Transcript America Becomes A Colonial Power
Foreign Policy in the Gilded Age 1880 —1890
• Population growing: @ 50 million (1880) • Industry: # 2 in the world (UK = #1) • America turned their attention inward after 1860 • Navy was small and inadequate • State Dept. was on the sidelines as Congress controlled the country • However U.S. was beginning to out-grow it’s borders • The West was closed off: (Turner Thesis) so now what? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “American diplomacy in these years has been characterized as a series of incidents, not the pursuit of foreign policy.”
“Seward’s Folly”: 1867
$7.2 million
WHY did the U.S. buy Alaska??
• Alaska had been settled by Russian fur traders in the late 1700s, but by 1867 fur sources were becoming scarce. • In addition, Russia was struggling to recover from the Crimean War. As a result, Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States. • Overcoming strong opposition from Congress, Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska for $7.2 million in 1867.
• Critics scoffed at “Seward’s Folly,” thinking that the territory was a frozen wasteland. But after gold and oil were discovered, Americans appreciated the bargain. Seward also acquired the Midway Islands that same year.
• • Case Study:
Hawaii and Gilded Age Expansionism
1870’s:
sugar American businessmen invested in Hawaiian • •
1875:
the sale of Hawaiian sugar in the U.S. became duty-free.
• Over the years
American businessmen increased their investments and control over the Hawaiian economy
.
1887
: Hawaiians forced to sign the “Bayonet Constitution:” a) forced King Kalakaua to change the Hawaiian constitution only allowing wealthy (American!) landowners voting rights b) allowed for the construction of Pearl Harbor - to protect American businessmen and their business interests.
1890
: McKinley Tariff eliminated duty-free Hawaiian sugar, thus creating more competition for sugar in the American market . . . And Americans in Hawaii were NOT happy . . .
U. S. View of Hawaiians
Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani
Hawaii for the Hawaiians!
The Hawaiian “Republic” •
1893
: Sugar planters, already upset at the tariff, revolted against the Queen when she suggested drafting a new constitution that would take voting rights away from America.
• USS Boston sailed into Honolulu; Marines on shore to “protect American interests.” • US took control of the government and sets up a provisional government led by Sanford B. Dole.
• Stevens immediately recognized Dole’s government and sent it to Washington asking to annex the island.
• Cleveland said no to annexation, but recognized Republic of Hawaii.
• 1898: McKinley Hawaii becomes a territory
U. S. Business Interests In Hawaii
Sanford B. Dole
1. Commercial/Business Interests
U. S. Foreign Investments: 1869 1908
2. Military/Strategic Interests
Alfred T. Mahan -- The Influence of Sea Power on
History: 1660-1783
3. Social Darwinist Thinking
The Hierarchy of Race
The White Man’s Burden
4. Religious/Missionary Interests
American Missionaries in China, 1905
5. Closing the American Frontier
Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”
Spanish Misrule in Cuba
• Since the 1860s, Cuba sought independence from Spain • 1895
Jose Marti
began a guerilla war rebellion to obtain Cuba • independence from Spain.
Valeriano Weyler
(Span. Com.) – adopted a round then up (concentration camp) style response.
Valeriano “The Butcher” Weyler’s Reconcentration Policy
1. “Yellow Journalism” & Jingoism
Joseph Pulitzer – “New York World” Hearst to Frederick Remington: You furnish the
pictures, and I’ll furnish the war!
• Pres. McKinley was more concerned about the disruption of business and called for the war to end in Cuba – immediately – or else.
William Randolph Hearst — “New York Journal”
• Jingoism—extreme nationalism marked by a belligerent foreign policy.
2. De Lôme Letter
Dupuy de Lôme, Spanish Ambassador to the U.S.
Criticized President McKinley as “weak
and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd!”
3. Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain!
