APUSH - Foreign Policy (Late 1800s - Early 1900s)

A U.S.'s role in foreign affairs between the 1890s and up to before WW1

Why did some NOT support American expansion in the late 1800s and early 1900s? (anti-war)

it would lead to an entanglement in foreign conflicts

Why did some against American expansion believe it would erode American values and tradition?

• imperial rule seemed inconsistent with America's republican principles

What economic opportunities and other benefits were served by conquering Cuba?

• Naval bases

  • close to home

• growing tropical cash crops

What economic opportunities and other benefits served with conquering Hawaii and the Phillipines?

• cash crops

• important coaling stations and steam-ship stopping points between the U.S. and their large market in China

Coaling station

• Also known as fueling stations

• repositories of fuel (initially coal and later oil) that have been located to service commercial and naval vessels.

What’s the Social Darwinist argument with expansion?

Anglo-Saxons (super white Northern Europeans, who were Protestant, and were more democratic in their governments) were morally, spiritually, and intellectually more advanced than the other nations in the world. Thus, they deserved the land claims from those like the Spanish (darker, Catholic, less democratic) and should rule over places like the Philippines (allegedly more heathenish and backwards).

Why did some believe America needed to rival Europe in the imperialist game?

Europe was having its second wave of imperialism, and to remain a world power, the U.S. needed to also compete for land across the globe (to expand their influence)

Why did imperialists argue that the U.S. needed a frontier?

• 1890 - frontier = closed

• the frontier was necessary as an escape for those who were discontented with American civilization

  • the frontier quenched the thirst for new exploration

What was the new frontier in the late 19th and early 20th century?

overseas territories

What were the opinions of anti-imperialists, like Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie?

• argued that ruling over other nations and people who didn't want the US over them was hypocritical

  • self-determination

• were against non-white people joining American society

  • they weren’t capable of assimilation

  • not capable of being a part of a democracy

self-determination

the right of a people to assert its own national identity or form of government without outside influence — consent of the governed

The isolationist aspect of anti-imperialism

• the US had a long tradition of isolationism dating back to the Washington administration

• They did not want to get involved with needless overseas quarrels

• Saw the US as largely self-sufficient and viewed the expansion as opening up a dangerous vulnerability

isolationism

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.

The White Man’s Burden

1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling. Expressed the issues of imperialism and the idea that the whites are responsible for caring for the other races

The American Anti-Imperialist League

• Established in 1898

• formed to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines

In the 1890s, American public opinion swayed towards jingoistic ideals.

What is jingoism?

an intense sense of nationalism that calls for aggressive foreign policy

European imperialism vs U.S. imperialism

Europe - Africa and East Asia

U.S. - Caribbean, Latin America, Polynesia

Who was sent to quell the Cuban War for Independence?

General Weyler

Who was General Weyler?

• Governor General of Cuba (1896-1898)

• Brutal tactics during the Cuban revolt

  • Reconcentration policies

  • “The Butcher”

Reconcentration policy

• forcibly relocated Cuban civilians into camps in an effort to quell the rebellion

• Cubans died by the thousands, victims of unsanitary conditions, starvation, overcrowding and disease

How did the blowing up of the USS Maine almost primarily caused the Spanish American War?

• The US blamed Spain (aided by war fever whipped up by Yellow Journalism)

• Pro-imperialists like Theodore Roosevelt also cried for war, citing the Maine incident as an excuse to pursue the agenda they’d wanted all along

• McKinley declared war on Spain

What did McKinley do in response to the sinking USS Maine?

McKinley issued an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it agree to a ceasefire in Cuba

What was Spain’s reaction to the ultimatum by McKinley?

Spain agreed to this demand

Why did the U.S. and Spain not compromise?

US newspapers and a majority in Congress kept clamoring for war (yellow journalism)

McKinley’s reaction to public pressure for war

He offered Congress 4 reasons for the US to intervene in the Cuban revolution on behalf of the rebels

McKinley’s 4 reasons for intervening

• Put an end of the starvation and horrible miseries in Cuba

• Protect the lives and property of US citizens living in Cuba

• End the serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of the American people. 

• End the constant menace of peace arising from disorder in Cuba

The De Lome Letter

a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish ambassador to the United States, to a friend in which he referred to President William McKinley as "weak" and "a would-be politician." The letter was stolen and published in the New York Journal on February 9, 1898, causing outrage among Americans. The letter became a rallying point for those who favored going to war with Spain and further fueled tensions between the two countries. Ultimately, the publication of the De Lome Letter played a role in the United States' decision to declare war

The Teller Amendment (1898)

proclaimed that the United States would help the Cuban people gain their freedom from Spain but would not annex the island after victory

Platt Amendment (1903)

Cuba agreed to permit American diplomatic, economic, and military intervention and to lease Guantánamo Bay for American use

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty

establishing permanent U.S. rights to a Panama Canal Zone that stretched across the isthmus

Result of the Spanish-American War (the Treaty of Paris 1898)

• Spanish recognition of Cuban independence

• Spanish cession of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands to the U.S. (U.S. paid $20M)

Yellow Journalism

• Newspaper reporting sensational stories (both true and untrue)

• The oppressed Cubans, they claimed, were suffering at the hands of European tyrants just as the United States had done before the American Revolution.

When the Filipinos quickly realized they had traded one imperial power for another, what happened?

• they turned their rebellion against the United States

  • President Emilio Aguinaldo fought a guerilla war against the U.S.

What was the U.S.’s reaction to the Filipinos’ use of guerilla warfare?

• use of horrific tactics

  • waterboarding

  • killed 200,000 people — including citizens

Roosevelt Corollary

The United States was the policeman of the Western Hemisphere. Many Latin American nations were borrowing from European nations and could not pay them back, so the European nations would try to force the Latin American nations to pay them back. The United States would not allow this by

Russo-Japanese War

Russia and Japan are fighting over China. The Japanese somehow does well. Roosevelt receives the Nobel Peace Prize as he intervenes and forms the Treaty of Portsmouth. The Japanese resent because they felt that they should have received more.

Root-Takahira Agreement (1908)

Japanese were immigrating to America and San Francisco wanted to segregate them. Roosevelt asks Japan to cut back on immigration and in return would stop segregation. Both nations agreed to respect the Open Door Policy in China and their nations in Asia.

the Lodge Corollary (1912)

It stated that non-European powers (such as Japan) would be excluded from owning territory in the Western world

Great White Fleet (1907-1909)

Roosevelt sent white ships throughout the world to show off American power.

Big Stick Diplomacy

international negotiations backed by military

Dollar Diplomacy

expand U.S trade — Open Door Policy w/ China

Open Door Policy w/ China

protection of equal privileges for all countries trading with China and for the support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity

moral diplomacy

forcing countries to become democratic and take on values more aligned with those in the U.S.