U.S. Foreign Policy, Monroe Doctrine & Road to Spanish-American War

19th-Century U.S. World Presence (General Setting)

• U.S. largely pre-occupied with continental concerns ("Manifest Destiny") until the late $1800s$, yet never completely isolated.
  • Trade with China begins in the $1790s$; formal commercial treaty signed in the $1840s$.
  • Whaling fleets, missionary work, and private merchants keep an American flag visible world-wide.
• By the $1890s$ the nation sits "in the thick of the colonial era" but is still perceived as a secondary rather than a first-rank imperial power.

Monroe Doctrine (1823) – Origins, Meaning, First Test

• Declared Western Hemisphere closed to new European colonies; status-quo colonies tolerated.
• Lacked military backing in $1823$ but served as a diplomatic warning.
• Early enforcement episode:
  • French occupation of Mexico (1860s) & Maximilian von Habsburg.
  • U.S. distracted by Civil War → could not intervene.
  • Post-1865: U.S. troops mass on border ⇒ French withdraw ⇒ puppet empire collapses.
• Venezuelan Border Crisis (1895)
  • Dispute over gold-rich Orinoco/Essequibo region between Venezuela & British Guiana.
  • Talk in U.S. of invading Canada; worries about New York’s coastal defenses.
  • Britain, facing rising German naval threat, yields ⇒ first concrete Anglo-American “special relationship.”
  • Sets precedent that Britain will tacitly honor the Monroe Doctrine.

Opening the Pacific & Asia

• China: part of the “unequal treaty” system but U.S. viewed as a comparatively disinterested trader.
• Japan
  • Isolation under Tokugawa shogunate: no foreigners, no emigration; shipwrecked sailors jailed or executed.
  • Commodore Perry (1854) arrives with “Black Ships” ⇒ Treaty of Kanagawa opens ports.
  • Japan welcomes U.S. as less-threatening partner, hoping to keep European powers out.
  • Late-19th-century friendship: Ulysses S. Grant travels as honored guest; samurai confer hero status.
  • Relationship will sour in the 20th century, but not during the period under study.
• U.S. Pacific stepping-stones acquired before $1900$
  • Alaska ($1867$ purchase) – Aleutians project deep into Pacific.
  • American Samoa ($1878$ colony).
  • Pearl Harbor basing rights while Hawai‘i still independent (early $1880s$).
  • Whaling, guano islands, & plantation capital all precede formal empire.

Drivers of Late-19th-Century Expansion

• Industrialization → need for raw materials & new markets.
• Plantation & corporate interests: Hawaiian sugar growers; United Fruit Company in Caribbean (“Banana Republics”).
• Anglo-Saxon / “civilizing mission” ideology
  • Rudyard Kipling, “White Man’s Burden” (1899) urges U.S. to share Britain’s imperial load.
  • Appeals to morality & racial duty, not merely greed.
• Residual Manifest Destiny spirit, redirected overseas (“variation on the theme”).

Intellectual & Naval Foundations

• Captain ⇒ Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan
  • Book: The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 ($1890$).
  • Core argument (implied "formula"):
    $\text{National Greatness} \propto \text{Fleet Size} + \text{Forward Bases} + \text{Merchant Marine}$
  • All historic world powers = maritime powers; U.S. must build a two-ocean, steam-driven, armored fleet.
  • Initially sidelined (placed on a “slow boat”), but ideas inspire U.S., British, and especially German naval programs.
• Canal imperative
  • Navy needs rapid Atlantic–Pacific transfer ⇒ supports a future Panama Canal.
  • French attempt at a sea-level canal (1880s-90s) fails—oceans are at different elevations.

Anomalies & Side-Notes (Civil War Era)

• Despite Civil War, U.S. builds the transcontinental railroad and conducts distant naval sorties:
  • $1864$: Marines bombard Japanese coastal forts during anti-foreign daimyō uprising.
  • Minor Korea incursions (spelled “Corea” in older documents).

Cuba’s Long Revolt Against Spain

• First uprising $1867$; rekindled $1895$.
• Guerrilla tactics: hit-and-run, crop burning, sabotage of U.S.-owned sugar estates.
• Spanish Governor-General Valeriano “Butcher” Weyler institutes reconcentración camps (early model of modern concentration camps) to cut rebels off from civilian support.
  • Public-health disaster & humanitarian outrage in U.S. press.

