Chapters 27-28 Notes APUSH 🍒

Chapter 27

Empire and Expansion

1890-1909

 

Chapter 27

America Turns Outward

Americans felt that expansion to overseas markets might provide relief to the labor violence and agrarian unrest that existed in the country. Americans also felt emboldened with a new sense of power generated by the growth in population, wealth, and productive capacity.

Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country:  Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis inspired missionaries to travel to foreign nations.

Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's book of 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783, argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance; it stimulated the naval race among the great powers.

Secretary of state, James G. Blaine published his "Big Sister" policy tried to get the Latin American countries to open their markets to Americans.

Americans were prepared to go to war over many small disputes with other countries. This demonstrated the country's new aggressive mood.

The area between British Guiana and Venezuela had been in dispute for over 50 years.  Conflict between the British and Venezuela arose when gold was discovered in the contested area.

Secretary of state, Richard Olney, warned that if Britain went to war with Venezuela, then Britain would be violating the Monroe Doctrine. When Britain disregarded this warning, President Cleveland threatended war.

Britain was pre-occupied with other potential wars in Europe, so they chose to avoid a new war and reconcile with the United States. The Great Rapprochement, or reconciliation, between the United States and Britain became a cornerstone of both nations' foreign policies.

 

Spurning the Hawaiian Pear

The first New England missionaries reached Hawaii in 1820.

Beginning in the 1840s, the State Department warned other countries to stay out of Hawaii.  In 1887, a treaty with the native government guaranteed naval-base rights at Pearl Harbor.

Sugar imports from Hawaii became less profitable with the McKinley Tariff of 1890.  American planters decided that the best way to overcome the tariff would be to annex Hawaii. Queen Liliuokalani insisted that native Hawaiian should control the islands.

In 1893, Americans successfully overthrew the Queen. Most Hawaiians did not want to be annexed, though, so President Grover Cleveland decided to delay annexation of Hawaii.

 

Cubans Rise in Revolt

Cubans revolted against Spanish rule in 1895.  Cuban insurrectos burned sugar canefields believing that if they destroyed enough of Cuba, then Spain might abandon Cuba or the United States might move in and help the Cubans with their independence. The Spanish put Cubans in reconstruction camps so they could not support the insurrectos.

America had a large investment and conducted substantial trade with Cuba.

Congress passed a resolution in 1896 that recognized the revolting Cubans.  President Cleveland opposed imperialism and he said that he would not go to war with Spain over Cuba.

 

The Mystery of the Maine Explosion

William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer used "yellow journalism" to inflate the anger of the American people over the crisis in Cuba.

On February 15, 1898, the American ship, Maine blew up in the Havana port.  The Spanish claimed it was an accident (spontaneous combustion in one of the coal bunkers), while the Americans claimed that Spain had sunk it.  The American people did not believe the Spanish, and war with Spain became imminent.

Spain had agreed to the Americans' 2 basic demands: an end to the reconstruction camps and an armistice with Cuban rebels.

Although President McKinley did not want a war with Spain, the American people did.  He conceded to the American people, and he sent his war message to Congress on April 11, 1898.  Congress declared war and adopted the Teller Amendment.  It said that when the United States had beaten the Spanish, the Cubans would be free.


Dewey's May Day Victory at Manila

The Spanish military significantly outnumbered the American army, but American naval ships were in much better condition than the Spanish.

Commodore George Dewey's 6-ship fleet attacked Spain's Philippines on May 1, 1898. Dewey attacked and destroyed the 10-ship Spanish fleet at Manila.

German ships threatened to attack Dewey's ships in the Manila harbor (claiming that they wanted to protect German nationals). After several incidents, the potential for conflict with Germany blew over.

On August 13, 1898, American troops captured Manila.

With the victory in the Philippines, it was thought that Hawaii was needed as a supply base for Dewey.  Therefore, Congress passed a joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii on July 7, 1898.

 

The Confused Invasion of Cuba

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the Spanish government sent a fleet of warships to Cuba, led by Admiral Cervera.  He was blockaded in the Santiago harbor in Cuba by American ships.

The "Rough Riders," was a regiment of American volunteers that was commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood and organized by Theodore Roosevelt.

