spot. Illustrated in: Harper's Weekly, December 6, 1890, p. 960-961.

22. “Transformation of Indian Societies” • In the same year, the director of the U.S. Census announced that the nation’s “unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line.”

23. Frederick Jackson Turner“frontier thesis” • Three years later, Turner took this "closing of the frontier" as an opportunity to reflect upon the influence it had exercised. Along this frontier -- which he also described as "the meeting point between savagery and civilization" -- Americans again and again recapitulated the developmental stages of the emerging industrial order of the 1890's. This development, in Turner's description of the frontier, "begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader... the pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farm communities; the intensive culture of the denser farm settlement; and finally the manufacturing organization with the city and the factory system."

24. The evolution of foreign policy • Monroe Doctrine (1823) • Alaska purchased (1867) • Good Neighbor Policy (1870s) • Between 1870-1900, exports expand from $400 million to $1.5 billion • Alfred T. Mahan publishes The Influence of Sea Power upon American History, 1660-1873 (1890)

25. “Imperialism of Righteousness” • Josiah Strong, who coined the phrase above, linked economic and spiritual expansion, arguing that white Americans, with “their genius for colonizing,” were best suited to “Christianizing” and “civilizing,” and who had been “divinely commissioned to be, in peculiar sense, his brother’s keeper.”

26. “Imperialism of Righteousness” Or as Republican Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana put it, “We are raising more than we can consume…making more than we can use. Therefore, we must find new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for our labor.”

27. Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) • By the 1820s, American missionaries arrive to try to convert the population, and begin to purchase huge parcels of land. • By the 1870s, both sugar and fruit producers owned plantations, and wanted to be able to continue to send their products to the U.S. without paying tariffs/duties.

28. Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) • By the 1880s, James Blaine (Sec. of State) said that Hawai’i was “an outlying district of the state of California,” and pushed for annexation. • In 1887, a treaty was signed allowing the U.S. to build a naval base at…? • In 1888, American planters helped overthrow King Kalakaua and secure a new pro-business government.

29. Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) • In 1891, Queen Liliuokalani tried to reassert control by granting herself more power under the Hawai’ian constitution. • In response, U.S. sailors landed to “protect property,” and a group led by Sanford Dole overthrew the queen, and created a new provisional government, with Hawai’i eventually becoming a protectorate. • http://www.dole.com/

30. Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) • American diplomat John Stevens: the “Hawai’ian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.” Sanford Dole inauguration as first governor of Hawaii (Hawaii State Archives historical image)

31. The Spanish-American War • In William McKinley, the U.S. had a president “firmly committed to the principle of economic expansion.” • The Spanish-American was the most “popular” since the Revolutionary War! • It lasted sixteen weeks, “relatively few lives” were lost, and when it was over, the U.S. “had joined Europe and Japan in the quest for empire, and had become a formidable world power with territories spread out across the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.”

32. Interest in Cuba was not new • Thomas Jefferson: “I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States.” • Southerners hoped to acquire (purchase?) Cuba, but ultimately the U.S. learned to support the Spanish presence. • Fighting between the Spanish and Cubans erupted as the Spanish became more desperate for sources of revenue (read: taxes!).

33. Cuba becomes a political issue…that everyone can agree on!!! • The 1895 death of nationalist leader (book says “martyr”) Jose Marti, along with yellow journalism coverage of Spanish “atrocities,” made Cuba a political issue. • Both the Democratic and Republican parties supported Cuban independence in their 1896 platforms. • Cooler heads prevailed briefly (for two years), and then…

34. Remember the… • After 266 sailors were killed, and the slogan “Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!” became popular… • http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paSpanAmer.html • http://www.zazzle.com/uss_maine_destruction_photo_1911_print-228455719908547832 • http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/battleships/maine/maine.html

35. The Spanish-American War (is declared) • War with Spain seemed assured (it was actually a close vote); on April 25, Congress passed the war resolution McKinley had asked for on April 11. • The war as a uniting force: • “Populists, Democrats, and Republicans are we, but we are all Americans to make Cuba free.” (jingle)

36. Commenting on the war in Cuba • The war was over (at least in Cuba) ten weeks later! • Teddy Roosevelt bragged that he killed Spaniards “like jackrabbits” • Roosevelt agreed with (Sec. of State) John Hay, who said that it had been a “splendid little war” • Member of Congress: “What greater liberty, freedom, and independence can be obtained than that enjoyed under the protection of our flag?”

37. Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill by Frederic Remington

38. Detail from Charge of the 24th and 25th Colored Infantry and Rescue of Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, July 2nd 1898. Lithograph by Chicago printers Kurz and Allison (1899).

41. Meanwhile in the Philippines • The U.S. Navy, under the leadership of George Dewey “demolished the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay through seven hours of unimpeded target practice.”

42. The Battle of Manilla, Lithograph by Muller, 
Luchsinger & Co., 1898.

43. As for “rescuing” the Filipinos… • When it seemed clear that the U.S. troops weren’t leaving after the Spanish were defeated, “rebels” led by Emilio Aguinaldo began a fight that would cost: • 4,300 American lives by 1902 • One of every five Filipino lives (due to starvation and disease) • And would continue intermittently until 1935!

44. Treaty of Paris (1898) • The U.S. paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines. • Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam were placed under American control. • The Platt Amendment forced Cuba to: • Provide land for American bases • Devote national revenues to pay back debts to the U.S. • Sign no treaty contrary to U.S. interests • Acknowledge the right of the U.S. to intervene at any time to protects its interests

45. Debating the “righteousness” of empire • Rudyard Kipling and the “White Man’s Burden.” • The Anti-Imperialist League, with 25,000 members, including Mark Twain. • The Indianapolis Recorder asked (rhetorically): “Are the tender-hearted expansionists in the U.S. Congress really actuated by the desire to save the Filipinos from self-destruction or is it the worldly greed for gain?”

46. “This advertisement for soap uses the theme of the ‘White Man’s Burden,’ encouraging white people to teach cleanliness to members of other races.”

48. Open Door policy (1899) • Concerned that the Manchu dynasty would fall under the control of European powers and Japan, and that the U.S. would be denied access to China, Secretary of State John Hay argued that the U.S. enjoyed the right to advance commercial interest anywhere in the world. • President McKinley later sent 5,000 troops - without asking for congressional approval - to China to help stop the Boxer Rebellion.