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Chapter 19: Rise of American Imperialism (1890– 1913)
Important Keywords
Open Door policy: Policy supported by the United States beginning in 1899 that stated that all major powers, including the United States, should have an equal right to trade with China.
Social Darwinism: Philosophy that emerged from the writings of Charles Darwin on the “survival of the fittest”; this was used to justify the vast differences between the rich and the poor in the late nineteenth century as well as American and European imperialistic ventures.
Spanish-American War: War that began in 1898 against the Spanish over treatment of Cubans by Spanish troops that controlled the island. As a result of this war, the United States annexed the Philippines, making America a major power in the Pacific.
Yellow journalism: method of journalism that utilized sensationalized accounts of the news to sell newspapers. This approach helped to whip up nationalistic impulses that led to the Spanish-American War.
U.S.S. Maine: U.S. naval ship that sank in Havana harbor in February 1898 following an explosion. The incident was used to increase calls for war against Spain. It was never definitively determined why or how the ship was sunk.
Panama Canal: Canal across the Panama isthmus that was begun in 1904 and completed in 1914; its opening enabled America to expand its economic and military influence.
Roosevelt Corollary (1904): Policy that warned Europeans against intervening in the affairs of Latin America and that claimed the right of the United States to intervene in the affairs of Latin American nations if “chronic wrongdoing” was taking place.
Dollar Diplomacy: Foreign policy supported by President William Howard Taft and others that favored increased American investment in the world as a way of increasing American influence.
Key Timeline
1867: United States purchases Alaska from Russia
United States annexes Midway Islands
1871: Beginning of European “Scramble for Africa”
1875: Trade agreement between United States and Hawaii signed
1885: Publication of Our Country by Josiah Strong; book discusses role of Anglo-Saxons in the world
1890: Captain Alfred T. Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power upon History published
1893: Pro-American sugar planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii
1895: Revolt against Spanish in Cuba; harsh Spanish reaction angers many in United States
1898: Explosion of U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor; beginning of Spanish-American War
Annexation of Hawaii receives final approval from Congress Anti-Imperialist League formed
1899: Secretary of State John Hay asks European leaders for an Open Door policy in China
First fighting between American army forces and Filipino rebels in Manila
1900: Naval Act of 1900 authorizes construction of offensive warships requested by navy
1901: Assassination of President McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
1904: Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine announced
United States begins construction of Panama Canal
1905: In a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, conference, Roosevelt mediates conflict between Japan and Russia
1914: Completion of the Panama Canal
Postwar Diplomacy
The U.S. government sought overseas markets and raw materials for American factories before the Civil War. Postwar efforts continued.
In 1867, William Henry Seward bought Alaska from Russia. Alaska's resources were soon discovered, despite Seward's Folly.
In 1867, the US acquired the Pacific Ocean Midway Islands.
Ships switched from sails to coal-powered steam engines due to technological advances.
American ships sought Pacific coaling stations to refuel.
The US did not colonize Africa and Asia at first. Americans continued settling the west.
American energy went to rapid industrialization and urbanization.
In the 1890s, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge called for American expansion abroad only after the frontier was closed.
These young men were willing to fight to establish a US empire.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the State Department had fewer than 100 employees.
The army was small by European standards and patrolled the frontier from small forts across the West.
The Civil War weakened the navy.
The navy was rebuilt with modern all-steel ships only under Chester Arthur.
Acquiring Hawaii
1820s American missionaries arrived in Hawaii.
American whalers and merchant ships visited the islands.
American sugar cane plantations on the islands were profitable.
In 1887, Congress duty-free imported Hawaiian sugar.
Sugar planters in Hawaii pressured King Kalakaua to create a constitution that gave them more political power.
In 1891, Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani ascended.
She wanted to reestablish royal rule over Hawaii and fight outsiders like American planters.
Sugar magnates feared the queen's nationalist program and wanted Hawaii to become a US protectorate.
Hawaiian sugar could only compete in American markets if it was an American colony.
In 1893, Planters overthrew the queen.
An American diplomat provided a small Marine detachment.
The planters declared a Hawaiian republic and demanded US annexation.
The diplomat prevented Washington from joining the coup.
President Cleveland sent a commission to Hawaii to assess Hawaiian attitudes toward the new regime.
Cleveland refused to annex the islands after the commission found a majority supported Queen Liliuokalani.
The US did not restore the queen but did recognize Hawaii.
In the 1896 election, William McKinley declared that Hawaii was America's "Manifest Destiny."
In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Congress annexed Hawaii.
American policymakers realized Pearl Harbor gave the Navy a strategic Pacific Ocean base.
