Foreign Policy Review

1. Date: April 9, 2014Topic: Emerging Global Involvement of the United States.Aim: How did certain factors enable the united states to become a dominating world power in the early 20th century? Do Now: Multiple choice questions.

2. Foreign Policy Review • George Washington • Monroe Doctrine

3. New Technology • In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, American expansion was in many ways a resumption of the expansionist drive that had been halted by the Civil War. A number of factors led the United States into greater global involvement in the late 1800’s • Improvements in transportation and communication technology shortened distances around the world. At the same time, other inventions accelerated industrial growth. Railroads connected factories and farms to Atlantic and Pacific ports, from which steamships carried goods to Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Communication was faster and easier thanks to the telegraph, telephone and transatlantic cable. Communications technology quickly provided information on international markets and on events in other nations that might affect the United States. The world was becoming more interdependent. How would new technologies increase international competition?

4. DRIVE FOR MARKETS AND RAW MATERIALS • Economics linked the domestic and foreign policy goals of the United States. Business leaders wanted raw materials from abroad. Both business leaders and farmers also wanted overseas markets. Overseas markets could provide economic stability, especially when, as in the 1890’s, domestic consumption could not absorb the nation’s output. At the same time, international competition increased as European nations, Japan, and the United States sought raw materials and markets. Foreign trade increased dramatically. High US tariffs played a role in revolutions in Hawaii and Cuba. How did economics combine domestic and foreign policy goals of the United States? According to this reading, why did the United States look abroad for economic resources?

5. VALUE OF US EXPORTS What was the value of US exports in 1890? Why did the value of US exports significantly increase by 1920?

6. Growth of Naval Power • 1880’s: US Navy began expanding – building steel hulled warships with steam engines and the latest weapon technology. • Alfred T. Mahan – Rear Admiral, who promoted the significance of sea power. • Mahan argued that as foreign trade grew a nation needed a strong navy to protect shipping routes. • The navy needed bases at which to refuel and restock supplies. • The Influence of sea Power Upon History.

8. How does this reading illustrate the US policy of expansion?

9. Manifest destiny and the closing of the frontier • As you will recall, the idea of manifest destiny took hold in the United States in the mid-1800’s. Manifest destiny is the idea that the United States had a divine mission to expand in order to spread the ideals of freedom and democracy. • This belief was fueled by historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis. In a famous 1893 essay, Turner argued that the existence of a frontier throughout our history had been vital in shaping the American character. By 1893, Turner noted, that frontier no longer existed, an argument supported by the 1890 census. Some people interpreted this development to mean that Americans needed new frontiers beyond the current borders. How has manifest destiny been interpreted US expansion beyond its borders? How can social Darwinism be applied to American expansion?