APUSH Chapter 22

Key ID’s 

Chapter 22 - Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914

1. Seward’s Folly—1867

• Secretary of State Seward bought Alaska from Russia for a bargain price. Seward was mocked for buying a frozen wasteland. But expansionists were cheered by the purchase, and the land eventually turned out to be rich in gas and oil.

2. The Alabama – Did anyone notice it was not italicized in OpenStax? Tsk-tsk… 

• The Alabama was one of several British-made warships that fought for the Confederacy, destroying over sixty Northern ships in twenty-two months before it was sunk in 1864.

• US Ambassador to England, Charles Francis Adams, eventually convinced the British that it was not in their long-term interests to violate their status as a neutral nation by building ships for the South. 

3. Rudyard Kipling, “White Man’s Burden”

• British poet Kipling represented one voice in the pro-imperialism chorus. He argued that America had a duty to uplift the less developed nations of the world.

4. Census of 1890 (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• The superintendent of the census announced that, for the first time in America’s history, there was no clearly discernable frontier line. That is, there was no longer a large area unsettled by whites.

5. Frederick Jackson Turner—1893 

• In response to the closing of the frontier, Turner wrote the most famous essay by an American historian, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” In this essay, Turner said the frontier had shaped American life in a variety of ways: 1) it had created social equality, 2) it had encouraged political democracy, 3) it encouraged optimism about the future, 4) it provided a safety valve for workers in the East (thus requiring employers to improve wages and working conditions), 5) it led to wasteful use of the land (since one could always move west and find more land).

• The closing of the frontier, Turner wrote, had a number of effects on society: 1) Without the western safety valve, urban workers turned to labor unions to improve their plight; tensions between labor and management grew, 2) with less available land, immigrants could not easily obtain farms; they stayed in the cities and competed for industrial jobs, thus leading to calls for limits on immigration, 3) with less free land available, farmers started taking better care of the land; a conservation ethic grew; and 4) American capitalists no longer had the frontier to provide raw materials, new markets, and investment opportunities; America became more imperialistic seeking those benefits overseas.

6. Alfred T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History

• Admiral Mahan argued persuasively that control of the sea was the key to world dominance. He said that the US needed a modern fleet, naval bases in the Caribbean, a canal across Panama, and bases on Hawaii and other Pacific islands. 

• Mahan was proposing an extension of Social Darwinism—be a strong naval power or be trampled in the race of history.

7. Queen Liliuokalani and Dole’s Revolution—1893

• American business dominated Hawaii’s sugar industry, and thousands of immigrants arrived (Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese) to work in the cane fields. As a result, the Hawaiian natives were outnumbered almost two to one.  

• In 1887 Hawaiian-born white businessmen forced a change in the constitution so that only the landowners or the wealthy could vote; this disenfranchised most native Hawaiians. 

• In 1891 Queen Liliuokalani announced her intention to remove property qualifications for voting. White business groups rebelled, invited in US marines, and overthrew the queen. 

• Despite President Cleveland’s desire to do justice and restore the queen, this could not be done without armed intervention. Congress adopted a hands-off policy for several years but agreed to annex Hawaii when the war with Spain came. 

8. Annexation of Hawaii—July 1898

• The fighting in the Philippines persuaded the US that it needed Hawaii as a coaling station for its Southeast Asian adventures. Congress annexed the islands and McKinley approved.

9. Cuban Rebellion—1894-1898

• Spain denied Cubans civil liberties, extracted heavy taxes, and restricted foreign trade. The rebellion against Spanish rule was led by Josè Marti, a poet and journalist who had spent much of his life in exile in New York City. Unable to defeat the Spanish troops in battle, the rebels took to the hills and began an active guerrilla campaign. They planned on destroying American-owned sugar mills and plantations, hoping that this would force the US to intervene and that this intervention would eventually lead to freeing Cuba from Spain. 

• The Spanish general Weyler, known as the Butcher in the American press, responded by moving Cubans into concentration camps where 200,000 died, one-eighth of the total Cuban population, from disease and malnutrition.  

• Americans were sympathetic to the plight of Cubans fighting for freedom. This sympathy was strengthened by the reports in the yellow press and by imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt and Admiral Mahan who were calling for war for territorial expansion.

10. William Randolph Hearst & Yellow Journalism

• Yellow journalists William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer tried to boost circulation by headlining exaggerated accounts of Spanish atrocities. Hearst sent artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to provide pictures of the war. Remington reportedly cabled Hearst that he could find no war. Hearst is said to have replied, “You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.”

