Imperialism: Debates & The Spanish-American War

Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

  • Avoid entangling alliances   * Avoid perpetual war in Europe
  • Advocated foreign policy based on good faith
  • Advocated free trade
  • Defense of the rights of American merchants

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

  • Prohibit new European colonization
  • Prevent European intervention in and infiltration of Central and South American newly independent republics
  • United States will not interfere in current European-controlled areas and colonies

Perry Expedition (1853-1854)

  • Commodore Matthew Perry
  • Encourage trade and diplomatic relations with Japan   * Gunboat diplomacy
  • Convention of Kanagawa (1854)   * Help shipwrecked soldiers   * Open two ports for American ships   * Appoint consuls for each port

Alaska Purchase (1867)

  • Deal negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward   * $7.2 million to Russia   * $86,412 sq. miles
  • Criticism   * “Seward’s Folly”   * Taxpayer dollars for a “polar bear garden”
  • Support   * Weakened British and Russian interests   * Potential discovery of natural resources and trade network with East Asia   * Potentially annex British Columbia
  • Klondike gold strike (1896)

Hawaii

  • Independent and sovereign kingdom
  • Bayonet Constitution (1887)   * Rebellion financed and led by Sanford Dole and white sugar plantation owners   * Pressured King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution weakening the monarchy and limiting suffrage
  • Queen Liliuokalani   * Attempted to restore native authority and drive out foreigners
  • Overthrow of Hawaii (1893)   * U.S. State Minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens   * Republic of Hawaii (1894-1898)     * Sanford Dole named president   * Newlands Resolution (1898)     * U.S. annexed Hawaii

Spanish American War

  • Cuba   * Jose Marti - Cuban nationalist, main agitator for Cuba’s independence     * Latin American countries need to know their history   * Re-concentration camps
  • DeLome Letter   * Spanish Ambassador’s unflattering remarks on McKinley’s diplomacy
  • U.S.S. Maine   * Exploded in Havana Harbor (Feb 15, 1898)   * 250 out of 355 sailors killed   * “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!”
  • Yellow Journalism   * William Randolph Hearst

Spanish-American War (1898)

  • Declaration of War on April 21, 1898
  • Caribbean Theater   * Cuba     * Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1     * Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers     * Battle of Santiago on July 3-17   * Puerto Rico
  • Pacific Theater   * Commodore George Dewey and American Asiatic Squadron   * Battle of Manila Bay on April 27   * Battle of Manila on August 13   * Emilio Aguinaldo

Treaty of Paris (1898)

  • Secretary of State John Hay: “A splendid little war.”
  • American acquisitions   * Puerto Rico   * Philippines   * Guam

Cuba under the United Sates

  • Teller Amendment (1898)   * Prohibited American Occupation (1898-1902)
  • American occupation (1898-1902)   * Cuba became an American protectorate   * Implemented policies beneficial to American business and commercial interests
  • Platt Amendment (1901)   * United States must approve any new treaties and foreign credit   * United States may intervene to preserve Cuban independence   * Guantanamo Bay

Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists

  • Proponents   * Most from GOP (the Republican Party)     * Theodore Roosevelt (R)     * John Hay (R)     * James G. Blaine (R)     * Elihu Root     * William Randolph Hearst   * Reasons     * Economic expansion     * Manifest destiny and American nationalism   * Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan     * The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890)     * Expressed need for a strong navy to become a world power   * Social Darwinism     * Jingoism - extreme patriotism     * “White Man’s Burden”     * Prevent influence of “inferior races'“   * Insular Cases (1901-1903)     * Supreme Court ruled constitutional guarantees granted only by Congress to U.S. territories
  • Opponents   * Mostly from Democratic Party     * Anti-Imperialist League     * Grover Cleveland (D)     * William Jennings Bryan (D)     * Senator Ben Tillman (D-SC)     * Samuel Gompers (AFL)     * Mark Twain     * Andrew Carnegie     * Jane Addams   * Reasons     * Expensive to maintain     * Must fix domestic issues first     * Undemocratic     * Violated republicanism - needs consent of the governed

