U.S. History
CONTENTSTANDARD3: THE STUDENT
WILL ANALYZE THE CHANGING ROLE
OF THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD
AFFAIRS AT THE TURN OF THE
20TH CENTURY.
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 America had stayed off the world stage for its
early history.
 In the 1800’s this started to change in the age
of imperialism.
 Imperialism is where strong nations extend
their political, military, and economic might
over weaker nations.
 This period lasted from mid-1800’s to 1900-s
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 The main reason for the rush to grab colonies
was a need for raw materials.
 This was important for Europe and Japan, the
search for natural resources.
 These economies of colonies were called
extractive colonies. The imperial country
extracted the raw material and sent it home
to the mother country.
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 For the U.S. economy the problem was a
surplus of goods, not a shortage of raw
materials.
 Alfred T. Mahan a military historian and
officer in the navy wrote The influence of Sea
power upon history.
 He asserted that the United States needed to
become a naval power, establish bases on
other nations to re-fuel ships, and have a
modern navy.
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 The United States started to modernize its
navy, it built modern steel plated battleships
powered by steam like the U.S.S. Maine.
 By 1900 the United States had the third
largest navy in the world.
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 Imperialists around the world used ideas of
racial, national, and cultural superiority to justify
Imperialism.
 One of the ideas was Social Darwinism, this was
the belief that life consists of competitive
struggles in which only the fittest survive.
 Many people in the United States embraced this
because they believed that God had made it their
manifest destiny to expand to the Pacific ocean,
and if the United States remained isolated that
Europe would gobble up lands and America
would not survive.
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 In the mid-1800’s America stepped onto the
Imperialism stage with little fanfare.
 In 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry sailed a fleet
of American war ships into Tokyo Bay in Japan.
 Japan had always denied entry into their country
before. Most Japanese people had never seen
steam ships so they thought he had a fleet of
dragons on the water. This showed the Japanese
how far behind they were in technology.
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 Perry won the Emperor’s favor by showering
him with gifts, and within a year Perry had
signed a trade treaty with Japan.
 In 1867 the U.S. took possession of the
Midway Islands, Treaties in 1875 and 1887
increased trade with the Hawaiian Islands and
gave the United States the right to build the
naval base at Pearl Harbor.
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 In 1867 William Seward Secretary of State
bought Alaska $7.2 million from Russia. The
general public made fun of him and dubbed it
Seward’s Folly or icebox. It proved to be a
good investment because of the timber, oil,
and other natural resources.
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 Since the 1790’s Hawaii had been linked
economically to the United States.
 Americans had established plantations there and
in 1887 convinced the Hawaiian King Kalakaua to
amend the constitution where only wealthy land
owners could vote. These were all the white
plantation owners.
 Queen Liliuokalani was the next ruler of the
Hawaiian Islands, she was a nationalist. She
abolished the constitution and took rights away
from the wealthy land owning class.
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 In 1893 the planters overthrew the queen U.S.
minister John Stevens ordered the Marines to
help.
 The new government was led by wealthy planter
Sanford B. Dole. He asked President Benjamin
Harrison to annex Hawaii, He signed it but
couldn’t get Senate approval before Cleveland
became president.
 Cleveland refused to sign the agreement, In 1897
McKinley became president and in 1898 Hawaii
was a territory of the United States.
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 Many people referred to Hawaii and the
Philippines as the “White Mans Burden”
because they saw it as their Christian duty to
Americanize every culture they came across.
 Developing nations where natural resources
were extracted were often referred to as
Banana Republic because they were islands.
 The most important event that helped
America become a world power was the
Spanish-American War.
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 At the end of the 19th century the once
mighty Spanish Empire had dwindle to a few
possessions and Cuba, America held $50
million in interests there.
 The Cubans would constantly rebel against
Spanish rule. Rival newspaper publishers
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
helped heighten the publics dislike of the
Spanish.
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 There was a saying that imperialists used to
describe their over seas possessions, often
they would call them banana republics
because they were islands. Also they saw it as
their duty to enforce the culture of the
mother country on these people, “White
Mans Burden.
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 The publications of Joseph Pulitzer and William
Randolph Hearst heightened the dislike for the
Spanish as stated earlier, they were also known
as the Yellow Press.
 They were known as this because of a popular
comic strip character called the yellow kid.
 They would also paste sensational headlines and
pictures on the front pages that exaggerated
Spanish atrocities and compared the Cuban
rebels to the American revolutionaries.
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 President McKinley warned the Spanish to
quickly establish peace or the United States
would take what action necessary to procure this
result.
 McKinley finally ordered the battleship Maine to
Havana Harbor to protect American citizens in
Cuba.
 In 1898 the Maine exploded in Havana Harbor,
350 officers on board and crew were on board
266 died. McKinley ordered an investigation and
it was concluded a mine had blown up the Maine,
but most people blamed Spain.
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 The phrase “Remember the Maine!!!” echoed
through all the newspapers and calls to go to
war.