Funeral for Maine victims in Havana
The Spanish-American War: Causes: 3) The USS Maine Explodes: • 260 seamen dead • McKinley now had to look at war as a possibility • Tried to negotiate with Spain, but they rejected the peace offering • War hawks in Congress pushed for war • McKinley reluctantly went to war; eventually saw it as an opportunity for American expansion
Theodore Roosevelt
Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the McKinley administration.
Imperialist and American nationalist.
Criticized President McKinley as
having the backbone of a chocolate éclair!
Resigns his position to fight in Cuba.
The Spanish-American War (1898):
“That Splendid Little War”
BEFORE TR headed to Cuba, he gave orders to attack Philippines.
U.S. destroyed Spanish fleet in a matter of hours.
Dewey received help on the mainland from rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
Dewey Captures Manila!
Meanwhile . . .the War in Cuba
•U.S. issued Teller Amendment: promised to allow Cuba to govern itself once freed from Spain.
•Wool uniforms and mess kits from Civil War slowed efforts!
•Rough Riders (on foot) charged San Juan Hill.
•In less than 4 months, Spain was defeated.
The Treaty of Paris: 1898
Cuba was freed from Spanish rule.
Spain gave up Puerto Rico and the island of Guam.
U.S. agreed to pay $20 million for Philippines.
The U. S. becomes an imperial power!
Annexing the Philippines
• Having been promised independence for fighting alongside the Americans against Spain, Filipinos expected independence.
Is He To Be a Despot?
The American Anti-Imperialist League
Founded in 1899.
Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, William James, and William Jennings Bryan among the leaders.
Campaigned against the annexation of the Philippines and other acts of imperialism.
The Philippines
• US refused to acknowledge the Filipino request for independence.
• Feeling betrayed, Emilio Aguinaldo & Filipino rebels enter a war against the U.S.
• Jan. 1899 Aguinaldo proclaimed the Philippines independent Philippine-American War (1899 —1902) U.S. deaths: 4,200 Filipino deaths: 20,000 • Long-drawn out conflict with the use of some brutal tactics by both sides.
William H. Taft, 1st Gov.-General of the Philippines
Taft (governor general) promised indep. and high degree of self-rule.
The Philippines would not be granted independence until 1946.
Cuban Independence?
Teller Amendment (1898) Senator Orville Platt Platt Amendment (1903) 1.
Cuba was not to enter into any agreements with foreign powers that would endanger its independence.
2.
The U.S. could intervene in Cuban affairs if necessary to maintain an efficient, independent govt.
3.
Cuba must lease Guantanamo Bay and coaling station.
to the U.S. for naval
Our “Sphere of Influence”
America as a Pacific Power
The Background Story
How Did Panama Become Independent?
•In 1903, French canal builders agreed to sell their holdings/materials in their bankrupt Panama company to the United States for $40 million —but the U.S. still needed the rights from Colombia.
•Colombia (of which Panama was a province), rejected the U.S. treaty offer of $10 million + $250,000 yearly.
•Unwilling to give up . . . and recognizing Panama’s desire for independence (there was a small, established movement for independence), the United States (TR) quietly encouraged Panama to rebel.
•The ensuing four-hour revolution, under the watchful eye of two U.S. gunboats, created the Republic of Panama.
•A few days later, the United States Panama signed a treaty to build the canal.. .
and
… “I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me."
--Theodore Roosevelt
Speak Softly, But Carry a Big Stick!
TR in Panama (Construction begins in 1904)
Panama Canal
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: 1905
“Chronic wrongdoing… may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, . . . to the exercise of an international police power
.”
U. S. Interventions in Latin America: 1898-1920s
The Cares of a Growing Family
Constable of the World
The Great White Fleet: 1907
Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy”
Improve financial opportunities for American businesses.
Use private capital to further U. S. interests overseas.
Therefore, the U.S. should create stability and order abroad that would best promote America’s commercial interests.
Wilson’s “Moral Diplomacy”
The U. S. should be the conscience of the world.
Spread democracy.
Condemn colonialism, but . . .