Opening Discussion
• http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nightlynews-netcast/nightly-news-with-brianwilliams-full-broadcast-december-3366971971939
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_98ojjIZ
DI
The United States
The Colonized Become Colonizers
John Green: Crash Course in Imperialism
Opening Questions
• Define imperialism:
– The economic and political domination of a strong nation
over weaker nations.
• Why do countries try to take over other countries or
influence their policies?
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Obtain overseas markets
Naval Bases
Power/Prestige
Resources
• Should a country that fought for its independence
from a foreign ruler embark on colonizing
themselves?
Westward Expansion
Completing Manifest Destiny
• U.S. purchases Alaska in 1867
What is the message of this painting?
Government Encourages Western
Settlement
• Homestead Act
– For a $10 filing fee, one could get a free
“homestead”
– Family could get up to 160 acres of land; receive
deed to the land after 5 years
– 10% of U.S. land settled under Homestead Act
• Mining Industry
• Wheat in the Great Plains
• Ranching
Government Encourages Western
Settlement
• Transcontinental Railroad
– Closed the frontier
• 40,000 arrive in NB alone w/in year
– Improved quality of life in the Plains
• Lumber, brick, coal, clothing
– No longer had to go around S. America to
ship goods
– Economic Boom: Rapid exchange of
goods between coasts
• Opened up new settlements & markets
• Revolutionized Communication: Unified the
Nation
• Spurred Industries needed to build Railroads
– Iron, Timber, Coals
What was the Cost of Westward
Expansion?
PLAINS INDIANS
• Plains Indians: Dependent
on the Buffalo
Gen. Phillip Sheridan. “Let them
skin, kill, and sell until the Buffalo
are exterminated, as it is the only
way to bring lasting peace.”
• Make a list of anything a
buffalo can be used for?
• Systematic, Intentional
Decimation
– 1800: 65 million buffalo v.
5 million humans
– 1890: fewer than 1,000
http://www.bluecloud.org/11.html
Destruction of the Buffalo
• Killed for the fur…not the food
• So many buffalo killed, an entire pelt would only get 50 cents
A World Closing In…
• “More and more white eyes will come into
Crow country. Where they come from there
will be many more of them across a big body
of water and they’re coming. They’re just like
ants, you go and stomp on them on the
ground but more keep coming up.” Spotted Horse,
Crow Chief’s Spiritual Vision (1865)
Sioux Response to White Settlement
• “What has been done to my country, I do not
want. The whites have surrounded me and left
me nothing but an island. When we first had
this country we were strong. Now we are
melting like snow in the sunlight, while they
are growing like spring grass.” Red Cloud, Lakota
War Leader
PLIGHT OF THE NATIVES
• Repeated betrayals and
broken treaties
• Poverty, despair,
compensatory payments never
received
• Buffalo annihilated
Chief Joseph, Nez Perce:
“Our chiefs are killed…The little
children are freezing to death. My
people…have no blankets… no food…
Hear me my chiefs; I am tired; my
heart is sick and sad. From where the
sun now stands I will fight no more.”
DAWES ACT (1887)
• Dawes Act: U.S. Govt.
Changes Policy from
Reservation System
– Assimilation of Natives to
white culture
– Divide reservations into
individual allotments (160
acres for a family/80
single)
– Remaining land sold to
settlers
Industrial Revolution in America
The Rise of Industry: Opener
• The Civil War spurred massive
numbers to go work in industry/
factories
• By 1914, GNP of US 8x higher
than in 1865
• The U.S. went from being a
“late arrival” to the Industrial
Revolution, in early 1800s, to
the leading industrial power by
WWI. How did America
accomplish this? Make a list of
factors that enabled the U.S. to
industrialize rapidly.
Factors of Industrialization
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Railroads
Abundant Natural Resources
Technological Advancements
Laissez-Faire Economics
Mass immigration
Mass Immigration
URBANIZATION
• Where do immigrants
settle?
• Ethnic enclaves
• What challenges do
they face?
Cities on the Rise
• In 60 yrs.—number
of cities increase by
12 times
– By 1920, more live in
urban areas than
rural
– Why?
