Expansion and Empire

1. Expansion and Empire 1890-1908

2. The Roots of Expansion • A dramatic change • With the exception of its Rev War alliance with FR, America carefully followed Washington’s warning to avoid foreign alliances • For most of the 19th century, the focus had been 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”

3. 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 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

4. The Roots of Expansion • Alfred Mahan and new strategic thinking • In 1890 Captain Alfred T. Mahan published The Influence of Sea Power upon History • Argued that sea power is the key to commercial prosperity and national greatness • Forcefully argued that the U.S. 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

5. The Roots of Expansion • The ideology of expansion • Social Darwinist argument – weak v. strong nations • During the late 19th century strong European powers led by BR, FR, and Germany began to dominate weak nations in Africa and Asia • Proponents of expansion warned that the U.S. 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 • 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

6. The Spanish-American War • What happened? • Congress declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898 • Lasted just 114 days • The U.S. suffered minimal casualties as it quickly defeated the SP forces in the Philippines and Cuba • The war produced 2 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 • Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt led a volunteer regiment called the “Rough Riders” in a dramatic charge up San Juan Hill

7. The Spanish-American War • What caused the Spanish-American War? • Cuban rebels waged a guerilla war against Spanish rule • The Spanish commander ValerianoWeyler 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 deliberately shocking stories sparked widespread public indignation against SP

8. 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” • 3 weeks later an explosion tore through the vessel sinking the ship and killing over 260 sailors • The press and most Americans blamed SP • A New York Journal headline screamed “Whole Country Thrills with War Fever”

9. The Spanish-American War • What caused the Spanish-American War? • Popular passion against SP now became a major factor in the march to war • President McKinley faced mounting pressure from an outraged public and from warlike leaders of his own party such as Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge • Faced with the imminent prospect of war, SP yielded to almost every U.S. 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

10. The Spanish-American War • Why should you remember the Spanish-American War? • The war marked the end of SP once powerful New World empire • The war marked the emergence of the U.S. as a world power • The Treaty of Paris ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the U.S. • SP recognized Cuban independence and agreed to cede the PH to the U.S. for $20 million • The war gave McKinley an excuse to annex Hawaii in July 1898

11. American Involvement in the Philippines and Cuba • The debate over the PH • The provision in the Treaty of Paris ceding the PH to the U.S. 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 PH • Would violate America’s long-standing commitment to human freedom and rule by the “consent of the governed” • Expansionists countered by arguing that the PH would provide a strategic base from which the U.S. could trade with China • While acknowledging that the PH 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 • The Senate approved the Treaty of Paris with just 1 vote to spare

12. 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 U.S. 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 20th century • As the scale of fighting rose, both sides committed atrocities • After 3 years of fighting, the U.S. military crushed the rebels

13. American Involvement in the Philippines and Cuba • The Philippine Insurrection • 4,000 U.S. soldiers were killed • 16,000-20,000 Filipino rebels were killed • 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 U.S. to eventually grant the PH independence • Finally gained full independence on July 4, 1946

14. American Involvement in the Philippines and Cuba • Cuba and the Platt Amendment • Congress attached the Teller Amendment to its resolution declaring war on SP • Guaranteed American respect for Cuba’s sovereignty as an independent nation • The U.S. 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 • Prohibited Cuba from making any foreign treaties that might “impair” its independence or involve it in a public debt that it could not pay • Also gave the U.S. the right to maintain a naval station at Guantanamo Bay • It was incorporated into the Cuban constitution and provided the grounds for American intervention 4x in the early 1900s

15. The open Door Policy • After the economic slump of the 1890s, industrial leaders looked to China’s “illimitable markets” to spur economic growth • With the strategic coaling stations in Wake, Guam, and the Philippines, U.S. commercial ships could now reach the Chinese market • GB dominated trade with China for most of the 19th century • However, during the 1880s and 1890s Germany, FR, RU, and JP 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

16. The open Door Policy • Secretary of State John Hay became increasingly worried that the European powers and JP would restrict U.S. trading opportunities in China • He dispatched a series of notes to GB, RU, FR, Germany, IT, and JP asking the gov’ts of these 6 nations to agree to respect the rights 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 U.S. commercial interests in China • The European powers and JP 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”

17. Big Stick Diplomacy • “Speak softly and carry a big stick” • Theodore Roosevelt was keenly aware that victory in the Sp-Am War gave the U.S. a new role in world affairs • Roosevelt believed that “civilized and orderly” nations such as the U.S. and GB had a duty to police the world and maintain order • To do that, he said that the U.S. should, in the words of a West African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”

18. 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, 71 days passed before it could reach Cuba because it had to sail from San Fran 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

19. Big Stick Diplomacy • The Panama Canal • After much debate Congress approved a canal through the Isthmus of Panama • At that time Panama was a province of Columbia • The U.S. offered to pay Columbia $10,000,000 for the right to dig a canal across the isthmus • But the Columbian Senate refused to ratify the treaty 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 U.S. a lease on a 10-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 10 years • When it opened in 1914, the Panama Canal gave the U.S. a commanding position in the Western Hemisphere

21. 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 and that it would lead to European intervention • Roosevelt responded to the crisis in the DR by proclaiming the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine • 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 M.D., was a unilateral declaration motivated by U.S. national interest • Changed the M.D. from an anti-intervention statement against Europe to a justification of the U.S. right to regulate Caribbean affairs • Roosevelt backed up his words with prompt action • Citing the Corollary, American personnel supervised DR customs office to assure payment of debts to European creditors

22. Writing, Writing, and More Writing!!!! • Outline Requirements: • Must turn in each outline until you receive a check mark from your tutors. • 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. • After 5 check marks, you are no longer required to write the outlines. • BUT—for each additional outline you do over 5, you will receive 1 point on your FRE final grade for your 4thcomp (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. • Failure to complete (meaning check marks!!) 5 outlines before the 3rd 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: • The Spanish-American War changed the status of the United States in the world. Assess the validity of this statement. • Here’s how to set your paper up each time:

23. Outline #____ Name Prompt Class Thesis Argument of Body Paragraph I a. evidence b. evidence c. evidence d. connection to thesis Argument of Body Paragraph II a. evidence b. evidence c. evidence d. connection to thesis Repeat as necessary Conclusion