The advancing American army caused the Spanish fleet to retreat from the Santiago harbor. Admiral Cervera's fleet was entirely destroyed on July 3, 1898. General Nelson A. Miles met little resistance when he took over Puerto Rico. 

On August 12, 1898, Spain signed an armistice.

Many more Americans had been killed by malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever than by bullets.

 

America's Course (Curse?) of Empire

Spanish and Americans met in Paris in 1898 to discuss terms to the end of the war.  The Americans secured Guam and Puerto Rico, but the Philippines presented President McKinley with a problem:  he didn't want to give the island back to the Spanish, but he also didn't want to leave the island in a state of disarray. 

McKinley finally decided to Christianize all of the Filipinos. Because Manila had been captured the day after the war, America agreed to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines.

The treaty was controversial, especially in regards to the acquisition of the Philippines. The Anti-Imperialistic League fought McKinley's expansionist moves, in regards to the Philippines.

The expansionists argued that Americans have a duty to help the underprivileged people of the world.

The Senate approved the treaty on February 6, 1899.

 

Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba

The Foraker Act of 1900 gave the Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government. In 1917, they were granted U.S. citizenship.

The Supreme Court's rulings in the Insular Cases declared that the Constitution did not extend to the Philippines and Puerto Rico. 

The United States, honoring the Teller Amendment of 1898, withdrew from Cuba in 1902.  The U.S. forced the Cubans to write their own constitution of 1901 (the Platt Amendment). The Cubans hated this document because it was written to benefit the Americans. The constitution decreed that the United States might intervene with troops in Cuba to restore order and to provide mutual protection.  The Cubans also promised to sell or lease needed coaling or naval stations to the U.S.

 

New Horizons in Two Hemispheres

Although the Spanish-American War only lasted 113 days, it increased American prestige around the world.

One of the greatest results of the war was the bonding between the North and the South.

 

"Little Brown Brothers" in the Philippines

The Filipinos thought that the treaty would give them their independence, like the Cubans. This was not the case and on February 4, 1899, the Filipinos started a rebellion against the occupying American forces.  The insurrection was led by Emilio Aguinaldo.

In 1901, American soldiers captured the rebellion's leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, effectively ending the rebellion.

President McKinley appointed the Philippine Commission in 1899 to set up a Filipino government.  William H. Taft led the body.  He genuinely liked the Filipinos, while the American soldiers did not.

President McKinley's plan of "benevolent assimilation" of the Filipinos was very slow and it involved improving roads, sanitation, and public health.  The plan developed economic ties and set up a school system with English as the 2nd language. This system was hated by the Filipinos who preferred liberty over assimilation.

 

Hinging the Open Door in China

Following China's defeat by Japan in 1894-1895, several European powers move into China. Secretary of State John Hay released the Open Door note, which urged foreign powers to respect Chinese commercial rights.  Russia was the only major power to not accept it.

In 1900, Chinese group known as the "Boxers" killed hundreds of foreigners in the Boxer Rebellion.  A multinational rescue force came in and stopped the rebellion.

After the failed rebellion, Secretary Hay declared in 1900 that the Open Door would include the respect of Chinese territory, in addition to its commercial integrity.

 

Imperialism or Bryanism in 1900?

President McKinley was the Republican presidential nominee for the election of 1900 because he had led the country through a war, acquired rich real estate, established the gold standard, and brought prosperity to the nation.  McKinley and the Republican Party supported the gold standard and imperialism.

Theodore Roosevelt was nominated as the vice president.

William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential candidate for the election.  Bryan and the Democratic Party supported the silver standard and anti-imperialism.  They proclaimed that the paramount election issue was Republican overseas imperialism. The Republican party proclaimed that Bryan would destroy the nation's prosperity once he took office with his free-silver policy and other "dangerous" ideas.

McKinley and the Republican Party won the election of 1900.

 

TR:  Brandisher of the Big Stick

In September 1901, President McKinley was assassinated. Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency. 

Roosevelt felt that the president should lead, boldly. He had no real respect for the checks and balances system among the 3 branches of government.  He felt that he may take any action in the general interest of the public that is not specifically forbidden by the Constitution.