• A young Cuban woman was jailed for resisting a sexual assault by a Spanish officer. Hearst sent a reporter who helped her escape and brought her to New York, accompanied by sensational headlines in Hearst’s newspapers.

11. The De Lôme Letter—Feb. 1898

• De Lôme, the Spanish ambassador to Washington, wrote a private letter to a friend in Cuba. The letter was stolen from the mail and published in America. It accused President McKinley of being a weak politician who swayed in the winds of public opinion.

• Although American critics such as Roosevelt were saying worse of McKinley, this aroused American national pride and helped push the nation closer to war with Spain.

12. U.S.S. Maine—Feb. 1898

• The Maine had been sent to Havana to remind Spain of America’s power and to evacuate US citizens in case of hostilities. On February 15, 1898, the Maine mysteriously exploded in the harbor; 260 Americans died.

• Though the cause was never determined for certain (spontaneous combustion in a coal bunker seems most likely), Americans, encouraged by yellow journalism, blamed Spain and called for war.

13. McKinley’s Request for War with Spain—Apr. 1898

• McKinley was reluctant to go to war; he had seen war firsthand as an officer in the Civil War, and Mark Hanna and Wall Street were concerned that war would unsettle business.

• McKinley demanded of Spain an armistice and an end to the concentration camps; further, he told Spain that he thought Cuban independence was the logical result of such an armistice. Spain agreed to his demands.

• Nonetheless, McKinley bent to pressure from Congress and the public and asked for a declaration of war.  

14. The Teller Resolution

• Senator Teller appended to the war resolution an amendment pledging that the US had no territorial ambitions in the war with Spain, that the fight was only to free Cuba, and that at the end of the war the US would hand the Cuban people their freedom and depart.

• Imperialistic Europeans scoffed at this rejection of realpolitik.

15. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt

• Roosevelt was an enthusiastic imperialist eager for war. One day when his boss, Secretary of the Navy John Long, was out of the office, TR cabled Commodore Dewey to attack the Philippines (owned by Spain) in event of war. McKinley eventually confirmed TR’s order.

16. Commodore George Dewey

• Dewey captured Manila Bay with the loss of no American lives while he destroyed or captured the Spanish ships.

• Of significance was the fact that Germany, hoping to gain control of the islands, sent a fleet. In contrast, the British fleet in the area acted with friendship toward the Americans; Britain feared the rising power of Germany and saw in the US a potential ally.

17. TR’s Rough Riders

• Roosevelt, eager for war, recruited a group of cowboys, polo players, and other volunteers and headed for Cuba as a colonel. The Rough Riders fought in one of the few significant land battles of the war at San Juan Hill and nearby Kettle Hill. 

• This helped make TR a figure of national prominence. 

18. American Unpreparedness

• Though the US won a quick victory, this was due more to Spanish weakness than to American strength. The military was not prepared to fight a war, especially not in the tropics. The army issued the troops heavy woolen uniforms. It fed the troops spoiled food (embalmed beef was the term). It was not ready to deal with tropical diseases or dysentery.

• The US suffered less than 350 battle deaths but over 3000 deaths due to sickness.

19. Dr. Walter Reed (Mentioned later in OpenStax…)

• Reed, an army doctor, led the team that discovered that a mosquito transmitted yellow fever, the leading cause of death of American troops in the Spanish-American War.

20. Treaty of Paris—1899

• Spain agreed to leave Cuba, to cede Puerto Rico and Guam to the US, and to sell the Philippine Islands to the US for $20 million (the Philippines had been captured the day after the armistice was signed). 

21. The Anti-Imperialist League

• Not all Americans favored imperial expansion. The Anti-Imperialist League united steel baron Andrew Carnegie with union leader Samuel Gompers, along with luminaries such as Mark Twain and philosopher William James. 

22. The Role of William J. Bryan in Ratifying the Treaty of Paris (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• The anti-imperialists and those troubled by the insurrection in the Philippines opposed Senate ratification of the treaty in the Senate. Passage was uncertain.

• Bryan, the 1896 and likely 1900 Democratic nominee, became an unexpected ally of the treaty. He argued that the sooner the US took official control of the Philippines, the sooner it could give them their freedom. He persuaded several Democrats to vote for the treaty; it passed by one vote.

23. Emilio Aguinaldo and the Philippine Islands

• Aguinaldo had been leading a Philippine revolt against Spanish rule for two years before Dewey’s victory. When war broke out between Spain and America, Aguinaldo agreed to help the US with the understanding that the Philippines would receive their independence.

