APUSH-20. Foreign Policy, 1865-1914

Seward, Alaska, and the French in Mexico

A leading Republican of the 1850s and 1860s, William H. Seward of New York served under both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson as their secretary of state (1861-1869). Seward achieved more as secretary of state than anyone since the time of John Quincy Adams (who had helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine in 1823).

During the Civil War, Seward helped Lincoln prevent Great Britain and France from entering the war on the side of the South. A strong expansionist, he was unsuccessful in his efforts to convince Congress to annex Hawaii and purchase the Danish West Indies, but he achieved the annexation of Midway Island in the Pacific and gained rights to build a canal in Nicaragua.

The French in Mexico

Napoleon III (nephew of the first Napoleon) had taken advantage of U.S. involvement in the Civil War by sending French troops to occupy Mexico. With the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Seward immediately invoked the Monroe Doctrine and threatened U.S. military action unless the French withdrew. Napoleon III backed down, and the French troops left Mexico.

In the United States, advocates of American expansion included missionaries, politicians, naval strategists, and journalists.

Missionaries.

In his book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis (1885), the Reverend Josiah Strong wrote that people of Anglo-Saxon stock were "the fittest to survive" and that Protestant Americans had a Christian duty to colonize other lands for the purpose of spreading Christianity and Western civilization. Strong's book expressed the thinking of many Protestant congregations, which believed that westerners of the Christian faith had a duty to bring the benefits of their "superior" civilization (medicine, science, and technology) to less fortunate peoples of the world.

Many of the missionaries who traveled to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands also believed in the racial superiority and supremacy of whites. Mission activities of their churches encouraged many Americans to support active U.S. government involvement in foreign affairs.

Politicians.

Many in the Republican party were closely allied with busi- ness leaders. Republican politicians therefore generally endorsed the use of foreign affairs to search for new markets. Congressional leaders such as Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and the Republican governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, were eager to build U.S. power through global expansion.

Popular press.

Newspaper and magazine editors found that they could increase circulation by printing adventure stories about distant and exotic places. Stories in the popular press increased public interest and stimulated demands for a larger U.S. role in world affairs.

Latin America

Beginning with the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s, the United States had taken a special interest in problems of the Western Hemisphere and had assumed the role of protector of Latin America from European ambitions. Benjamin Harrison's Secretary of State James G. Blaine of Maine played a principal role in extending this tradition.

Blaine had hoped to bring about reductions in tariff rates. Although this goal was not achieved, the foundation was established for the larger goal of hemispheric cooperation on both economic and political issues. The Pan-American Union continues today as part of the Organization of American States, which was established in 1948.

In the 1890s, American public opinion was being swept by a growing wave of an intense form of nationalism calling for an aggressive foreign policy, otherwise known as?

jingoism

Expansionists demanded that the United States take its place with the imperialist nations of Europe as a world power. But which presidents, among many, thought military action abroad was both morally wrong and economically unsound? (well, specific events combined with background pressures led to overwhelming popular demand for war against Spain.)

Cleveland, McKinley

Bands of Cuban nationalists had been fighting for how many years to overthrow Spanish colonial rule?

10

In 1895, they adopted the strategy of sabotaging and laying waste Cuban ______________ in order either to force Spain's withdrawal or involve the United States in their revolution. Spain responded by sending the autocratic General Valeriano ______________ and over 100,000 troops to suppress the revolt.

plantations, Weyler

Actively promoting war fever in the United States were sensationalistic city newspapers with their bold and lurid headlines of crime, disaster, and scandal. What is this reporting of new extremes called?

yellow journalism/press

Which two heads New York newspapers printed exaggerated & false accounts of Spanish atrocities in Cuba, which people believed & therefore urged to support intervention in Cuba?

Pulitzer (New York World), Hearst (New York Journal)

Why was the letter from the Spanish minister De Lome, leaked and printed on Hearst's New York Journal, criticized by many as a Spanish insult against US national honor?

because it was highly critical of President McKinley

Less than one week after the de Lome letter made headlines, a far more shocking event occurred. On February 15, 1898, the U.S. battleship ___________ was at anchor in the harbor of ___________, Cuba, when it suddenly exploded, killing 260 Americans on board.

Maine, Havana

The yellow press accused whom of deliberately blowing up the ship, even though experts later concluded that the explosion was probably an accident?

Spain

Following the sinking of the Maine, which president issued an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it agree to a ceasefire in Cuba?