The New Imperialism
In the 1890s, American attitudes toward imperialism changed.
Though industrialists and businessmen generally feared war would disrupt markets, they began to worry that they would need to sell their goods abroad.
Some sought raw materials like rubber that were unavailable in the continental US.
The naval officer Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that the US needed to expand to maintain its economic and political power.
The Influence of Sea Power upon History, by Mahan, was published in 1890.
Mahan convincingly argued that naval power was needed to acquire and maintain overseas markets in this work.
World-wide naval officers studied Mahan's writings.
They inspired American leaders like Theodore Roosevelt to support naval expansion legislation like the Naval Act of 1900.
Imperialism was justified by Social Darwinism, which rationalized US economic inequality.
This view of international relations held that nations, like people, struggled for survival and the strong ruled the weak.
Social Darwinism fits well with current racial beliefs about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon "race."
The famous minister Josiah Strong wrote in Our Country in 1885 that God had made the Anglo-Saxons their "brother's keepers."
Rudyard Kipling's poem "White Man's Burden" encouraged Americans to rule and civilize "inferior races."
Imperialism allowed American missionaries to convert "heathens" in Africa and Asia.
Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, a scholar, saw imperialism abroad as a way for Americans to open a new frontier and recapture their pioneer spirit.
The Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War made the US an imperial power.
This "splendid little war" ended a century of American isolationism.
The conflict started locally. Cuba is 90 miles from Florida.
In 1868, Cuban colonists rebelled against Spain.
In 1895, Cuba's unrest began with the failed revolt. Sugar price depression caused another revolt.
American investors in Cuba, including sugar plantations, opposed the revolutionaries.
The U.S. initially ignored Cuba; this changed when the Spanish government brutally suppressed the insurrection.
The Spanish sent 150,000 troops to Cuba and began reconcentration, rounding up rural civilians and putting them in government-controlled camps to undermine the rebels.
Disease killed 225,000 in Spanish concentration camps.
Cuban exiles pleaded with Cleveland and McKinley to end Spanish rule.
Both presidents opposed the Cuban war.
To increase U.S. interventionist pressure, rebels burned American plantations and sugar mills.
Mass media promoted war.
Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Morning Journal drew readers with sensational headlines.
Yellow journalism was the new newspaper style. Pulitzer and Hearst sent reporters to Cuba to find newspaper-selling stories.
These papers published lurid, often fanciful Spanish misdeeds.
These stories outraged Americans who believed them and were widely reprinted.
The yellow press promoted jingoism, which demanded war with Spain.
On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor, triggering war.
The Maine was sent to Cuba after capital riots threatened American lives and property.
The navy was reluctant to blame a ship technical fault for the explosion, so a subsequent investigation failed to explain it.
Spanish diplomats' blunder enraged Americans.
The diplomat called McKinley "weak" in a Cuban revolutionaries-stolen letter.
Combat in the Philippines and Cuba
Theodore Roosevelt, was an imperialist who expected war with Spain.
On February 25, Roosevelt cabled Pacific commanders to prepare to attack the Spanish while the navy secretary was away.
President McKinley and the navy secretary confirmed that Commodore George Dewey should attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines in wartime.
By April, expansionists and humanitarians appalled by Cuban suffering called for war.
McKinley tried to defuse the crisis diplomatically.
The Spanish agreed to most of McKinley's Cuba settlement terms.
Spanish concessions were insufficient.
War became political for McKinley.
He advised Congress to invade Cuba.
The next day, Congress authorized force to expel the Spanish from the island.
The army was not war-ready, but the small but modern American navy was.
Tampa's invasion force took time to assemble.
Before the army's supply services were organized, the war ended.
Luckily for the Americans, the Spanish in Cuba were disorganized and demoralized from years of guerilla warfare. June brought a small American army to Cuba.
On July 1, the Americans took high ground outside Santiago, sparking the main fighting.
Theodore Roosevelt's bravery in leading his volunteer "Rough Riders" up San Juan Hill made him a national hero after resigning from the Navy Department.
Two days later, American warships destroyed Santiago harbor's old Spanish warships. Cuban fighting ended.
The war killed 2,500 Americans, mostly from disease.
Combat killed fewer than 400 Americans.
The U.S. Navy proved Mahan's theories about maritime power on the other side of the world.
On May 1, Commodore Dewey led a small American squadron into Manila Harbor and destroyed the decaying Spanish fleet.
This one-sided battle gave the US-Philippine claims.
The Paris Treaty ended the war.
Spain gave Cuba independence and sold the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the US for $20 million.
The Cuban Conundrum
Some American policymakers doubted the Cubans' ability to govern themselves and protect American interests almost immediately after Cuban independence.