The Philippines

  • Philippine-American War (1899-1902)   * Atrocities     * Torture by both sides     * Concentration camps   * Casualties     * 12,000 - 20,000 Filipinos     * 4,165 American     * 200,000 - 1,000,000 Filipino citizens   * Americanization     * Freedom of religion     * English as official language

Open Door Policy in China

  • Spheres of influence   * European and Japanese powers in exclusive control of particular Chinese regions and ports
  • Secretary of State John Hay’s Open Door notes   * Propose equal trading policies between imperial powers   * Preserve China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty

Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901)

  • Society of Harmonious Fists aka “Boxers”   * Xenophobic nationalists to restore Qing sovereignty   * Targeted Chinese missionaries, railroads
  • Eight-Nation Alliance   * U.S. joined Europeans and Japanese to quash the rebellion
  • Qing Dynasty further weakened and subjugated   * Qing paid indemnity of $330 million   * Falls in 1911 and China becomes a republic in 1912

Roosevelt’s Big Stick Policy

  • “Speak softly and carry a big stick”
  • Alfred T. Mahan   * Powerful naval fleet to dominate the sea, exert full might in diplomacy, defend borders
  • Gunboat diplomacy
  • Roosevelt Corollary   * American intervention in financially unstable nations in Central and South America indebted to European creditors   * Dominican Republic
  • FDR   * Good neighbor policy

Panama Canal

  • Initial treatties   * Clayton-Bulwer (1850)   * Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901)
  • Panamanian Revolution (1903)   * Roosevelt encouraged Panamanian separation from Colombia   * Use of U.S. gunboats to thwart further Colombian incursion into Panama   * U.S. recognized Panamanian independence
  • Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903)   * Granted U.S. full rights to Panama Canal Zone
  • Construction of the canal   * Cost U.S. $375 million   * Saved 7,800 miles from New York to San Francisco   * American engineers and planning in Panamanian workforce   * Yellow fever and exhaustion plagued and delayed construction   * Opened on August 1914

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) Big Stick Policy

  • International diplomat   * Treaty of Portsmouth (1904)     * Mediated peace of Russo-Japanese War     * Nobel Peace Prize   * Algeciras Conference (1906)     * Contributed to efforts between France and Germany
  • Gentleman’s Agreement (1907)   * Negotiated reduction of Japanese unskilled labor immigration to U.S.   * Desegregation of U.S. schools for Japanese
  • Great White Fleet (1907-1908)   * Demonstrate American international goodwill   * Display American navy

William Howard Taft (1909-1913) Dollar Diplomacy

  • Encouraged American investment in foreign nations   * Economic coercion to achieve American interests
  • Guarantee and protect American foreign commercial and financial investments and interests
  • Threat or use of military to achieve goals in Central and South America
  • Influence   * Nicaragua     * Overthrew government after Nicaragua refused to pay loans in U.S. dollars   * China     * Fostered investment in railroad construction

“Banana Republics”

  • Coined by American writer O. Henry in 1901
  • Central/South American nations exploited by American corporations   * Exploit impoverished working class under a typical plantation agricultural system   * Ruling-class oligarchy made of business, political, and military elites
  • United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company in Honduras

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) Moral Diplomacy

  • Missionary diplomacy   * Support nations who share democratic beliefs
  • Promote democracy and peace   * Opposed imperialism   * Self-determination

American Interventions under Wilson

  • Nicaragua becomes a U.S. protectorate (1914)
  • Mexican revolution
  • Haiti (1915-1934)
  • Dominican Republic (1916-1924)
  • Cuba (1917)
  • Panama (1918)

Moral Diplomacy: Mexican Revolution and the Border War (1910-1919)

  • Porfirio Diaz   * Established close economic relations with U.S.   * Defeated by Madero in 1910 election
  • Francisco Madero   * U.S. ambassador conspired to overthrow Madero
  • Victoriano Huerta   * Wilson refused to recognize Huerta’s government
  • Tampico Affair (April 1914)   * Mexico arrested U.S. naval offices   * Wilson sent naval force to occupy Veracruz
  • Venustiano Carranza   * Wilson recognized Carranza
  • Pancho Villa   * Raid of Columbus, New Mexico   * General John J. Pershing

\ \