C H A P T E R 2 1 An Emerging World Power 1877–1914

1. C H A P T E R 2 1An Emerging World Power1877–1914 Section I: The Roots of Expansion

2. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age • 1880: • U.S. population = 50 million • U.S. industrial production ranked second only to Britain’s • The Civil War put the U.S. at odds with Britain & France • U.S. opposed France’s attempt to establish a puppet regime in Mexico • With Britain, the issues involved damages to Union shipping by the Alabama & other Confederate sea raiders operating from English ports

3. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age • In the years after the Civil War: • U.S. lapsed into diplomatic inactivity….WHY? • The building of the nation’s industrial economy turned Americans’ attention inward. • Americans shared a sense of security & isolation from the rest of the world • Even though new international telegraphic cables provided overseas communication after the 1860s

4. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age • The U.S. Navy fleet gradually deteriorated • Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885) • began an upgrading program, but the navy remained small • A coherent foreign policy was difficult to develop • Appointment to foreign service was mostly through the spoils system

5. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age: Latin American Diplomacy • The State Department • Had little control over either policy or its missions abroad • American presence often consisted of independent religious missionaries • Diplomatic activity quickened when James G. Blaine became secretary of state in 1881; • Tried his hand at settling disputes in South America • Called the first Pan-American conference

6. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age: Pacific Episodes • McKinley Tariff of 1890: • Cancelled Hawaii’s favored access to the American market • Sugar planters backed by the Harrison administration planned an American takeover • Grover Cleveland halted the annexation…WHY? • He said, it would have violated America’s “honor & morality” & nonimperial tradition.

7. Diplomacy in the Gilded Age • Imperialism • 1867: United States purchased Alaska from imperial Russia • 1878: Secured rights to a coaling station in Pago Pago Harbor in the Samoan Islands • So what was American diplomacy during the Gilded Age? • Characterization of a series of incidents rather than the pursuit of a clear foreign policy

8. VERTICAL PARTNERS: What were the economic sources of expansionism? • Insufficient domestic markets existed to absorb the burgeoning output of American industry. • Export outlets were desirable in periods of economic downturn; the more output that was sent abroad in bad times, the fewer workers that would need to be dismissed. • Although exports to selected non-Western areas might be relatively small, the potential—in China, for example—was enormous • Exports needed to be boosted to balance the repatriation of the earnings of foreign investors in America.

9. The Economy of Expansionism • America’s GNP quadrupled between 1870 & 1900 • As the industrial economy expanded, so did factory exports. • American firms such as the Singer Sewing Machine Company & Standard Oil began to establish their factories overseas • Foreign trade was important for reasons of international finance: • To balance its foreign debt account, the U.S. needed to export more goods than it imported.

10. The Economy of Expansionism • Many thought that the nation’s capacity to produce had outpaced its capacity to consume….SO? • U.S. needed buyers in foreign markets to purchase its surplus products. • Europe & Canada = most of American export trade in the late 19C • Asia & Latin America = a modest part. • Non-Western markets were important not for their current value but for their future promise • Many believed that the China trade would one day be the key to American prosperity.

11. The Economy of Expansionism • European imperialism accelerated in the mid-1880s: • Africa was carved up after the Berlin Conference of 18884 • European powers challenged American interests in Latin America • The Panic of 1893: • Set in motion industrial strikes & agrarian protests that many Americans took to be symptoms of revolution • Securing the markets of Latin America & Asia became an urgent necessity • Inspired the expansionist diplomacy of the 1890s

12. The Making of a “Large” Foreign Policy • The Influence of Seapower upon History (1890) • Book by Captain Alfred T. Mahan, a leading naval strategist • Argued that the key to imperial power was control of the seas • Traversing the oceans required: • Robust merchant marine • Powerful navy to protect American commerce • Strategic overseas bases

13. The Making of a “Large” Foreign Policy • Mahan called for a canal across Central America to connect the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans, with control over strategic points in defense of American trading interests • Politicians accepted Mahan’s underlying logic • Pushed for a “large policy” • From 1889 onward, a consistent American foreign policy emerged.

