Empire
Introduction
Guano Islands were islands literally made for poop because of the lack of use of poop.
Human poop was the fertilizer used for many crops in the mid-late 19th century.
- Since urbanization was a universal thing across the globe, there were tubes designed to transport human waste, giving citizens Cholera, instead of using the waste for fertilizer.
New Imperialism is a term used to identify the era when countries frantically seized as many overseas territories as they could.
Men & Their Troubles
The word Empire is a political term for a single country that controls many other countries/nations far from itself.
Great Britain is a great example because of its many territories that consisted of the natives running farms to export to the British for resources.
Republicanism is a belief that the legitimacy of the government comes from the public/governed.
- John Quincy stated that if America were to become an Empire, they would betray Republicanism. But, by the 1890s, most American citizens wanted to be part of an Empire.
The Frontier Thesis is a common nickname for Frederick Jackson Turner’s speech about the Frontier in American history.
He argued that the American spirit was derived from the act of “taming” native people and turning them into American Democratic citizens.
On the other hand, Teddy Roosevelt argued that the Frontier was responsible for upholding racial supremacy, as he stated that whites evolved from overtaking “barbaric” native nations.
Connecting back to the masculinity crises that America was facing due to industrialization, the fact that the frontier had no more room to expand was an issue.
Men like Teddy Roosevelt saw this as an alarming issue. Instead of despairing, he set his sights on oversea lands.
Tying back to the “Geological Era”, capitalism also heavily depended on the number of resources that could be used up.
Senator Albert Beveridge stated “We are raising more than we can consume… We are making more than we can use. Therefore, we must find new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for our labor.” (Haker/9/B/4). This quote literally sums up most of the nation’s troubles.
Charles Conant, economist, argued that industrialization was giving markets too much to work with. Leading to the mass closing of factories and layoffs.
The New Navy was a project that was being heavily influenced by Alfred Thayer Mahan’s “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History”.
Mahan argued that nations drew their power from oversea territories, after reading this, national leaders scrambled to acquire territories to give them resources to make the New Navy.
- The New Navy would essentially allow American forces to be present across the globe. The creation of this project would be supervised by none other than Teddy Roosevelt himself.
The Culture of American Empire
Americans once again saw themselves at the pinnacle of cultures and societies, everything else was primitive and backwards.
Anything that wasn’t part of Western culture was labeled as backwards and primitive.
Orientalism was the term used to identify the tendency that; colonial powers would use racial superiority and curiosity to romanticize the cultures of countries they were ruling.
The idea of Orientalism itself helped to justify imperialism by making it seem peaceful, when it was quite the opposite.
Not only would imperial societies make it seem like the power to rule was a burden they were forced to carry, but they would also embark on civilizing missions rooted from Social Darwinism to make “barbaric and insane” societies “right”.
This ties back to progressivism, that Roosevelt saw the status quo and thought it needed some amplifications, what could he improve?
White American citizens and government would become so narcissistic and egotistical that they literally put native islanders on display in Human Zoos.
The story of Benga was especially tragic. In an African section of a Bronx Zoo, he was locked in a cage with only a bow to defend himself from spectators. Once the exhibit closed, he had been abandoned. A black minister in Virginia took Benga in and made him literate and helped him find employment within a tobacco shop. Once he saved enough money, he wanted to return to Africa, unfortunately WW1 would make that desire a faint dream, Benga shot himself in the heart because of this. Showcasing that a civilized man ended the life of a savage man.
Prelude
Since Americans were too late to Africa, they set their sights on Asia, but, because of the extreme distance between the two, America needed to control islands along the way.
Hawai’i was among one of these islands, within a couple years after America slowly inserted themselves with sugar plantations. Although Hawai’ian residents help up 98% of the total population, they would only hold 25% of the total wealth distribution amongst the islands.
- Sanford Dole would lead a group of planters and name themselves the “Honolulu Rifles”, they held King Kalakaua at gunpoint. These actions would result in the Bayonet Constitution which gave political power to property owners and rid native Hawaiians of their voting rights.
Spain’s empirical fall stemmed from Cubas desire to be free.
Once Cubans decided that they should torch plantations that just so happened to be owned by Americans, our economy died too.
- The Teller Amendment allowed for the U.S. to fight Spain, but not claim Cuba, unfortunately it said nothing about the Phillipines.
The War of 1898