• But imperialists in the US wanted to take over all of Spain’s empire. McKinley eventually concluded that it was America’s divine mission to control and Christianize the islands, ignoring the fact that they had been Christians for hundreds of years by this time. 

• Aguinaldo then led his guerilla forces in a bloody four-year war in which 4,000 Americans and 20,000 Filipinos died. Postwar congressional hearings told of US forces executing prisoners, using torture, and burning villages.

• The Philippines did not receive their independence until 1946.

24. Philippine Insurrection (NOT IN OPENSTAX… :/)

• Despite much domestic controversy, the US annexed the Philippines in 1899. The Filipinos sought independence, not further colonial control, and they rebelled. Although Americans expected a brief conflict, the war lasted several years.

• The war was brutal with the US Army relying on a terror campaign: concentration camps similar to Weyler’s in Cuba were established, a Filipino prisoner was executed for every American killed, Filipino homes were burned whenever telegraph lines were cut, Filipinos’ farm animals were killed and crops destroyed, and any Filipino suspected of aiding the rebels was executed without trial.

• In addition, 70,000 US troops were black; the irony of their fight against dark-skinned people seeking independence when the black troops faced discrimination at home led many to desert. 

25. Benevolent Assimilation (NOT EXPLICITLY IN OPENSTAX)

• The US goal in the Philippines was benevolent assimilation. The US spent millions of dollars on roads, sanitation, and education for the Philippines. Economic ties, especially trade in sugar, were established. But the Filipinos preferred freedom and struggled against US control.

26. The Insular Cases—1901 – (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• In the 1901 Insular Cases, the Supreme Court decided that residents of US territories such as the Philippines and Puerto Rico were not necessarily US citizens and did not enjoy all the rights of citizenship. The rights enjoyed would be determined by Congress, not by simple US possession of territory.

27. The Platt Amendment—1902

• After the Spanish-American War, the US wrote much of the constitution for Cuba. This made Cuba a protectorate of the US. It stated that 1) Cuba was not to make any treaties that might limit its independence, 2) Cuba was not to permit any foreign power to control any part of its territory, 3) the United States was to have the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs to protect Cuban independence and “for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty,” 4) Cuba was not to go into debt beyond its ability to repay, and 5) the United States could buy or lease land on the island for coaling or naval stations. 

• Under the Platt Amendment, the US sent troops to Cuba to intervene in Cuban politics four different times. 

• The Platt Amendment was finally abrogated in 1934.

28. Commodore Matthew C. Perry/Japan—1853–1854 (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• Perry arrived in Japan, which had been closed to outsiders for nearly two hundred years, and, using a combination of force and tact, persuaded the Japanese to sign a treaty in 1854 that allowed America to get a commercial foot in the door. 

29. Spheres of Influence 

• These were regions in China where foreign imperialistic powers enjoyed economic monopolies. They licensed businesses, controlled tariff rates, set railroad rates, and determined harbor fees.

• Connected to this was the concept of extraterritoriality. This meant that a foreign national, a German, for example, who was accused of committing a crime in China would be tried in a German court. Both the economic monopolies and extraterritoriality were affronts to Chinese sovereignty.

30. Open Door Policy—1899 

• Spheres of influence limited US access to the Chinese market. Secretary of State John Hay therefore recommended an Open Door policy. This would allow all nations equal trading rights in China. He sent letters to the European powers asking that they accept this policy.

• The other nations accepted conditionally or diplomatically deflected Hay’s request. Hay, however, announced that all parties had accepted the proposal and that it was in effect.

31. Boxer Rebellion—1900 

• Many Chinese resented foreign domination of their nation. A group called the Harmonious Righteous Fists (known in the West as the Boxers) killed thousands of foreigners, occupied Beijing, and laid siege to the district housing the foreign embassies.

• Imperial powers including the US contributed troops to an army that defeated the Boxers and rescued the threatened diplomats.

• The victorious imperialists demanded reparations from China. The US feared that China’s territory might be divided among the victors. Secretary Hay urged China to pay in money rather than land and announced that the US was determined to protect China’s territorial integrity. In addition, the US refunded to China part of the money paid as reparations.

• This helped to cement good relations between the US and China.

32. Algeciras Conference—1906 (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• France and Germany were in conflict over trading rights in Morocco. The tensions threatened to ignite a war involving all major European powers. Germany asked Roosevelt to support an international conference to work out a deal. TR did so.

• The Algeciras Conference upheld the Open Door policy for all major powers. American critics complained that US participation violated the US tradition of nonentanglement in foreign affairs and that US involvement in the Old World weakened the Monroe Doctrine. TR’s supporters argued that US involvement was justified since a European war could drag in the US.