• Rising Skyscrapers
• Mass Transit
Emerges
Big Business Takes Over
• Corporations
– A company owned by many people, but treated as
if they were a person
• Stockholders (owners)
• Allows for growth
– What are the benefits of issuing stocks?
• Allows for larger projects/investments
• Limited liability…spreads risk
– What are the disadvantages?
• High fixed costs
• Can hurt small business
Growth of Monopolies/Trusts
• Vertical Integration
– A company owning all of the different businesses
necessary to produce a specific product
• Andrew Carnegie: Carnegie Steel
• Ex. Oil Company: finds oil deposits, drills/extracts the oil, ships the
oil, refines it, and sells it to distributors and consumers
• Horizontal Integration
– Business merges/combines with another business in the
same industry and at the same stage of production
• John D. Rockefeller: Standard Oil
• Ex. Honda merges with Hyundai and Kia
• Monopoly:
– A situation where 1 company owns all or nearly all of a
given market for a product or service
Rise of Robber Barons
• Robber Barons
– A term used for businessman who used “questionable”
practices to amass their wealth
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Use ruthless business strategies to destroy competition
Bribing politicians
Manipulating workers…extremely low wages/poor cond.
Combines sense of criminal, “robber,” with illegitimate aristocracy,
“baron”
• Examples: Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan
• Social Darwinism
– A belief that the “strongest” and the “fittest” should survive;
while the “weak” and “unfit” should be allowed to die.
Rockefeller/Standard Oil:
Unscrupulous Business Practices
• (1) Temporarily undercutting the prices of competitors until they either
went out of business or sold out to Standard Oil.
• (2) Buying up the components needed to make oil barrels in order to
prevent competitors from getting their oil to customers.
• (3) Using its large and growing volume of oil shipments to negotiate an
alliance with the railroads that gave it secret rebates and thereby reduced
its effective shipping costs to a level far below the rates charged to its
competitors.
• (4) Secretly buying up competitors and then having officials from those
companies spy on and give advance warning of deals being planned by
other competitors.
• (5) Secretly buying up or creating new oil-related companies, such as
pipeline and engineering firms, that appeared be independent operators
but which gave Standard Oil hidden rebates.
• (6) Dispatching thugs who used threats and physical violence to break up
the operations of competitors who could not otherwise be persuaded.
Robber Barons
Robber Barons
Robber Barons
America Expands
The Rise of an Imperial Power
What Factors Contributed to the
Rise of Imperialistic Actions by
the United States? (What role do
industrialization play?)
John Green: Crash Course in Imperialism
Factors Contributing to US
Imperialism
• Industrialization
– Trade/Commerce
– Technological advances—spur western dominance
• Desire Overseas Markets
– Industry and Farmers look for new markets
– Open New Markets for goods; access to resources
• Desire Overseas Naval Base
– Naval Superiority
• Yellow Journalism
Factors Contributing to American
Imperialism
• Anglo-Saxonism/Manifest Destiny
– Whites: “superior” race; “White Man’s Burden”
– must Christianize the uncivilized world
• Social Darwinism
– Survival of the Fittest
• Jingoism/Aggressive Nationalism
– U.S. growing industry, wealth, population
– Jingoism: Extreme Patriotism → Aggressive Foreign Policy
– Breeds conflict with Germany, Chile, Canada, Britain
• Competition—prestige/power…who were we
competing with?
Alfred T. Mahan
Influences of Sea Power on History
• Why does Mahan
support a modern Navy?
– Control the oceans,
control the globe
– Bolsters American
strength
– To protect merchant
ships/trade/investments
– Establish military bases,
overseas, to operate from
The Great White Fleet
• What was it?
– New U.S. Steel Naval
Fleet
• What was the goal
of this expedition?
– Intimidate the rest
of the world
– Signal to Japan and
others—U.S. plans
to protect Asian
interests
• Why Hawaii?
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U.S. Seeks Hawaii
Need port to refuel and resupply in Pacific
Provide a Naval Base
American Sugar Interests
Rising Japanese Power
• Role of Sugar Planters
– McKinley Tariff: 1890
• Hurts Hawaiin sugar farmers… why?
