America Turns Outward

• Americans felt that overseas expansion to markets might provide relief to labor violence and agrarian unrest in the U.S.

  • US began to expand in terms of worldview through rising exports, manufacturing capability, power, and wealth

• Americans were prepared to go to war over several small disputes with other countries

• Britain was preoccupied with potential wars in Europe so they chose to reconcile with the U.S. with this becoming a cornerstone of both countries’ foreign policies

Spurning the Hawaiian Pear

• First New England missionaries reached Hawaii in 1820 with the State Department wanting other countries to stay out of Hawaii

• A treaty with the Hawaiian native government guaranteed naval-base rights at Pearl Harbor in 1887

• McKinley Tariff of 1890 made sugar imports from Hawaii less profitable

  • American planters decided that the best way to overcome the Tariff of 1890 would be by annexing Hawaii

  • Americans successfully overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in 1893

  • Most Hawaiians didn’t want to be annexed, so President Cleveland decided to delay the annexation

Cubans Rise in Revolt

• Cubans revolted against Spanish rule in 1895

• Cuban insurrectors hoped that if they destroyed enough of Cuba then Spain might abandon Cuba or the U.S. would come to help

• Spanish put Cubans in reconstruction camps

• U.S. had a large investment in Cuba and also conducted trade with them

• Congress passed a resolution in 1896 which recognized revolting Cubans

• Cleveland opposed imperialism with him saying he wouldn’t go to war with Spain over Cuba

The Mystery of the Maine Explosion

• Hearst and Pulitzer employed “yellow journalism” to inflate anger of American people over Cuban crisis

• Spanish claimed that the American ship, Maine blowing up on the Havana port was an accident with the Americans not believing the Spanish which led to war becoming imminent

• Spain agreed to America’s two basic demands which were to put an end to reconstruction camps and have an armistice with Cuban rebels

  • While McKinley didn’t want war with Spain, the American people did with McKinley conceding to the people and sending a message of war to Congress on April 11, 1898

• Congress declared war and adopted the Teller Amendment which said that when U.S. defeated Spanish, the Cubans would be free

Dewey's May Day Victory at Manila

• Spanish military outnumbered American army but American naval ships were in a better condition compared to the Spanish

• Commodore Dewey’s fleet attacked and destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila

  • American troops captured Manila on August 13, 1898

• Congress passed a joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii on July 7, 1898

  • It was thought that Hawaii was required as a supply base for Dewey

The Confused Invasion of Cuba

• Spanish government sent fleet of warships to Cuba, shortly after war broke out, with fleet being led by Admiral Cervera

• Cervera was blockaded in the Santiago harbor in Cuba by American ships

• “Rough Riders” were a regiment of American volunteers that were commanded by Colonel Wood and organized by Roosevelt

• Advancing American army led to Spanish retreating from Santiago Harbor

  • Spain signed an armistice on August 12, 1898

• More Americans had been killed by malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever than at the hand of bullets

America's Course of Empire

• Americans and Spanish met in Paris in 1898 for the discussion of terms dealing with the end of the war with the Americans secured Guam and Puerto Rico

• McKinley didn’t want to give Philippines to Spanish and didn’t want to leave the island in a state of chaos and in the end, he decided to christianize all of the Filipinos

• Anti-Imperialist League fought against McKinley’s expansionist actions, in support of not imperializing the Philippines

• Expansionistsargued that Americans had a duty to help the underprivileged individuals of the world with the treaty being approved by Senate on February 6, 1899
  

Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba

• Foraker Act of 1900 gave Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government with them being granted U.S. citizenship in 1917

• Insular Cases were presented to Supreme Court and through the cases, the rules declared the Constitution didn’t extend to the Philippines and Puerto Rico

• The U.S. withdrew from Cuba in 1902, as it was honoring the Teller Amendment of 1898

  • U.S. forced Cubans to write their own constitution with the Cubans hating the document because it was written to benefit the Americans

