American Imperialism

 Presidency of William Mc McKinley (1897-1901)

Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy, TR) (1901-1909)

Presidency of William Howard Taft (Big Bill) (1909-1913)

 

After the Civil War the USA pursues isolationism (internationally) and expansionism (domestically).

 

In the 1890s:

 

  • the North American continent is settled

  • European powers (Britain, France, Germany, Russia) expand their empires

  • expansionist ideas in the United States are revived and justified by the Monroe Doctrine gaining support among US politicians

 

We are the most advanced and powerful nation on earth and our future demands an abandonment of the policy of isolation. It is the ocean our children must look, as they once looked to the boundless west. Orville Platt (1893)

 

  • popularity of ideas of superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race (John Fiske) and the call of the Anglo-Saxon race to "civilize and Christianize" (Josiah Strong) - Social Darwinism and racism

  • the US “civilizing mission” becomes ideologically related to Manifest Destiny

 

 

 

Development of the American imperialism

 

 

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (1898)

“A Splendid Little War”

 

Causes:

 

  • large US sugar investments in Cuba – the last Spanish colony in the Caribbean

  • Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898) – supported by the US

  • anti-Spanish propaganda by US yellow journalism

  • USS Maine sent to Havana explodes killing 260 sailors (unresolved mystery until today) prompts the US intervention in Cuba - "Remember the Maine"

 

Course: US campaigns in Cuba (T. Roosevelt’s volunteer regiment of Rough Riders and the Battle of San Juan Hill) and the Philippines (the Battle of Manilla Bay)

 

Consequences:

  • the end of the Spanish Empire

  • US emerges as a colonizing nation and a WORLD POWER

 

 

US territorial gains after the Spanish-American War:

 

Cuba

  • US military occupation of Cuba until 1902 - Guantanamo Bay remains a US territory until today (perpetual naval lease)

  • Platt Amendment (1901) to the Cuban Constitution – reserves the US right to intervene in Cuba in cases of civil unrest

  • Republic of Cuba (1902-1959) – dominated economically by the US (US interventions until the 1930s)

 

Puerto Rico and Guam become US territories

 

The Philippines

  • US protectorate until 1946

  • Philippine–American War (1899-1902) - first colonial war of the US

  • The White Man's Burden (1899) – a poem by Rudyard Kipling encouraging the American colonization of the Philippines

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ANNEXATION OF HAWAII (1898)

 

From 1795 to 1893 Hawaii (Sandwich Islands) was an independent kingdom with large US investments in sugar and fruit plantations. In 1893 US businessmen stage a coup d’etat against Queen Liliuokalani – the last Hawaiian monarch.

 

  • 1894-98 – the Republic of Hawaii

  • 1898 - Hawaii is annexed by the USA – later the Pearl Harbor Naval Base is built west of Honolulu. In 1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state.

 

 

PANAMA CANAL ZONE

 

The Panama Isthmus being of crucial geopolitical significance to the United States. In 1903 the isthmus territory is acquired by the USA - the Panama Canal is completed in 1914. The Panama Canal Zone is reverted to Panama in 1999.

 

 

US international initiatives:

 

·       Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) ending the Russo-Japanese war is mediated by Theodore Roosevelt (winning the Noble Prize for Peace in 1906)

 

·       The Great White Fleet (1907-1909) – a journey of American battleships around the world to project US naval power

 

 

 

The American Empire is maintained through:

 

  • protection of American business interests abroad – chief priority

  • The Roosevelt Corollary (1904) to the Monroe Doctrine: the USA can intervene militarily in Latin American countries if they committed “chronic wrongdoings” – prevention of possible European interventions in the Americas used to justify various US interventions in Central America and the Caribbean until the 1930s

 

Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western  Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.

 

  • Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy: Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far – projection of American military power

 

  • William H. Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy (1909-1913) – promotion and protection of business investments in areas strategically important for the USA (East Asia, Latin America) – projection of American economic power

 

  • American Virgin Islands are bought from Denmark in 1917

 

 

 


THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

(1896-1916)

 

 

The period of social activism and political reforms addressing Gilded Age excesses of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, political corruption.

 

In 1900 the USA is the world’s richest and most industrialized country, e.g. producing one-third of world's coal and steel.

 

The US industrial development involves multiple problems, e.g.

 

  • about 2% of US society own one-third of wealth, while 50% own nothing

  • government support for rather than regulation of big business

  • huge demand for industrial workers - mostly immigrants

  • long work hours for men, women and children

  • low wages and hard living conditions (city slums)

  • frequent work accidents, no compensation

  • social unrest and labor strikes

 

 

 

Social activism and reforms of the Progressive Era

 

 

MUCKRAKERS – investigative journalists and writers exposing political corruption, scandals, urban poverty, unsafe working conditions through sensationalist publications.

 

Famous muckrakers: 

 

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, 1890  - photojournalistic album exposing conditions of New York City slums – inspiration for working-class housing reforms

 

Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases – documenting lynchings in the United States – advocate of women’s rights and civil rights movement (NAACP)

 

Ida M. Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company, 1904 – exposing monopolistic practices of John D. Rockefeller – impact on anti-trust legislation

 

Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, 1904 – exposing municipal corruption

 

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906 – a novel exposing sanitary conditions in Chicago meat-packing industry and lives of immigrants – impact on federal regulations, e.g. the establishment of Food and Drug Administration.

 

 

 

 

PROGRESSIVISM

 

  • where necessary, the government should intervene into the problems of society (making order) and economy (passing regulations)

 

  • the government is perceived as a positive force: “The government is us, we are the government, you and I” (TR)

 

  • promotion of moral society

 

 

Progressive Presidents:

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

 

Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal reforms (three Cs): conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, consumer protection - belief that federal government should improve the life of people.

 

·       business regulation – government as a mediator (broker of interests) between workers and employers

·       trust busting (breaking monopolies)

·       the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) – establishment of the FDA

·       conservation laws – the beginning of the National Park System

 

Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom reforms:

 

·       reduction of tariffs - increasing trade between the USA and other countries

·       establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913) and reform of banking system - friendly loans for farmers

·       anti-trust laws

·       ban on child's employment and improvement of safety at work

·       scientific management - a non-partisan administration is most efficient

 

 

Progressive Era constitutional amendments:

 

  • 16th Amendment (1913): federal income taxes

 

  • 17th Amendment (1913): direct election of US Senators

 

  • 18th Amendment (1919): prohibition of alcohol

 

  • 19th Amendment (1920): the right to vote for women: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex

 

 

Progressivism changed the face of America but many distrusted government intervention

 

Progressive reformers improved the life of immigrants but did little to help African-Americans, e.g. Woodrow Wilson’s segregation in federal institutions in 1913.