The April war resolution included the Teller Amendment because of imperial temptations.
This amendment said the US would not annex Cuba.
Congress reconsidered Cuban autonomy postwar.
President McKinley installed a military government in Cuba after the Spanish defeat.
It improved public health and fought yellow fever until 1901.
The Platt Amendment was forced into Cuba's new constitution by the new imperial Washington.
Cuban treaties required American approval.
The US would intervene in Cuban politics "when necessary."
The Platt Amendment limited Cuban independence until the 1930s.
The Debate over Empire
The Philippines, a vast and densely populated island chain thousands of miles away, was controversially acquired.
Filipinos formed a government and demanded independence, intensifying this debate.
Americans were proud of their revolution against Britain.
Anti-Imperialist League was founded in 1898 to oppose Philippine colonialism.
Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and William Jennings Bryan denounced imperialism.
Idealistic and practical arguments against empire existed.
Anti-imperialists criticized Americans for imposing their rule on other nations while facing many social and economic problems at home.
Imperialism was feared to bring "inferior races" to the US.
American defenders of Philippine policy had their own arguments.
An empire extended the American frontier, letting modern Americans retain pioneer values.
The Philippines helped the US enter Asian markets.
If the US left the Philippines, the Germans or Japanese would colonize.
Finally, even though most Filipinos were Catholic, many ministers supported keeping the Philippines so missionaries could convert them.
After deliberating, President McKinley concluded that the US should rule the Philippines for moral and practical reasons.
He considered Filipinos "unfit for self-government."
If left alone, civil war would ensue and an imperial power would devour them.
But the Filipinos resisted American rule.
From 1899 to 1902, the US fought Filipino rebels.
This war killed 4,500 Americans and 200,000 Filipinos, far more than the Spanish-American War.
Both sides committed atrocities during the Philippines war.
The Americans defeated the Filipinos using their Native American fighting skills.
They won by combining military force with education and local self-government.
American interest in the Philippines was to trade in China, which they hoped would be profitable.
Imperial powers partitioned China due to its weak government.
To prevent this, Secretary of State John Hay promoted an Open Door policy in 1899 to allow all nations equal access to trade in China.
The US, Europe, and Japan suppressed the Boxer Rebellion in China the following year.
The Boxers persecuted missionaries, merchants, and diplomats.
American troops helped defeat the rebels.
The Panama Canal
1900 resembled 1896. McKinley again defeated anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan.
Theodore Roosevelt, New York's governor, was McKinley's running mate.
In 1901, Roosevelt succeeded McKinley.
McKinley's friend Mark Hanna lamented, “Now that damned cowboy is president of the United States.”
Roosevelt remained committed to expanding America's global influence.
He strongly supported the Panama Canal, which would make Atlantic and Pacific Ocean travel easier and faster for merchant ships and American warships.
This canal's control would ensure American dominance of the Western Hemisphere.
French engineers failed to build a Panama canal.
The US purchased the French and negotiated with Colombia, which owned the Panamanian isthmus, for canal rights.
President Roosevelt lost patience with the Colombian Senate after it rejected a treaty because the US wasn't offering enough money.
In 1903, Panama rebelled under French company agents.
To stop Colombia from sending troops to crush the rebellion, the US recognized the new government and stationed warships off Panama.
The 1904 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gave the United States permanent sovereignty over a 10-mile-wide strip of land across Panama.
Panamanians received $10 million.
In 1914, the canal was completed. Economically, strategically, and technologically, the Panama Canal succeeded.
Trade and the movement of American naval vessels between oceans were facilitated by this complex engineering project.
The US paid diplomatically for this Latin American success.
American involvement in Colombia's dismemberment convinced many Latin Americans that the US was a bully.
The Roosevelt Corollary
President Roosevelt advised to "speak softly and carry a big stick" because he believed military power was the final arbiter of international affairs.
In 1904, the Dominican Republic defaulted on its European debts during an economic crisis.
European powers threatened to militarily collect these debts.
This inspired Roosevelt to declare the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
This asserted the American government's right to police any Western Hemisphere country that was "harmful to the United States" and risked outside intervention.
Roosevelt took over the Dominican Republic's customs service and organized its foreign debt payments.
The US government wanted political stability, but this increased anti-American sentiment.
President Roosevelt had a global impact.
In 1905, the Russo-Japanese War ended thanks to Roosevelt's mediation.
The US attended the 1906 Algeciras Conference on colonial disputes between France and Germany.
William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's chosen successor, preferred "dollars over bullets" and avoided the "big stick."
Through investment and economic engagement, he sought to expand American influence abroad.
Dollar Diplomacy was Taft's critics' term for this financial approach to foreign relations.