New Horizons in Two Hemispheres

• Spanish-American war increased American prestige, worldwide, despite only having lasted 113 days

• North and South were able to bond as a result of the Spanish-American war

"Little Brown Brothers" in the Philippines

• Filipinos believed that the treaty would grant them independence, similar to the Cubans which wasn’t true and accordingly, the Filipinos started a rebellion against the occupying American forces on February 4, 1899

• The insurrection was led by Emilio Aguinaldo who was captured in 1901 by American soldiers, ending the rebellion

• The Philippine Commission was put in place by McKinley in 1899, in order to set up a Filipino government

  • McKinley had a plan, “benevolent assimilation” of Filipinos which consisted of improving roads, sanitation, and public health

Hinging the Open Door in China

• Due to China’s defeat to Japan, European powers moved into China with this causing the Secretary of State, John Hay to release the Open Door Notice, which urged foreign powers to respect China’s commercial rights with Russia being the only major power to not accept it

  A Chinese group known as the “Boxers” killed hundreds of foreigners in the Boxer Rebellion (1900) with the rebellion being put to an end by the intervention of a multinational rescue force

  • Following the failed rebellion, Hay declared that the Open Door Notice would include the respect of Chinese territory along with its commercial integrity

Imperialism or Bryanism in 1900?

• McKinley was the Republican presidential nominee for the election of 1900 due to him having led the country through war, acquiring rich real estate, establishing the gold standard, and bringing prosperity to the nation

  • McKinley and the Republican Party were in support of the gold standard and imperialism

• Roosevelt was nominated as Vice President

• William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential candidate with Bryan and the Democratic Party supporting the silver standard and anti-imperialism

• Republican Party said that Bryan would destroy the nation’s prosperity with his free-silver policy and his other “dangerous” ideas

• McKinley won the election of 1900

TR: Brandisher of the Big Stick

• McKinley was assassinated in September of 1901 leading to Theodore Roosevelt taking over as President

• Roosevelt felt that the president should lead boldly with him not having any real respect for the checks and balances system among the 3 branches of government

  • Roosevelt felt that he was allowed to take any action in the general interest of the public that wasn’t forbidden by the Constitution

Building the Panama Canal

• Americans wanted to build a canal through the Central American isthmus  in order to allow ships to be able to quickly cross from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean

• Due to friendly relations with Britain, the British signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty which allowed the U.S. to build and fortify the canal

• Congress decided to build the canal through Panama

  • The people of Panama feared the U.S. would choose the Nicaraguan route for the canal and Panama would miss out on prosperity that would be created by the canal’s construction, thus, the people of Panama revolted against Columbian rule

  • The construction of the Panama Canal began in 1904, with it being completed in 1914, costing $400 million

TR's Perversion of Monroe's Doctrine

• Many Latin American countries were in debt to European countries with Roosevelt fearing that this would allow for future European involvement in Latin America, leading to him creating a policy known as “preventive intervention”

• The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that the U.S. could pay off the Latin American countries’ debt to keep European countries out of Latin America

  • Latin American countries hated the Monroe Doctrine as it had became the excuse behind several U.S. interventions in Latin America

Roosevelt on the World Stage

• Russia failed to withdraw troops from Manchuria and Korea, leading to Japan going to war with Russia in 1904

• Roosevelt brokered a peace agreement in 1905, with the Japanese receiving no compensation for their losses

  • Due to the treaty, Russia’s friendship with the U.S. decreased and Japan became a rival with America when it came to Asia

Japanese Laborers in California

• Thousands of Japanese were given work in California after the Japanese government lifted its ban on emigration in 1884

• San Francisco’s school board segregated Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students to make room for white students in 1906 with the Japanese seeing this as an insult, leading to them threatening to wage war

  • Roosevelt intervened and persuaded Calfornians to repeal the segregation in the school boards

• Japanese agreed to stop the flow of immigrants to the U.S. with this being known as the “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

• Root-Takahira (1908) was reached in Japan with the U.S. and Japan pledging to respect each other’s territories