 On April 11, 1898 McKinley asked Congress
for authority to use force against Spain to end
the fighting.
 Eight days later Congress enacted four
resolutions that amounted to a declaration of
war on Spain.
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 The fourth resolution the (Teller Amendment)
stipulated that the United States had no
intention of annexing Cuba.
 The Navy blockaded Cuban ports, and
McKinley called for more than 100,000
volunteers to join the army. Spain declared
war on the United States.
 On May 1, 1898 Commodore George Dewey
steamed his squadron of vessels into manila
Bay in the Spanish Philipines.
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 Dewey gave the order to fire and the
American ships destroyed the Spanish fleet.
 No Americans died but 400 Spanish sailors
died.
 On land the Filipino nationalist Emilo
Aguinaldo was defeating was defeating the
Spanish Army.
 In August that year 15,000 U.S. soldiers
landed on the islands Spanish troops
surrendered to the United States.
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 In June of 1898 U.S. Marines captured
Guantanamo Bay Cuba and another force of
17,000 went ashore U.S. Army General
William Shafter in command east of
Santiago.
 The troops suffered harsh conditions, they
were poorly trained, they had wool uniforms
left over from the plains wars, and obsolete
weapons.
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 The army mainly consisted of national guard
units and the African American 9th and 10th
cavalry that came in from the frontier.
 Future president Theodore Roosevelt organized
a volunteer cavalry unit called the “rough riders”
They were known for taking the Kettle and an
Juan Hills outside of Santiago. Two days after the
Battle of San Juan Hill the Spanish Navy was
destroyed and they surrendered. 3,000
Americans died but only 380 from combat, the
rest was disease.
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 Spain signed the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain
gave up control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Pacific
island of Guam, and sold the Philippines to the
U.S. for 20 million.
 The United States came up with the “open Door
Policy” when it was seeking trade in China. It
stated that America did not want colonies, just
trading rights. The U.S. reaffirmed this by
bringing Chinese students to America to study
during the Boxer Rebellion.
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 Roosevelt won approval of Congress to build
a new fleet of battle ships to protect
Americans Asian interests.
 In 1907 Roosevelt sent the armada of 16
battleships know as the Great White fleet on
a goodwill tour of the world.
 Really it was to show America was a growing
naval power.
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 In 1900 Congress passed the Foraker act
which established a civil government in
Puerto Rico.
 The U.S. did not withdraw military from Cuba
until 1902, they could not take control but
they would make sure they had influence on
the region so no superpower could establish a
base that close to the U.S.
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 The United States had the Cubans add the
Platt Amendment to their constitution. It
stated that Cuba could not sign a treaty
without American approval, required Cuba to
lease naval bases to the U.S., and it granted
the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba when
it wanted to avoid war.
 President McKinley was assassinated and
Theodore Roosevelt became President.
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 Roosevelt had a different philosophy of dealing
with foreign affairs. He promoted a new kind of
diplomacy that involved the United States
throwing its military might every time it had too.
This was based off the United States successes
in the war.
 History calls this “big stick diplomacy” after one
of his favorite sayings “ I speak softly and carry a
big stick”
 Roosevelt believed America had a duty to civilize
and uplift weaker nations.
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 In 1903 The United States bought a failed
French Canal route through Panama for 40
Million. The Columbian government owned
Panama back then.
 ^The United States offered money for it but
the Colombians wanted more. So President
Roosevelt sent U.S. warships to back a
Panamanian rebellion, Colombia backed
down when the Navy arrived.
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 The U.S. paid Panama $10 Million, and an
annual rent of $250,000. America was granted
control of the canal zone.
 35,000 workers helped dig the canal. 5,000
canal workers died from disease or accident.
 When the canal opened in 1914 it cut 8,000
nautical off the trip from ocean to ocean.
 This also helped with America’s growing
economic interests with the orient.
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 Starting in the earlier 1900’s the inability of Latin
American nations to pay debts to foreign
investment led for a greater chance of European
intervention.
 In 1903 Germany and Britain blockaded
Venezuelan ports to make sure European
Bankers were repaid.
 He proclaimed the Roosevelt Corollary, that
stated the United States would step in and be
the police power and restore peace.
 He stated it merely reasserted Americas policy of
no European intervention in South America.
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 William Howard Taft was hand picked by
Roosevelt to run for the Republican nomination
in 1908.
 Taft switched from “big stick diplomacy” to
“dollar diplomacy” he wanted to trade bullets for
dollars. The idea was to increase American
investments in bank and other goods overseas.
 Taft still used troops when necessary. The best
example is went he sent in troops to protect a
new government in Nicaragua that was nice to
U.S. interests.
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 Woodrow Wilson became President in 1912,
he criticized the foreign policy of his
Republican predecessors.
 He took a different direction he stated that
the U.S. would never seek one additional foot
of territory by conquest. He said that he
would work to promote human rights,
national integrity, and opportunity. He called
this moral diplomacy.