14. The Making of a “Large” Foreign Policy • 1890, under Benjamin Harrison’s administration: • Congress appropriated funds for 3 battleships as the first installment on a two ocean navy. • Grover Cleveland’s administration cancelled Harrison’s scheme for annexing Hawaii • But picked up the naval program • The nation’s commercial vitality depended on its naval power

15. The Making of a “Large” Foreign Policy: The Venezuela Crisis • For years, a border dispute simmered between Venezuela & British Guiana • United States demanded that the British resolve it. • Secretary of State Richard Olney warned Britain that the U.S. would not challenge our vital interests in the Caribbean • Invoked the Monroe Doctrine

16. The Making of a “Large” Foreign Policy • British agreed to arbitration of the border dispute • Realized that the Cleveland administration meant business • Secretary of State Olney asserted that other countries would now have to accommodate America’s need for access to “more markets & larger markets.”

17. The Ideology of Expansionism • Expansionist theory used the social Darwinism theory: • If the United States wanted to survive, it had to expand • Linked to social Darwinism: • A spreading belief in the inherent superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race

18. The Ideology of Expansionism • John Fiske’s “Manifest Destiny” lecture espoused the belief: • Every land on the earth’s surface should become English in its language, religion, political habits, & bloodline • Frederick Jackson Turner suggested a link between the closing of the western frontier & overseas expansion (Turner thesis) • As he predicted, American confidence in Manifest Destiny turned outward.

19. The Cuban Crisis • February 1895: • Cuban patriots rebelled & began a guerrilla war for freedom from Spain • Spanish commander, Valeriano Weyler, adopted a policy of “reconcentration.” • The Junta = a key group of exiles • Tried to make a case for the Cuba Libre in New York • Hearst put Cuba’s plight on the front page of the New York Journal.

20. The Cuban Crisis • Americans felt concern & sympathy for the Cubans • Their anger against Spain came to be known as “jingoism.” • Congress began calling for Cuban independence • Grover Cleveland = more concerned that the Cuban civil war was disrupting trade & harming American property interests.

21. The Cuban Crisis: The Road to War • William McKinley, like Cleveland, felt that the U.S. was the dominant Caribbean power with vital interests to be protected • McKinley = tougher on the Spaniards • McKinley = sensitive to business fears that any rash action might disrupt an economy just recovering from the depression • September 18, 1897: U.S. informs Spanish government that it was time to end the war, or the U.S. would take steps to end it

22. The Cuban Crisis • Spain backed away from reconcentration • Spain offered Cuba a degree of self-rule • Cuban rebels demanded full independence • The New York Journal published the private letter of Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the U.S • Called President McKinley weak • Implied that the Spanish government did not take American demands seriously

23. The Cuban Crisis • A week later the U.S. battle cruiser Maine blew up & sank in Havana Harbor, killing 260 seamen • McKinley had to contend with popular cry for a war against Spain • Spain rejected McKinley’s demands: • Immediate armistice • Abandonment of the practice of reconcentration • Peace negotiations

24. The Cuban Crisis • The War Hawks in Congress chafed under McKinley’s cautious progress, but the president did not lose control • The resolutions authorizing intervention in Cuba contained an amendment disclaiming any intention by the U.S. of taking possession of Cuba. • It was not because of expansionist ambitions that McKinley forced Spain into a corner, but once war came, McKinley saw it as an opportunity for expansion.