Yellow Journalism & the Press War

• Circulation battle: Joseph Pulitzer (New York World) vs. William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal).
  • Banner headlines, sensational art, emotional language = “yellow journalism.”
  • Hearst’s comics (“The Yellow Kid”) give term its name.
• Artist-correspondent Frederic Remington complains “there is no war.”
  • Hearst telegram: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
• Coverage whips U.S. public into pro-Cuban, anti-Spanish frenzy.

The USS Maine Explosion (Feb 15, 1898)

• Battleship sent to Havana to “show the flag,” protect U.S. citizens, and calm riots.
• Nighttime explosion; ship sinks.
  • Death toll: $262$ sailors.
• Immediate newspaper verdict: Spanish underwater mine ⇒ "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!"
• Multiple later investigations (incl. Adm. Hyman Rickover, $1976$) point to probable internal boiler or powder-magazine accident, but no conclusive proof.
• Visible relics today: forward mast at Arlington National Cemetery; secondary mast at U.S. Naval Academy.

Diplomatic Sparks: The De Lôme Letter

• Private dispatch from Spanish ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lôme intercepted & published.
  • Described President William McKinley as “weak” and politically motivated.
  • Further enrages public; undermines administration’s neutrality.

Path to War (April 1898)

• McKinley initially resists—called spineless by press.
• Naval Assistant Secretary Theodore Roosevelt (acting while boss is on vacation) secretly cables Commodore George Dewey in Hong Kong:
  • Stock coal & ammo; if war comes, strike Spanish fleet at Manila.
• Congress issues ultimatum; Spain breaks relations ⇒ war declared.

Manila Bay (May 1, 1898) – First Blow of the War

• Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron steams into Manila Bay at dawn.
  • Spanish fleet destroyed in <$7$ hours.
  • U.S. losses: $0$ ships, $0$ combat deaths.
• Instant global proof of new U.S. sea power; plants American strategic stake in Philippines & Asia.
• Sets chain leading to:
  • Philippine-American War ($1899$-$1902$).
  • Future involvement in Pacific wars of 20th century.

Caribbean Campaign & Rapid Conclusion (June-Aug 1898)

• While transcript stops before land war details, key outcomes implied:
  • Spanish fleet also destroyed off Santiago, Cuba.
  • U.S. occupies Puerto Rico, Guam, and secures annexation of Hawaii (military necessity; Pearl Harbor).

Hawaiian Annexation Context

• Local sugar planters (mostly American) overthrow Queen Liliʻuokalani (1893).
• President Grover Cleveland initially blocks annexation as immoral.
• Strategic value for war & coaling station overrules hesitation ⇒ formal annexation July $1898$.

Broader Implications & Ethical Debates

• Shift from continental republic to overseas empire completed “whether we wanted one or not.”
• Imperialism marketed as:
  • Economic opportunity.
  • Racial-civilizational duty (Kipling).
  • Strategic necessity (Mahan).
• Counter-arguments (not detailed in transcript but historically relevant): anti-imperialist league, constitutional/ethical concerns.

Illustrative Metaphors & Cultural References

• B-2 bomber analogy: sending a battleship as a “peace” signal = modern bomber on goodwill tour—illustrates mixed messaging.
• Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne film): protagonist never leaves British jurisdiction ⇒ metaphor for global British Empire where “the sun never sets.”

Quick Reference Timeline

• $1790s$ – U.S.–China trade opens.
• $1823$ – Monroe Doctrine.
• $1840s$ – Treaty of Wangxia with China.
• $1854$ – Perry opens Japan.
• $1864$ – U.S. Marines skirmish in Japan during Civil War.
• $1867$ – Alaska purchase; first Cuban revolt.
• $1878$ – American Samoa acquired.
• $1880s$ – Pearl Harbor basing rights; failed French Panama Canal attempt.
• $1890$ – Mahan publishes Sea Power; “Banana Republic” era begins.
• $1895$ – Venezuelan Crisis; Cuban revolt rekindles.
• Feb $1898$ – USS Maine explodes.
• April $1898$ – U.S. declares war.
• May $1898$ – Manila Bay victory.
• July $1898$ – Annexation of Hawaii.
• Aug $1898$ – Cease-fire; Treaty of Paris negotiations commence.

Take-Away Concepts

• Monroe Doctrine evolves from passive warning to active hemispheric police power after Spanish-American War.
• Mahanian sea-power theory successfully tested; U.S. enters ranks of global naval powers.
• Press & public opinion (yellow journalism) can catalyze foreign policy—media as an independent actor.
• Imperial acquisition often results from a combination of accident, opportunity, and ideology, not meticulous long-range planning.