 

Building the Panama Canal

The Americans wanted to build a canal through the Central American isthmus to allow ships to quickly cross from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Because of friendly relations with Britain, Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in 1901, which allowed the U.S. to build and fortify the canal.

Congress decided to build the canal through Panama. An offer to buy land for the canal had been rejected by the Colombian senate, who thought the U.S. monetary offer was too low.

The Panamanians feared the U.S. would choose the Nicaraguan route for the canal; Panama would miss out on a prosperity created by the canal's construction. So, on November 3, 1903, Panamanians successfully revolted against Columbian rule. The revolt was led by Bunau-Varilla. 

Bunau-Varilla became the Panamanian minister to the United States and signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty in Washington.  The treaty gave the U.S. control of a 10-mile zone around the proposed Panama Canal.

The involvement in Panama marked a downward lurch in U.S.  relations with Latin America. 

In 1904 the construction of the Panama Canal began, and it was completed in 1914 at a cost of $400 million.

 

TR's Perversion of Monroe's Doctrine

Several Latin American countries were in debt to European countries.  Roosevelt feared that this would allow for future European involvement in Latin America, so he created a policy known as "preventive intervention."  The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine declared that the U.S. could pay off the Latin American counties' debts to keep European nations out of Latin America.

Latin American countries hated the Monroe Doctrine because it had become the excuse for numerous U.S. interventions in Latin America.  In actuality, President Roosevelt was the one to blame for the interventions.

 

Roosevelt on the World Stage

Japan went to war with Russia in 1904 after Russia failed to withdraw troops from Manchuria and Korea. Roosevelt brokered a peace agreement in 1905 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Japanese received no compensation for their losses and the southern half of Sakhalin.

Because of the treaty, friendship with Russia waned and Japan became a rival with America in Asia.

 

Japanese Laborers in California

Thousands of Japanese were recruited to work in California after the Japanese government lifted its emigration ban in 1884.  Japanese immigrants were confronted with racist hostility by whites.

In 1906, San Francisco's school board segregated the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students to make room for white students.  The Japanese saw this action as an insult and threatened with war. 

President Roosevelt stepped in and persuaded the Californians to repeal the segregation. The Japanese agreed to stop the flow of immigrants to the United States. This agreement was known as the "Gentlemen's Agreement."

In 1908, the Root-Takahira agreement was reached with Japan.  The U.S. and Japan pledged themselves to respect each other's territorial possessions. 


Chapter 28

The progressive movement started  at the beginning of the 20th Century. It sought to use the government to improve human welfare, and they fought monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice.

 

Progressive Roots

Henry Demarest Lloyd was critical of the Standard Oil Company in 1894 with his book, Wealth Against Commonwealth.  Jacob A. Riis shocked middle-class Americans in 1890 with How the Other Half Lives, which described the slums of New York.

Socialists and feminists were at the front of social justice.

 

Raking Muck with the Muckrakers

Muckrakers were reform-minded journalists who wrote articles in magazines that exposed corruption and scandal. President Roosevelt coined this term. These reporters went after trusts and politicians.

In 1902, New York reporter, Lincoln Steffens wrote "The Shame of the Cities" which unmasked the corrupt alliance between big business and municipal government.

Ida M. Tarbell published a devastating depiction of the Standard Oil Company.

David G. Phillips published a series, "The Treason of the Senate" in Cosmopolitan that charged that 75 of the 90 senators did not represent the people, but they rather represented railroads and trusts.

Some of the most effective attacks of the muckrakers were directed at social evils.  The suppression of America's blacks was shown in Ray Stannard's Following the Color Line (1908).  John Spargo wrote of the abuses of child labor in The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906).

 

Political Progressivism

Progressive reformers were mainly middle-class men and women.

The progressives sought 2 goals:  1) To use state power to control trusts;  2) To improve the common person's conditions of life and labor.

Progressives wanted to regain the power that had shifted from the hands of the people into those of the "interests."  Progressives supported the "initiative" so that voters could directly propose legislation. They also supported the "referendum" and the "recall," which allowed voters to directly vote on laws to remove corrupt elected officials, respectively.