25. The Spoils of War • Spain declared war on April 24, 1898 • Theodore Roosevelt was commissioned lieutenant colonel in the volunteer cavalry regiment known as the Rough Riders. • Confusion reigned in the swelling volunteer army: • Uniforms did not arrive, the food was bad, the sanitation was worse • Rifles were in short supply • No provisions had been made for getting troops to Cuba

26. The Spoils of War • The small regular army was the core • Civilians had to be turned into soldiers within a few weeks • The navy = better shape • Spain couldn’t match American battleships & armored cruisers. • May 1: • American ships cornered the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay & destroyed it; • Manila, the Philippine capital, fell on August 13, 1898

27. The Spoils of War • After Commodore George Dewey’s naval victory Americans were not going to let the Philippine Islands go • Philippines made a strategic base in the western Pacific • Projected American power into Asia & its markets

28. The Spoils of War • Hawaiian annexation went through Congress by joint resolution in July 1898; • Hawaii = crucial halfway station on the way to the Philippines • Navy pushed for: • Coaling base in Guam in the central Pacific • Base in Puerto Rico in the Caribbean

29. The Spoils of War • The main battle in the campaign in Cuba happened near Santiago (San Juan Hill) • Convinced that Santiago could not be saved, Spanish forces surrendered • In an armistice, Spain agreed: • To liberate Cuba • Cede Puerto Rico & Guam to the U.S. • American forces occupied Manila pending a peace treaty

30. The Imperial Experiment • Next decision: What to do with the Philippines? • Not even avid American expansionists wanted colonial rule over subject peoples • McKinley & his advisors felt that they couldn’t: • Return the islands to harsh Spanish rule • Have the Filipinos were fit to rule themselves

31. The Imperial Experiment • Treaty of Paris: • Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. for a payment of $20 million. • Those against the treaty invoked American republican principles: • Believed the federal government couldn’t conquer an alien people & hold them in subjugation

32. The Imperial Experiment • November 1890: • Social elite of old-line Mugwump reformers from Boston formed the first of the Anti-Imperialist Leagues • They began to spring up around the country • Anti-imperialists never developed a popular movement: • They shared little other interests, & they lacked “the common touch.”

33. The Imperial Experiment • Before the Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris: • Fighting broke out between American & Filipino patrols • Confronted with American annexation, Filipinos turned their guns on American forces. • Fighting strong Philippine guerrillas, the U.S. Army resorted to the reconcentration tactic the Spaniards used in Cuba. • The fighting ended in 1902 • Governor general, William Howard Taft hoped to make the Philippines a model of American road building & sanitary engineering

34. A Power among Powers • How did Roosevelt’s justify American dominance in the Caribbean? • Believed that it was the job of civilized powers to insist on the proper policing of the world & the maintenance of the balance of power • Britain’s position in Europe was steadily worsening • Challenged by a Germany who wanted imperial supremacy • Weakened by soured relations with France & Russia • Great Britain had a new & clear need of rapprochement with the U.S

35. A Power among Powers: Anglo-American Friendship • Hay-Pauncefote Agreement (1901): • British gave up right to participate in any Central American canal project • There was no formal alliance • Anglo-American friendship was so firm that it was assumed that the Americans & the British would never have a parricidal war. • In regard to American power, especially naval power, Roosevelt said, “Speak softly & carry a big stick.”

36. A Power among Powers • Roosevelt = angry when the Columbian legislature voted down his proposal to lease land for a canal: • He thought to seize Panama • Instead lent covert assistance that ensured a bloodless Panamanian revolution against Columbia. • November 7, 1901: U.S. recognized Panama • Two weeks later received a perpetually renewable lease on a canal zone • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished the Panama Canal in 1914 • Gave the U.S. a commanding commercial & strategic position in the Western Hemisphere.

