US Imperialism: Hawaii & the Spanish-American War
Testing the waters/picking fights
Monroe Doctrine
Samoan Islands (Germany)
Chile
Canada
Italy
Britain
Venezuela & Britain
“backyard”
Olney to Britain: “back off”
“twisting the lion’s tail”
Britain withdraws – US feels emboldened
“patting the eagle’s head”
Hawaii
Strategic, economic, religious interests
Naval Bases
Missionaries
Social Darwinism / racism
Sugar Plantations
1890 McKinley Tariff
Bayonet Constitution 1887
Planter constitution
Limits power of native monarch
Repealed voting rights for most Hawaiians
Queen’s Constitution 1893
Queen Liliuokalani
Natives should rule Hawaii
Restores monarch’s power
Planter revolt 1893
Led by Sanford Dole
Pineapples
Deposed the queen
Declared a provisional government
Assisted by US troops – Marines from USS Boston
Dole becomes president – US recognizes new government
Cleveland refuses annexation petition
Formal annexation in 1898
Statehood 1959
Cuba
Cuba & Spain
US tariff devastates Cuban sugar economy
Cubans torch plantations
Hope Spain leaves or US intervenes
To the US
Patriots fighting for freedom
$150 M investment
Spanish presence troublesome in W. Indies
Weyler (the Butcher) 1896
Brutal treatment of Cubans
Concentration camps
Yellow journalism
William Randolph Hearst / Joseph Pulitzer
Competition
Exaggeration / sensationalism
Raised public emotion
False & misleading reporting
Outrage in US
De Lôme letter
Spanish minister in DC
Letter unflattering of McKinley
Published – De Lôme resigns
Flares anti-Spanish sentiment
USS Maine
Observation / evacuation
Havana harbor
Explosion
Spanish – Accident / US – submarine mine
War Fever
McKinley forced to war
Madrid acceded to US demands
Gave in to political expediency
Declaration of War, April 11, 1898
Armed intervention to free oppressed Cubans
Teller Amendment
US would return Cuba to Cubans after defeating Spain
Spanish-American War 1898
Dewey in the Philippines
TR (Undersecretary of Navy)
Spanish fleet destroyed
Capture of Manila
Aid of Filipino insurgents
Emilio Aguinaldo
Annexation of Hawaii – support for Dewey
Cuba
Blockaded by US navy
Land invasion
US forces overrun island
Rough Riders
TR & Co.
San Juan Hill
US steel navy vs. Spanish wooden navy
Spanish destroyed
Deaths
400 US killed in battle
5000 killed by disease
Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, yellow fever