The progressive reformers convinced Congress to pass the 17th Amendment in 1913.  It established the direct election of U.S. senators.

 

Progressivism in the Cities and States

States used public utility commissions to regulate railroads and trusts. Robert M. La Follette was a governor of Wisconsin who took control from the corrupt corporations and returned it to the people.

Governor of California, Hiram W. Johnson helped to break the grip of the Southern Pacific Railroad on California politics in 1910.

 

Progressive Women

Women formed clubs in which they discussed and proposed solutions for societal problems (club movement). Some of these included the Women's Trade Union League and the National Consumers League.

Florence Kelley took control of the National Consumers League in 1899 and mobilized female consumers to pressure for laws safeguarding women and children in the workplace. 

In Muller vs. Oregon (1908), the Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional to enact laws that specifically protected women factory workers.

Lochner vs. New York (1905) invalidated a New York law that limited the work day to 10 hours for bakers. The law was eventually upheld in 1917.

Following a series of factory accidents, several states passed stronger laws regulating the working conditions in factories.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a large anti-alcohol women's group.

 

TR's Square Deal for Labor

President Roosevelt believed in the progressive reform.  He enacted a "Square Deal" program that consisted of 3 parts:  control of the corporations, consumer protection, and conservation of natural resources.

In 1902, coal miners in Pennsylvania went on strike and demanded a 20% raise in pay and a workday decrease from 10 hours to 9 hours.  When mine spokesman, George F. Baer refused to negotiate, President Roosevelt stepped in and threatened to operate the mines with federal troops.  A deal was struck in which the miners received a 10% pay raise and 9 hour workday.

The increasing hostilities between capital and labor forced Congress to create the Department of Commerce in 1903. This department provided oversight of businesses engaged in interstate commerce.


TR Corrals the Corporations

Although the Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887, railroads were able to delay the commission's decisions by appealing to the federal courts.

Railroad companies historically offered incentives, in the form of rebates, to convince companies to use their rail lines. In 1903, Congress passed the Elkins Act, which fined railroads that gave rebates and the shippers that accepted them.

Congress passed the Hepburn Act of 1906, which restricted free passes and expanded the Interstate Commerce Commission. (Free passes:  rewards offered to companies, in the form of free shipments; given to companies to encourage future business.)

In 1902, President Roosevelt challenged the Northern Securities Company, a railroad trust company that sought to achieve a monopoly of the railroads in the Northwest.  The Supreme Court upheld the President and the trust was forced to be dissolved.

 

Caring for the Consumer

After botulism was found in American meats, foreign governments threatened to ban all American meat imports.  President Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.  The act stated that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines was subject to federal inspection. 

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabelling of foods and pharmaceuticals.

 

Earth Control

The first step towards conservation came with the Desert Land Act of 1887, in which the federal government sold dry land cheaply on the condition that the purchaser would irrigate the soil within 3 years.  A more successful step was the Forest Reserve Act of 1891.  It authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves.  The Carey Act of 1894 distributed federal land to the states on the condition that it be irrigated and settled.

President Roosevelt, a naturalist and rancher, convinced Congress to pass the Newlands Act of 1902, which authorized the federal government use money from the sale of public lands in western states to develop irrigation projects.

In 1900, Roosevelt, attempting to preserve the nation's shrinking forests, set aside 125 million acres of land in federal reserves.

Under President Roosevelt, professional foresters and engineers developed a policy of "multiple-use resource management."  This policy sought to sustainably use federal lands for recreation, logging, watershed protection, and cattle grazing.

 

The "Roosevelt Panic" of 1907

Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected as president in 1904.  President Roosevelt made it known that he would not run for a 3rd term.

The panic of 1907 was a short economic downturn that resulted in financial reforms. Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland Act in 1908, which authorized national banks to issue emergency currency in the event of a currency shortage.

 

The Rough Rider Thunders Out

For the election of 1908, the Republican Party chose William Howard Taft, secretary of war to Theodore Roosevelt.  The Democratic Party chose William Jennings Bryan.

William Howard Taft won the election of 1908.

During Roosevelt's presidency, Roosevelt greatly enlarged the power of the presidential office, and he helped shape the progressive movement. He also opened the eyes of Americans to the fact that they shared the world with other nations.

