Chapter 10 Expansionism and WWI
Section 1: Becoming a World Power
A Special Destiny
Progressive movement helps to strengthen the idea of exporting American capitalism and democracy overseas.
They had already shown that change could be achieved at home if they mobilized for reform.
Racial attitudes influence overseas involvement as well
Some believed that people in places such as the Philippines and most of the Caribbean were racially inferior
and should succumb to United States leadership.
New markets for goods means commercial expansion abroad
-Farmers, manufacturers and investors interested
IMPERIALISM
Define: _________________________________________________________________________
-Opponents of imperialism rejected the policy of establishing dominance over other nations on
humanitarian and moral grounds.
Extensive trading networks overseas would drag the nation into the colonialism and militarism of European
powers
Policies in the Caribbean
The political and economic climate in the US at the turn of the century favored commercial expansion, even if
by military force. Promoted in part by Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” foreign policy
The Panama Canal
Spanish American War underscored the need for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama
Colombia held out for more money on the land, so the United States supported Panamanian rebels in their
fight for independence from Colombia
When the Panamanians won their independence the US won the right to build a canal on its own terms in
exchange for their help
Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine:
__________________________________________________________________________________
European nations threatened to intervene in the Dominican Republic
-wanted to collect unpaid customs fees
US claimed “international police powers” to maintain stability in the Western Hemisphere
US troops would go to Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti under presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson
“Dollar Diplomacy”: used by President Taft
Economic aid and entrepreneurial investment to gain influence in Latin America
US Senate Department assumed responsibility for protecting American investors from loan defaults and
unfriendly governments
Policies in Eastern Asia
Many Americans at the turn of the century feared and discriminated against Chinese immigrants. At the same
time, the great numbers of people in China attracted missionaries intent on winning converts and
businesspeople seeking new markets.
Open Door policy -1899 &1900
-became key concept in American foreign policy in the 1900’s
China: Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to Japan and key European powers asking them to respect
the territorial integrity of China and keep the door open to trade for all nations.
Philippines: Natural resources and strategic importance led the US to reverse on a promise to honor the
struggle for independence.
Russo-Japanese War: Roosevelt negotiated a settlement that ensured that neither Russia nor Japan
reigned supreme in Asia.
Japanese humiliation
Japanese children were segregated in San Francisco schools
“A Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 1907:
Ended school segregation while controlling Japanese immigration to the United States
Show of might
Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet around the world
Special stop in Japan in 1908
Entanglements with Europe
The US had proved to be effective at resolving conflicts of interest in other parts of the world: in the early
1900’s the nation was often called upon to mediate disputes
Examples:
1906: Roosevelt defused a crisis between Germany and France over Morocco
1911: Taft arbitrated a dispute between Great Britain and France over Liberia
These efforts not only kept the door open for trade in Africa, they also helped ensure the peace and security
of markets worldwide
Section 3: World War I: There and Here
Mobilization
Wilson
Progressives
-Support the war and draft: believe that service to a common cause might promote a sense of
_________________________ among men of many __________________________________
-Women volunteer
-nurses, clerical workers, and telephone operators
Military
-Not an equalizer for African Americans because of the use of ________________________
-No high ranking African Americans in the military
Fighting Over There
June 1917: first soldiers with the ____________________________________ arrive in France and
this helps to __________________________________________
Russia
-The new revolutionary government wanted no part of an imperialistic war.
-Sign peace treaty with ________________________ in March 1918
-Russia gave up large amounts of territory:
US impact on War
-2 million soldiers went to France: _______ million saw active combat
-help stop German advance, capture towns, major victories
Chateau-Thierry, Cantigny, Second Battle of Marne, St Mihiel
-Argonne Forest: break Germans resolve to fight
-US soldiers felt the “______________________” was an Adventure
-US soldiers were there for little over a year and did not have to endure as much
_________________________ and ________________________ as their European
counterparts
The War Effort at Home
Propaganda campaigns
Women/teenagers
Big Business and the Government
-joined together to form cooperative committees that supervised the purchasing of war supplies and
granting of contracts
-Progressives thought this centralized regulation was efficient and forgot their former distrust of big
business
-Corporate profits tripled between 1914 and 1919
Labor and Women’s suffrage leaders
-divided on whether to back the war
-American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Freedoms
-the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Amendment of 1918
-Both made any obstruction of the war effort illegal and curbed the civil liberties of those who
spoke against the war
-Hysteria amongst the people
-Socialists imprisoned: _________________________________
-mob violence against radical worker groups and people of German descent
The other side
-_______________________________________________________
-some spoke out against the Espionage and Sedition laws
-American Civil Liberties Union
-Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
After the war: ruled that a citizen’s freedom of speech should only be curbed when the words
uttered constitute a “clear and present danger.” However, do critics of the war constitute such a danger??
Section 4: Reshaping the World
Points for Peace
Bolshevism in Russia
Power changes hands in Russia during World War I:
-Czar to provisional government to Bolsheviks (Lenin)
-Czar surrenders power to parliament
-Create provisional government led by moderate Socialist Aleksandr Kerensky
Was committed to keep Russia in the War: good for Allies
-discontent among the Russian people
-Bolsheviks take power from Kerensky: Lenin
-based on Communist ideology of Karl Marx: radical socialists
-class war between workers and capitalists rather than world war between capitalist
governments
-Lenin published secret trade pacts to reveal Allied territorial ambitions: embarrassed world leaders
-Bolshevism appeals to workers of all nationalities: could be a threat to democracy?
Wilson’s Fourteen Points (attached at end of packet)
-did not want to be associated with the Allied pacts, or the Bolsheviks
-his answer to this dilemma: the Fourteen Points
Examples of points:
-self determination for nations invaded during war
-open agreements instead of secret pacts
-establishment of a League of Nations
Fourteen points appeals to masses of Europe, with the exception of France and Britain:
undercut ________________________ dominance of the sea
and ________________________ determination to punish Germany
A Troubling Treaty
January 19, 1919 – Paris Peace Conference
-countries participating: the “Big Four”
-___________________and____________________ = excluded
Wilson’s Fourteen Points dwindle
- ___________________________________________________
-what did they disregard??
-Secret pacts: __________________________________
-Self-determination: _____________________________
-Japan (dominant power of Asia at time)
-manipulates issue of race: _________________________
-dropped proposal in exchange for influence over China
Treaty of Versailles
-most of the Fourteen Points had vanished, except
__________________________________________________
Rejection at Home
League of Nations: not widely accepted at home
-Two camps in congress:
-___________________________:
-progressive republicans, NO VOTE, NO WAY!!
-anti-imperialists, focus on reform at home
-___________________________:
-approve league but want to modify proposal
-disliked the article that the League defend “the territorial integrity and existing political
independence of all Members of the League”
-both groups fear Article 10
fear power removed from Congress and given to the League in a declaration of war
Cross-country speaking tour
Wilson promotes the Fourteen Points to the people Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles, including the
League of Nations