McKinley

Spain (did agree/did not agree) to the demand of a ceasefire in Cuba, but U.S. newspapers and a majority in Congress kept clamoring for war. McKinley yielded to the public pressure in April by sending a war message to Congress.

did agree

McKinley offered four reasons for the United States to intervene in the Cuban revolution on behalf of the rebels:

1. "Put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries" in Cuba
2. Protect the lives and property of U.S. citizens living in Cuba
3. End "the very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people"
4. End "the constant menace to our peace" arising from the disorders in Cuba

Teller Amendment.

Following McKinley's war message pushed by the public,

Responding to the president's message, Congress passed a joint resolution on April 20 authorizing war. Part of the resolution, the Teller Amendment, declared that the United States had no intention of taking political control of Cuba and that, once peace was restored to the island, the Cuban people would control their own government.

The first shots of the Spanish-American War were fired where?

Manila Bay (Philippines)

The last shots of the Spanish-American war were fired only a few months later in August. So swift was the U.S. victory that Secretary of State John Hay called it what?

a splendid little war

Roosevelt, then McKinley's assistant secretary of the navy, was an _________________ who was eager to show off the power of his country's new, all-steel navy.

expansionist

Anticipating war and recognizing the strategic value of Spain's territories in the Pacific, Roosevelt had ordered a fleet commanded by Commodore George Dewey to which nation?

Philippines

On May 1, shortly after war was declared, Commodore Dewey's fleet opened fire on Spanish ships in Manila Bay. The Spanish fleet was soon pounded into submission by U.S. naval guns. The fight on land took longer. Allied with Filipino rebels, U.S. troops captured the city of Manila on August 13.

Invasion of Cuba.

More troublesome than the Philippines was the U.S. effort in Cuba. An ill-prepared, largely volunteer force landed in Cuba by the end of June. Here the most lethal enemy proved to be not Spanish bullets but tropical diseases. More than 5,000 American soldiers died of malaria, typhoid, and dysentery, while less than 500 died in battle.

Attacks by both American and Cuban forces succeeded in defeating the much larger but poorly led Spanish army. Next to Dewey's victory in Manila Bay, the most celebrated event of the war was a cavalry charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba by the Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers led by Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned his Navy post to take part in the war.

Roosevelt's volunteers were aided in victory by veteran regiments of African Americans. Less heroic but more important than the taking of San Juan Hill was the success of the U.S. Navy in destroying the Spanish fleet at Santiago Bay on July 3. Without a navy, Spain realized that it could not continue fighting, and in early August asked for U.S. terms of peace.

Annexation of Hawaii

For decades before the war, the Pacific islands of Hawaii had been settled by American missionaries and entrepreneurs. U.S. expansionists had long cov- eted the islands and, in 1893, American settlers had aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani.

President Cleveland, however, had opposed Republican efforts to annex Hawaii. Then the outbreak of war and fight for the Philippines gave Congress and President McKinley the pretext to complete annexation in July 1898. The Hawaiian islands became a territory of the United States in 1900. Hawaii became the fiftieth state in the Union in August 1959.

Far more controversial than the war itself were the terms of the treaty of peace signed in Paris on December 10, 1898. It provided for (1) recognition of ____________ independence, (2) U.S. acquisition of two Spanish islands—____________ ____________ in the Caribbean and ____________ in the Pacific, and (3) U.S. acquisition of the Philippines in return for payment to Spain of _____________________.

Cuban, Puerto Rico, Guam, 20 million

The Philippines question was sharply debated between which two groups of opinions - aiming to satisfy the two-thirds vote required to ratify the Treaty of Paris?

imperialists, anti-imperalists

They argued that, for the first time, the United States would be taking possession of a heavily populated area whose people were of a different race and culture. Such action, they thought, violated the principles of the Declaration of Independence by depriving Filipinos of the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and also would entangle the United States in the political conflicts of Asia.

On February 6, 1899, the _____________ prevailed and the Treaty of Paris (and Philippine _____________) was ratified by an extremely close vote of 57 to 27. The anti-imperialists fell just ______ votes short of defeating the treaty.

imperialists, annexation, two

The people of the Philippines were outraged that their hopes for national independence from Spain were now being denied by the United States.

Filipino nationalist leader _____________ _____________ had fought alongside U.S. troops during the Spanish-American War. Now he led bands of guerrilla fighters in a war against U.S. control. It took U.S. troops three years and cost thousands of lives on both sides before the insurrection finally ended in 1902.

Emilio Aguinaldo

Other Results of the War

Imperialism remained a major issue in the United States even after ratifica- tion of the Treaty of Paris. An Anti-Imperialist League, led by William Jennings Bryan, rallied opposition to further acts of expansion in the Pacific.

Insular Cases.

One question concerned the constitutional rights of the Philippine people: Did the Constitution follow the flag? In other words, did the provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply to whatever territories fell under U.S. control, including the Philippines and Puerto Rico?