 

Taft:  A Round Peg in a Square Hole

President Taft was not an adept political leader, such as Roosevelt.  He generally adopted an attitude of passivity towards Congress.

 

The Dollar Goes Abroad as a Diplomat

Taft encouraged Wall Street bankers to invest in foreign areas of strategic interest to the United States (dollar diplomacy).  American bankers thus strengthened American defenses and foreign policies, while bringing prosperity to America.

Japan and Russia controlled the railroads in China's Manchuria. President Taft feared that this monopoly would eventually hurt American merchants. In 1909, Secretary of State Philander C. Knox proposed that Americans buy the Manchurian railroads and then turn them over to China.  Both Japan and Russia rejected the selling of their railroads.

 

Taft the Trustbuster

Taft brought 90 lawsuits against trusts during his 4 years in office, as opposed to Roosevelt's 44 suits in 7 years.

In 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company, stating that it violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. 

Also in 1911, the Supreme Court laid out its "rule of reason" doctrine. This stated that a trust was illegal only if it unreasonably restrained trade.

 

Taft Splits the Republican Party

President Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich Bill in 1909, which placed a high tariff on many imports. This angered many Republicans because before he was elected, Taft said that he would lower the tariff.

Taft was a strong conservationist, but his conservationist record was tarnished in 1910 when he fired the chief of the Agriculture Department's Division of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot, for insubordination. (Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel) Pinchot was liked by conservationists.

By the spring of 1910, the reformist wing of the Republican Party was furious with Taft, causing the Republican Party to split.

 

The Taft-Roosevelt Rupture

In 1911, the National Progressive Republican League was formed with La Follette as its leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. La Follette was chosen because it was assumed that Roosevelt would not re-run for election.

In February of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt decided to challenge Taft for the Republican presidential nomination. (La Follette was replaced by Roosevelt.) Roosevelt and Taft became opponents because Roosevelt felt that Taft had discarded many of Roosevelt's policies.

Taft won the Republican nomination after Roosevelt Republicans refused to vote at the 1912 Republican convention, claiming fraud. Roosevelt continued on as a 3rd-party candidate.

 

The "Bull Moose" Campaign of 1912

The Democrats chose Woodrow Wilson as their presidential candidate for the election of 1912.  The Democrats saw Wilson as a reformist leader who could beat the Republican party's candidate, Taft.  The Democrats had a strong progressive platform that called for stronger antitrust laws, banking reform, and tariff reductions (New Freedom program). They favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets, but they did not support social-welfare programs that Roosevelt supported.

Theodore Roosevelt ran again in the election as a 3rd party candidate for the Progressive Republican party. Roosevelt ran ran with a New Nationalism program, which supported stronger control of trusts, woman suffrage, and programs of social welfare. 

Both candidates favored a more active government role in economic and social affairs, but they disagreed over specific strategies. 

Roosevelt was shot during the campaign, he recovered after a couple of weeks.

Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican votes, giving Woodrow Wilson the presidency.

Roosevelt's Progressive Party died out because it did not have any elected officials in state and local offices.

Chapter 28 Overview: The Progressive Movement (1900-1917)

  • The progressive movement emerged in the early 20th century, aiming to improve human welfare and combat monopolies, corruption, inefficiency, and social injustice.

  • Key figures included Henry Demarest Lloyd, Jacob A. Riis, and various muckrakers who exposed societal issues through journalism.

  • Political reforms focused on returning power to the people through initiatives like the direct election of U.S. senators (17th Amendment) and various state-level reforms.

  • Significant changes in cities and states included public utility commissions to regulate businesses and the efforts of leaders like Robert M. La Follette in Wisconsin.

  • Women's organizations played a crucial role in advocating for social reforms and labor rights, leading to protective laws for women and children.

  • Theodore Roosevelt's presidency marked key progressive legislation, including the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as a strong conservation agenda.

  • The economic downturn in 1907 led to financial reforms, while William Howard Taft's presidency aimed to continue progressive ideals, although he faced challenges and opposition within the Republican Party, leading to a split and the rise of a third-party candidacy in 1912.