37. A Power among Powers • Platt Amendment: • A condition for Cuban independence • Gave the U.S. the right to intervene if Cuba’s independence or internal order was threatened. • The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine • Meant an unrestricted American right to regulate Caribbean affairs • On occasions when Caribbean domestic order broke down, the U.S. Marines occupied Cuba in 1906, Nicaragua in 1909, & Haiti & the Dominican Republic in later years

38. The Imperial Experiment • Americans had not anticipated the brutal methods needed to subdue the Filipino guerrillas; • The Jones Act (1916) formally committed the U.S. to granting Philippine independence but set no date • In a few years the U.S. had acquired the makings of an overseas empire • U.S. moved into a position of what is commonly called a world power

39. The Open Door in Asia • 1890: U.S. secretary of state John Hay sent the powers occupying China an “open door” note • Claimed the right of equal trade access for all nations that wanted to do business there • Boxer Rebellion (1900): • U.S. joined a multinational campaign to break the Boxers’ siege of the diplomatic missions in Peking • If the legal fiction of an independent China survived, so would American claims to equal access to the China market

40. The Open Door in Asia • Britain, Germany, France, & Russia were strongly entrenched in East Asia & not inclined to defer to American interests • Roosevelt mediated a settlement of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905…WHY? • Anxious to restore some semblance of power, • Japan emerged as the dominant power in East Asia

41. The Open Door in Asia • Increase of anti-Asian feelings in California complicated Roosevelt’s efforts to achieve Asian accommodation for American interests in the Pacific. • The Root-Takahira Agreement: • Confirmed the status quo in the Pacific • Confirmed principles of free oceanic commerce & equal trade opportunity in China. • William Howard Taft • Hoped that with “dollar diplomacy” American capital would counterbalance Japanese power & pave the way for increased commercial activities

42. The Open Door in Asia • Chinese Revolution of 1911 toppled the Manchu dynasty • Taft supported the victorious Chinese nationalists • U.S. entered a long-term rivalry with Japan.

43. Wilson & Mexico • Woodrow Wilson opposed dollar diplomacy • Believed it bullied weaker countries financially • Believed it gave undue advantage to American business • Believed that the U.S. should conduct its foreign policy in conformity with its democratic principles • Porfirio Diaz, Mexico’s dictator, was overthrown by Francisco Madero, who spoke for liberty & constitutionalism much as did Wilson • But before Madero could carry out his reforms • He was deposed & murdered in 1913 by Victoriano Huerta

44. Wilson & Mexico • Other powers were quick to recognize Huerta’s provisional government • Wilson abhorred him, & the U.S. did not recognize his government • Wilson wanted Huerta out & to put the Mexican revolution back on the constitutional path started by Madero • Venustiano Carranza, leading a Constitutionalist movement in northern Mexico • Did not want American intervention • Wanted recognition so that he could purchase U.S. weapons

45. Wilson & Mexico • 1914: American weapons began to flow to Carranza’s troops • As it became clear that Huerta was not going to fall, Wilson ordered the American occupation of the port of Veracruz • Huerta’s regime began to crumble • Carranza condemned the U.S.& his forces came close to engaging the Americans. • Carranza’s rival Pancho Villa did engage Americans

46. The Gathering Storm in Europe • In Europe, there was rivalry between Germany, France, & Britain • In the Balkans, Austria-Hungary & Russia were maneuvering for dominance • These conflicts created two groups of allies • Germany, Austria-Hungary, & Italy made up the Triple Alliance • France & Russia made up the Dual Alliance

47. The Gathering Storm in Europe • Britain reached an entente with France & Russia by 1907, laying the foundation for a Triple Entente; a war between two great European power blocs became more likely • As president, Roosevelt took an interest in European affairs • As the head of a Great Power, he was eager to make a contribution to the cause of peace there

48. The Gathering Storm in Europe • At an international conference in 1906 at Algeciras, Spain, the U.S. role was defined: • U.S. would be the apostle of peace, distinguished by a lack of selfish interest in European affairs • The Hague Peace Conference of 1899 offered a new hope for the peaceful settlement of international disputes in the Permanent Court of Arbitration

49. The Gathering Storm in Europe • Both Roosevelt & Taft negotiated arbitration treaties with other countries • But were crippled by a Senate afraid of any erosion of the nation’s sovereignty • William Jennings Bryan’s “cooling off” treaties with other countries were admirable but had no bearing on the explosive power politics of Europe