Bryan and other anti-imperialists argued in the affirmative, while leading imperialists argued in the negative. The issue was resolved in favor of the imperialists in a series of Supreme Court cases (1901-1903) known as the insular (island) cases. The Court ruled that constitutional rights were not automatically extended to territo- rial possessions and that the power to decide whether or not to grant such rights belonged to Congress.

Cuba and the Platt Amendment (1901).

Previously, the Teller Amend- ment to the war resolution of 1898 had more or less guaranteed U.S. respect for Cuba's sovereignty as an independent nation. Nevertheless, U.S. troops remained in Cuba from 1898 until 1901. In the latter year, Congress made the withdrawal of troops conditional upon Cuba's acceptance of certain terms. These terms were included in an amendment to an army appropriations bill— the Platt Amendment of 1901.

Bitterly resented by Cuban nationalists, which Amendment required Cuba to agree that:
1. never to sign a treaty with a foreign power that impaired its independence
2. never to build up an excessive public debt
3. to permit the United States to intervene in Cuba's affairs to preserve its independence and maintain law and order
4. to allow the U.S. to maintain naval bases in Cuba, including one at Guantanamo Bay

Platt

A Cuban convention reluctantly accepted these terms, adding them to its country's new constitution. In effect, the Platt Amendment made Cuba a U.S. protectorate; in other words, its foreign policy would be, for many years, subject to U.S. oversight and control.

Election of 1900.

The Republicans renominated President McKinley, along with war hero and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt for vice president. The Democrats, as they had in 1896, nominated William Jennings Bryan, who again argued for free silver. With most Americans accepting the recently enacted gold standard, Bryan vigorously attacked the growth of American imperialism.

While many Americans questioned imperialism, they saw the new territory, including the Philippines, acquired during the war as an accomplished fact. The deciding issue was the growing national economic prosperity, which convinced the majority to give McKinley a larger margin of victory than in 1896.

Recognition of U.S. power.

One positive consequence of the Spanish- American War was its effect on the way both Americans and Europeans thought about U.S. power. The decisive U.S. victory in the war filled Americans with national pride. Southerners shared in this pride and became more attached to the Union after their bitter experience in the 1860s. At the same time, France, Great Britain, and other European nations came to recognize that the United States was a first-class power with a strong navy and a new willingness to take an active role in international affairs.

Open Door Policy in China

Europeans were further impressed by U.S. involvement in global politics as a result of John Hay's policies toward China. As McKinley's secretary of state, Hay was alarmed that the Chinese empire, weakened by political corrup- tion and failure to modernize, was falling under the control of various outside powers.

In the 1890s, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany had all established spheres of influence in China, meaning that they could dominate trade and investment within their sphere (a particular port or region of China) and shut out competitors.

To prevent the United States from losing access to the lucrative China trade, Hay dispatched a diplomatic note in 1899 to nations holding spheres of influence. He asked them to accept the concept of an Open Door, by which all nations would have equal trading privileges in China.

The replies to Hay's note were evasive, but because no nation rejected the concept, Hay declared that all had accepted the Open Door policy. The press hailed Hay's initiative as a diplomatic triumph.

To protect American lives and property, U.S. troops participated in an international force that marched into Peking (Beijing) and quickly suc- ceeded in crushing the rebellion of the Boxers. China was forced to pay a huge sum in indemnities, which further weakened the imperial regime.

Boxer Rebellion (1900).

As the 19th century ended, nationalism and xenophobia (hatred and fear of foreigners) were on the rise in China. In 1900, a secret society of Chinese nationalists—the Society of Harmonious Fists, or Boxers—attacked foreign settlements and murdered dozens of Christian missionaries.

Hay's second round of notes.

Hay feared that the expeditionary force in China might attempt to occupy the country and destroy its independence. In 1900, therefore, he wrote a second note to the imperialistic powers stating U.S. commitment to (1) preserve China's territorial integrity as well as (2) safeguard "equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire."

Hay's first and second notes set U.S. policy on China not only for the administrations of McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt but also for future presidents. In the 1930s, this Open Door policy for China would strongly influence U.S. relations with Japan.

Hay's notes in themselves did not deter other nations from exploiting the situation in China. For the moment, European powers were kept from grabbing larger pieces of China by the political rivalries among themselves.

In 1901, only a few months after being inaugurated president for a second time, McKinley was fatally shot by?

an anarchist

Describing his foreign policy, the new president had once said that it was his motto to "speak softly and carry a big stick." The press therefore applied the label "big stick" to Roosevelt's aggressive foreign policy.