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 Wilson still practiced interventionism when
he sent Marines to Haiti in 1915 to protect
American interests against the French and
Germans.
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 Until 1914 there had not been a large scale
European conflict for over 100 years. Europe was
sitting on a powder keg of nationalism, regional
tensions, economic rivalries, imperial ambitions,
and militarism.
 Nationalism was a driving force in Europe, they
believed a nation should have a strong central
ethnic group.
 France wanted Alsace-Lorraine back a territory
that it had lost when Germany was not a unified
nation.
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 A spirit of militarism hit Europe. This is the
glorification of the military. Germany had the
largest standing army and its navy rivaled
Great Britain's.
 Also there were two alliances that helped
lead to war. The Triple Alliance had Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Italy(never fought on
their side).
 Triple Entente France, Russia, and Great
Britain.
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 As time passed European leaders thought
less about peace and thought war might be
better.
 On June 28, 1914Archduke Francis Ferdinand
that was the heir to the throne of the
Austrian-Hungarian empire was killed with
his wife Sophie In Sarajevo. They were killed
by Gavrilo Princip a Bosnian nationalist that
saw him as a tyrant.
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 Soon after the assassination Kaiser William II the
German emperor assured the king of Austria-
Hungary they would come to their aid. Austria
issued a Ultimatum to Serbia demanding that
the killer was tried in their country Serbia where
Bosnia was located denied. Austria declared war
on July 28,1914. Russia mobilized to help Bosnia
and Germany declared war on Russia. France
declared war to help Russia. Germany declared
war on neutral Belgium so they could pass
through there to France, this brought Great
Britain into the war.
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 As war spread in Europe President Wilson
called for Americans to be impartial in
thought as well as action. He didn’t want
American turning on each other because the
U.S. was a cultural melting pot.
 Many American’s viewed the war as a
European conflict and that it didn’t concern
them. Most however tended to favor Great
Britain and France because of historical ties
to them.
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 The main thing of the war that swayed American
opinion against the Central power was how
Germany committed war crimes against the
Belgians.
 Great Britain blockaded Germany with its navy.
They seized contraband (defined as material
used for war bombs etc.) it is against
international law to seize food however. Great
Britain contested what contraband and
eventually added everything including food.
 So they were trying to Starve the Central Power.
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 Germany’s response was to blockade Great
Britain with there U-Boats(submarines) They
sank all allied ships, On May 7, 1915 a German Uboat sank the passenger liner Lusitania. There
were 215 Americans on board. President Wilson
protested but wanted to stay neutral.
 To keep America out of the war, Germany
promised not to sink anymore passenger ships,
but violated that pledge when they sank the
Sussex a French ship.
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 In 1916 the National Defense Act was passed
expanding the army and building more
warships. Wilson still hoped for peace, he ran
for re-election on the slogan “he kept us out
of war”
 In 1917 German foreign minister Arthur
Zimmermann, minister to Mexico sent a
telegram (Zimmermann note) to the Mexican
government
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 It stated that if the United States declared
war on Germany, Mexico should declare war
on the United States and when the Germans
won Mexico would get back Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona which it had lost in the
Mexican-American War in 1848.
 Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of
war against Germany on April 2, 1917,
Congress did it on April 6, 1917.
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 The federal government played little role in the lives
of Americans before WWI, when the war started they
stepped in and regulated many aspects of the
economy.
 In May 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service
Act (draft) 24 million registered about 2.8 million
were actually drafted.
 The Committee on Public information was created
to help American’s rally to the war. This was done
through various forms of propaganda(sources that
are meant to sway the opinion of people in favor of
something). These can be pamphlets, posters, radio
etc.
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 Women went to work in the factories and
joined various organizations that supported
the war effort. Also women were well known
for helping the Red Cross.
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 In the end Germany lost, the Austria-
Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire,
collapsed, and the Russians overthrew the
king and the Communist state was founded in
Russia. The War ended on November 11, 1918
known as veterans day today.
 Wilson proposed the concept of “peace
without victory” and authored the Fourteen
Points. Which underlying principals were
noble, not greed and vengeance.
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 Germany had to sign the Treaty of Versailles,
which broke apart Germany and made them
assume full responsibility for the war in
reparations (money payments) to the allies.
 Wilson’s 14 points were rejected basically
when the Treaty of Versailles was passed and
Germany was dealt its hand.
 The League of Nations was created like
Wilson wanted but had no real authority to
help preserve peace,
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 The Treaty of Versailles was never ratified by
the Senate. Wilson failed to compromise on
certain things like article 10 for example that
said the member nations would preserve
each other territorial boundaries. After the
war several things happened like the flu
epidemic that killed thousands of people
worldwide.
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 The most important event was the First Red
Scare.
 Russia became communist in 1917 promoting
the workers revolution around the world. This
scarred many Americans.
 Many people were suspected of trying to
start revolutions through out the world.