33. Big Stick Diplomacy

• The first example of the Roosevelt Corollary in action was when the US took over tariff collections in the Dominican Republic in 1905. The US intervention lasted over two years. Roosevelt also sent US forces to Cuba in 1906. 

34. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty—1850 (NOT IN THIS CHAPTER)

• Britain feared the US would monopolize trade routes across Central America and so established itself at Greytown on the eastern end of a possible Nicaraguan canal route. This was a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine.

• The potential conflict was averted by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which provided that neither America nor Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control of any isthmian waterway. 

35. Hay-Pauncefote Treaty—1901 (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• The 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty had promised that neither the US nor Great Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control of any isthmian waterway. Britain feared that the US would unilaterally abrogate this treaty and so sought to negotiate a new agreement giving the US exclusive canal rights.

• The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty gave the US the right to build and fortify a canal. The British received in exchange the US agreement that the treaty would be open to ships of all nations on equal terms.

36. Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty—1903 

• Colombia owned Panama (where the US wanted to build a canal). Secretary Hay negotiated a treaty with Colombia for a 100-year lease on a six-mile-wide strip of land across Panama. The US Senate approved the treaty, but the Colombian government decided that it would be unconstitutional to sell part of its nation.

• TR was furious, charging that Colombia simply was holding out for a better deal; he may have been right.

• Pro-canal forces in Panama talked of seceding from Colombia. The US indicated that it would approve of such action. The revolt occurred, and US forces prevented Colombian intervention.

• Hay negotiated a perpetual lease of a canal zone with his Panamanian counterpart Philippe Bunau-Varilla, thus clearing the way for construction of a US canal. The treaty also allowed the US to intervene in Panama when necessary to preserve order.

37. Panama Canal

• Construction began in 1906. The canal was finally completed in 1914 at cost of $400 million. 

• The American actions led to long-term tension with Colombia and increased suspicion of the US on the part of Latin America. During the Harding administration, the US eventually paid Colombia $25 million “to remove all misunderstanding.” Coincidentally, oil had just been discovered in Colombia, and this payment made it possible for US oil companies to operate in Colombia. 

• In 1977 President Carter signed a treaty that would return the canal to Panamanian control in 1999.

38. Roosevelt Corollary

• Several Latin American nations were behind in their debt repayments to European powers. In some cases, the Europeans were willing to use military might to force repayment. President Roosevelt worried that this forceful debt collection would lead to a permanent European presence in the Western Hemisphere.

• TR announced a policy of preventive intervention, stating that the US had the right to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American nations in the case of “chronic wrongdoing.” 

39. Portsmouth Conference—1905 

• Although the US initially supported Japan in its war with Russia, Roosevelt came to be concerned that Japanese success posed a threat of its own. At Japan’s request, TR attempted to negotiate peace between the two sides in a conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

• The Japanese received the southern half of Sakhalin Island and Russia’s sphere of influence in Manchuria but no indemnity for losses suffered. 

• Roosevelt was hailed for bringing the war to an end and received the Nobel Peace Prize.

• The significance of this is that Japanese imperialism was encouraged by the victory over a European power, but Japan was unhappy that it did not win more in the settlement. The US came to see Japan as a world power that could threaten US interests in the Far East.

40. Gentlemen’s Agreement—1907-1908 (NOT IN OPENSTAX)

• In 1906 Japanese, Chinese, and Korean schoolchildren in San Francisco were sent to segregated schools. Japan protested this insult. Talk of war was heard in both Japan and the US.

• Roosevelt pressured the San Francisco school board to rescind the order. Japan promised to halt the emigration of Japanese workers to the US.

41. Great White Fleet

• To ensure that the Japanese did not interpret the Gentlemen’s Agreement as a sign of weakness on the part of the US, Roosevelt sent a fleet of sixteen US battleships on an around-the-world tour as a demonstration of US might. The fleet was received warmly in Japan.

42. Root-Takahira Agreement—1908 

• The US and Japan promised to respect each other’s territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door policy in China.

43. Dollar Diplomacy

• President Taft’s foreign policy encouraged US business to invest in sensitive regions, especially in the Caribbean and China. If American business soaked up investment opportunities there, then it would be less likely that other imperial powers, say, Russia or Germany, would be tempted to move into those areas. In other words, American business could aid American foreign policy in expanding American influence.

• In addition, Taft backed up the American companies investing in these crucial areas with military force when necessary. For example, when revolution broke out in Nicaragua, the government sent in Marines to safeguard American interests.