– Hurt by subsidies given to American sugar
farmers
– American sugar interests, backed by
army…Overthrow Queen Liliuokalani
• Push for annexation, 1893, Why?
• Why was it rejected in 1893?
– Finally Annexed in 1898…Why in 1898?
Diplomacy in Latin America
• Goals:
– Rising Pan-Americanism:
• Belief that the U.S. and Latin America should “work
together”…why? What’s U.S. motivations?
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Get L.A. to buy American, not European goods
Access to raw materials
Shorter trade/naval route from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Keep Europeans out of the Western Hemisphere
» Control L.A. debt to European nations
• First Pan-American Conference (1889)
– Lower Tariffs between participating nations
– Open markets to American producers
Spanish-American War
• Causes:
– U.S. Desire to remove European influence…Spain
last European power in the W. Hemisphere
– Cuba: Strategic Location (route to Panama)
– Cuban Rebellion…
• What role did tariffs play?
• Destruction of U.S. Property by Cuban Rebels
• Desire to Protect Economic Interests in Cuba
– USS Maine explodes
– Yellow Journalism
• Joseph Pulitzer/William Randolph Hearst
• Journalism based on sensationalism, mass exaggerations, and
often falsehoods
• Sells more newspapers…but also good for propaganda
• Report on Spanish atrocities; SpanishGeneral Valeriano Weyler
– What was the goal?
Spanish-American War
"Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!"
“You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the
war.”—William Randolph Hearst to his
photographer in Cuba
• April 1898: Pres. William McKinley calls Congress to declare
war
Spanish American War-Impact
• Result: American Victory & an
Empire is Built
– Annex Puerto Rico (Foraker Act)
– Teller Amendment
• Promised Cuban Freedom once
Spain overthrown… How well did
U.S. live up to this?
– Platt Amendment (Cuba)
• US Naval Base in Cuba
(Guantanamo)
• U.S. has right to intervene to
protect and keep order
• Cuba must minimize its debt to
Europe
• U.S. can block treaties Cuba makes
w/ other states
Spanish American War:
Impact in the Pacific
• U.S. Already Acquired
Samoan Islands (1898)
– Sign Treaty of Berlin w/
Germany
• Spanish American War
Pacific Acquisitions
– Buy the Philippines
– Annex Guam
– Leads to formal annexation
of Hawaii… why?
• Annex Wake Islands
(1899)
An American Empire
Spanish American War:
Effects on the U.S.
• “A Splendid Little War”
– America emerges as a World Power
– Increased respect/prestige
– Imperial power
• Increased support at home for imperialism/
militarism
• Unified the nation (North & South)
• How did it effect America’s image in the
developing world?
Anti-Imperialist League
• Anti-Imperialist League
– Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie
– Arguments:
• Imperialism violation of America’s values/foundations
– Declaration of Independence
– Constitution
• Defies concept of popular sovereignty
– Government can only rule with people’s consent
– Actions in the Philippines and Cuba were in direct
conflict with ideals
School Begins: 1/25/1899
Trading One Oppressive Government
for Another? The Philippines
America’s Problem in the
Philippines
• America Viewed as the “New Spanish”
• Filipino demands for independence ignored
• Feb., 1899 Emilio Aguinaldo sparks Filipino
guerilla war for independence from America.
– Rebellion crushed in 1901
– 4,200 American deaths
– 525,000-600,000 Filipino casualties
• Filipinos continue push for independence
– Received following WWII (1946)
“Opening the Door” to Asia
• Philippines…Stepping Stone to Asia…
• Prize Possession of Asia…China
– Massive Markets
– Christian Missionary Zeal
• US Sec. of State, John Hay, gets U.S.
involved in China’s lucrative trade
• Open Door Policy (1899)
– U.S., France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia,
Japan agree to respect each others rights to
trade competitively with China; also
promised to respect “territorial/commercial
sovereignty” of China
– Guarantees place for China’s vast markets to
U.S. goods
Boxer Rebellion
• China weak and taken advantage of
by foreign powers…exploited for
economic interests
• Boxer Rebellion
– Chinese nationalists/anti-imperialists
attempt to throw off foreign influence
– Crushed by International Forces
– China remained open to western/
foreign manipulation
• Mao Zedong closes off China to the
West (1949)
Theodore Roosevelt
• Election of 1900
– Pres. McKinley Re-Elected
– VP: Theodore Roosevelt
• McKinley Assassinated: Enter
Roosevelt
– Imperialist; Loose Constructionist
– Endorses Broad Executive Power
• Flex U.S. Muscle; Civilize the
World
• Big Stick Diplomacy:
– “Speak softly and carry a big
stick”…what does this mean?