By acting boldly and decisively in a number of situations, Roosevelt attempted to build the reputation of the U.S. as a world power. Imperialists applauded his every move, but critics of the big-stick policy disliked breaking from the tradition of noninvolvement in global politics.

The Panama Canal

As a result of the Spanish-American War, the new American empire stretched from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean to the Philippines in the Pacific. As a strategic necessity for holding on to these far-flung islands, the United States needed a canal through Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Revolution in Panama.

Roosevelt was eager to begin the construction of a canal through the narrow but rugged terrain of the isthmus of Panama. He was frustrated, however, by the fact that Colombia controlled this isthmus and refused to agree to U.S. terms for digging the canal through its territory. Losing patience with Colombia, Roosevelt supported a revolt in Panama in 1903. With U.S. backing, the rebellion succeeded immediately and almost without bloodshed. The first act of the new government of independent Panama was to sign a treaty (the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903) granting the United States long-term control of a canal zone.

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901).

One other obstacle to a canal built and operated by the United States had been removed earlier by the signing in 1901 of a treaty with Great Britain. The British had agreed to abrogate (cancel) an earlier treaty of 1850 in which any canal in Central America was to be under joint British-U.S. control. Now, as a result of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the United States could begin to dig the canal without British involvement

Building the canal.

Started in 1904, the Panama Canal was completed in 1914. Hundreds of laborers lost their lives in the effort. The work was completed thanks in great measure to the skills of two Army colonels—George Goethals, the chief engineer of the canal, and Dr. William Gorgas, whose efforts eliminated the mosquitoes that spread deadly yellow fever.

Most Americans approved of Roosevelt's determination to build the canal. Many, however, were unhappy with the high-handed tactics employed to secure the Canal Zone. Latin Americans were especially resentful. To compensate, Congress finally voted in 1921 to pay Colombia an indemnity of $25 million for its loss of Panama.

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Another application of Roosevelt's big-stick diplomacy involved Latin American nations that were in deep financial trouble and could not pay their debts to European creditors. In 1902, for example, the British dispatched war- ships to Venezuela to force that country to pay its debts. In 1904, it appeared that European powers stood ready to intervene in Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) for the same reason.

Rather than let Europeans intervene in Latin America—a blatant violation of the Monroe Doctrine—Roosevelt declared in December 1904 that the United States would intervene instead, whenever necessary. This policy became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

It meant that the United States would send gunboats to a Latin American country that was delinquent in paying its debts. U.S. sailors and marines would then occupy the country's major ports to manage the collection of customs taxes until European debts were satisfied.

Over the next 20 years, U.S. presidents used the Roosevelt Corollary to justify sending U.S. forces into Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. The long-term result of such interventions was poor U.S. relations with the entire region of Latin America.

East Asia

As the 20th century began, Japan and the United States were both relatively new imperialist powers in East Asia. Their relationship during Theodore Roose- velt's presidency, though at first friendly, grew increasingly competitive.

Imperialist rivalry between Russia and Japan led to a war between these nations (1904-1905). Who won?

Japan

To end the Russo-Japanese war, Theodore Roosevelt arranged for a diplomatic conference between representatives of the two foes at ______________, New Hampshire, in 1905.

Portsmouth

Although both Japan and Russia agreed to the Treaty of ______________, Japanese nationalists blamed the United States for not giving their country all that they wanted from Russia.

Portsmouth

Japan and US had friction due to the segregation laws against Japanese Americans in California to go to segregated schools - which was of course a national insult in Japan. So Roosevelt arranged a compromise in 1908 that he would repeal the discriminatory laws in return for restricting emigration of Japanese workers to US. What was this compromise called?

Gentlemen's Agreement

To demonstrate U.S. naval power to Japan and other nations, Roosevelt sent a fleet of impressive battleships on an around-the-world cruise including a welcomed journey to the Tokyo Bay (1907-1909), named?

Great White Fleet

Root-Takahira Agreement in 1908 between US and Japan pledged which two notes?

mutual respect for each nation's Pacific possessions, support for the Open Door policy in China

The purpose of the great white fleet and all other applications of Roosevelt's big-stick policy was?

to maintain the peace between rival nations

What did Roosevelt get the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for?

for settling the Russo-Japanese war

Roosevelt helped arrange and direct the _____________ Conference in Spain in 1906, which succeeded in settling a conflict between France and Germany over claims to Morocco. The president also directed U.S. participation at the _____________ _____________ Peace Conference at the Hague in 1907, which discussed rules for limiting warfare.