• Great White Fleet
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine
• Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine
– What was the Monroe Doctrine?
– Limit European Influence in the L. America
• Required L. Amer. Countries to minimize their
debt to Europe…why?
– US will intervene in L.A. affairs to maintain
econ./pol. Stability
• U.S. will intervene, take-over customs houses
in L.A. to pay off debts, if necessary
• I.e. Dominican Republic (1905)
– Roosevelt Corollary: Becomes justification for
numerous American interventions in L.
America
• What impact did the Roosevelt Corollary
have on U.S. relations w/ L. America?
An Outside Look at “Big Stick
Diplomacy”
Roosevelt Intervention in
Latin America: Panama
• US seeks land in modern-day Panama
(part of Colombia at time)
– Why?
– Why was this especially significant after
Spanish American War?
• Hay–Pauncefote Treaty (1901)
• Colombia refuses to sell Panama Canal
Zone to U.S….so what do we do?
• US sparks and aids Panamanian
rebellion v. Colombian govt.
– US acquires Panama Canal Zone and land
surrounding it
• Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty
Japan Rising
• Introduced to Western Military Technology—1853, Matthew Perry’s
expedition
• Meiji Restoration
– Japanese Industrial Revolution
– By 1890, Modern Military Powerhouse
• Create imperial empire
– Japan Embarrasses Russians (1905): Russo-Japanese War
• Peace Settlement negotiated by Roosevelt (alienates Russians and Japanese
• Japan a force to be reckoned with in Asia… lone wolf in world
dominated by western powers
– Japan competing w/ U.S. for influence in Pacific
– Annex Korea in 1910
• Tensions between U.S. and Japan Rising
– Japanese expansion; poor treatment of Japanese immig. In U.S.
– Leads to Gentleman’s Agreement
Next Semester
Woodrow Wilson in Mexico
• Belief in “moral diplomacy”
• Warns any group taking over in L.A. must set
up a legal government
– Refuses to recognize Victoriano Huerta in Mexico
– Gets approval to wage war
• American sailors attacked; block arm sales to MX
– Mediated settlement
• American supported ruler, Carranza placed in power
• Pancho Villa raids SW border
• Will intervene in Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Dominican Republic
•How “moral” was Wilson’s foreign policy in Latin America?
•What did the U.S. mean by “legal government?”
Additional U.S. Intervention
• Philippines (1899-1902)
– Philippines: McKinley’s “benevolent assimilation”
– Kills 25,000 Filipino soldiers; 500,000 civilians
• Dominican Republic (1905)
– Intervene in Dominican Republic (1905)
• Nicaragua (1912)
– Create Nicaraguan National Guard
– Install Dictator Anastasio Somoza
• Corruption, torture, and murder of dissidents for 45 years
Dominican Republic (1930)
• US installs anti-communist Rafael Leonidas
Trujillo
– 30 year dictatorship
– Torture, executions
– Owned 80% of sugar plantations
– Slave Labor
– Massacred 20,000 Haitian workers
El Salvador (1931)
• US supports Hernandez Martinez
– Anti-communist death squads;Wipes out Indian
culture
– Streets littered with bodies
– Peasants forced to dig massive graves, then kill
themselves
A further look into American
Intervention (early 20th Century)
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Panama (1946)
Korea (1950-1953)
Vietnam (1950-1973)
Iran (1953-1979)
Paraguay (1954)
Guatemala (1954)
And the list goes on…
Anti-Imperialist League
• Arguments against Imperialism
– Goes against America’s core values/founding
principles
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Declaration of Independence
Constitution
Washington’s Farewell Address
Gettysburg Address