Algeciras, Second International Peace

Taft (1909-1913) did not carry a big stick. He adopted a foreign policy that was mildly expansionist but depended more on what than on the navy's battleships?

investor's dollars

Taft's policy of trying to promote U.S. trade by supporting American enterprises abroad was given what name?

dollar diplomacy

Dollar Diplomacy in East Asia and Latin America

Taft believed that private American financial investment in China and the nations of Central America would lead to greater stability there, while at the same time promoting U.S. business interests. His policy, however, was thwarted by one major obstacle: growing anti-imperialism both in the United States and overseas.

Railroads in China.

Taft first tested his policy in China. Wanting U.S. bankers to be included in a British, French, and German plan to invest in
railroads in China, Taft succeeded in securing American participation in an agreement signed in 1911.

In the northern province of Manchuria, however, the United States was excluded from an agreement between Russia and Japan to build railroads there. In direct defiance of the U.S. Open Door policy, Russia and Japan agreed to treat Manchuria as a jointly held sphere of influence.

Intervention in Nicaragua.

To protect American investments,theUnited States intervened in Nicaragua's financial affairs in 1911, and sent in marines when a civil war broke out in 1912. The marines remained, except for a short period, until 1933.

Which Republican senator from Massachusetts, was responsible for another action that alienated both Latin America and Japan?

Henry Lodge

A group of Japanese investors wanted to buy a large part of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, extending south of California. Fearing that Japan's government might be secretly scheming to acquire the land, Lodge introduced and the Senate in 1912 passed a resolution known as the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

Which resolution stated that non-European powers (such as Japan) would be excluded from owning territory in the Western Hemisphere?

Lodge Corollary (to Monroe Doctrine)

Taft opposed the Lodge corollary because it offended whom?

Japan, Latin America

Woodrow Wilson and Moral Diplomacy

In his campaign for president in 1912, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson called for a New Freedom in government and promised a moral approach to foreign affairs. Wilson said he opposed imperialism and the big-stick and dollar-diplomacy policies of his Republican predecessors.

Moral Diplomacy

In his first term as president (1913-1917), Wilson had limited success applying a high moral standard to foreign relations. He and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan hoped to demonstrate that the United States respected other nations' rights and would support the spread of democracy.

Righting past wrongs.

Hoping to demonstrate that his presidency was opposed to self-interested imperialism, Wilson took steps to correct what he viewed as wrongful policies of the past.

1. The Philippines.

Wilson won passage of the Jones Act of 1916, which (1) granted full territorial status to that country, (2) guaranteed a bill of rights and universal male suffrage to Filipino citizens, and (3) promised Philippine independence as soon as a stable government was established.

2. Puerto Rico.

An act of Congress in 1917 granted U.S. citizenship to all the inhabitants and also provided for limited self-government.

3. The Panama Canal.

Wilson persuaded Congress in 1914 to repeal an act that had granted U.S. ships an exemption from paying the standard canal tolls charged other nations. Wilson's policy on Panama Canal tolls angered American nationalists like Roosevelt and Lodge but pleased the British, who had strongly objected to the U.S. exemption.

Wilson's commitment to the ideals of democracy and peace was fully shared by his famous secretary of state, who was?

William Jennings Bryan

Bryan's pet project was to negotiate treaties in which nations pledged to do which two things arranged with Wilson's approval, 30 such conciliation treaties?

submit disputes to international commissions and observe a one-year cooling-off period before taking military action.

Military Intervention in Latin America

Wilson's commitment to democracy and anti-colonialism had a blind spot with respect to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. He went far beyond both Roosevelt and Taft in his use of U.S. marines to straighten out financial and political troubles in the region. Throughout his presidency, he kept marines in Nicaragua and ordered U.S. troops into Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916. He argued that such intervention was necessary to maintain stability in the region and protect the Panama Canal.

Conflict in Mexico

Wilson's moral approach to foreign affairs was severely tested by a revolution and civil war in Mexico. Wanting democracy to triumph there, he refused to recognize the military dictatorship of General Victoriano Huerta, who had seized power in Mexico in 1913 by arranging to assassinate the democratically elected president.

Tampico incident.

To aid a revolutionary faction that was fighting Huerta, Wilson asked for an arms embargo against the Mexican government and sent a fleet to blockade the port of Vera Cruz. In 1914, several American seamen went ashore at Tampico where they were arrested by Mexican authorities and soon released.

Huerta refused to apologize, as demanded by a U.S. naval officer, and Wilson in retaliation ordered the U.S. Navy to occupy Vera Cruz. War between Mexico and the United States seemed imminent. It was averted, how- ever, when South America's ABC powers—Argentina, Brazil, and Chile— offered to mediate the dispute. This was the first dispute in the Americas to be settled through joint mediation.