Imperialism
• The extension of a nation’s control and
influence over political or economic life of
other nations.
1. Military/Strategic Interests
Wanted to compete with other Nations
Alfred T. Mahan  Urged government officials
to build up American naval power
2. Economic Reasons
Commercial/Business Interests
U. S. Foreign Investments: 1869-1908
American Foreign Trade:
1870-1914
Technology enable farms
and factories to produce
more than they needed
Needed raw materials for
factories, & new markets
for goods
Foreign trade solution to
overproduction
3. Ideology: Belief in cultural
superiority –Social Darwinism
The Hierarchy
of Race
The White Man’s
Burden
Religious/Missionary Interests
American
Missionaries
in China, 1905
Closing the American Frontier
United State’s Purchase
Alaska
In 1867 US Secretary of State William
Seward made an arrangment with
Russia to buy Alaska for $7.2 million
“Seward’s Icebox”: 1867
“Seward’s Folly” (mistake)
• Alaska is rich in natural resources:
Timber, minerals, OIL
• 1959 Alaska becomes a state
Significance of Hawaii
• Merchants need to stop there on the way
to China & East India
• So the United States send missionaries
there and set up Christian schools
• The missionaries started sugar plantations
• By the 1850’s American businessmen
control ¾ of the wealth of Hawaii
U. S. View of Hawaiians
The United States thought it was culturally superior to
the Hawaiins
U. S. Business Interests In Hawaii
1875 – Reciprocity
Treaty – No tariffs on
imports/exports from
Hawaii to US
1890 – McKinley Tariff –
Hawaii has to pay tariffs
like everyone else; Planters
face competition
American businessmen want
US to annex Hawaii
Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani
Hawaii for the
Hawaiians!
U. S. Business Interests In Hawaii
1893 – American
businessmen backed an
uprising against Queen
Liliuokalani.
Sanford Ballard Dole
proclaims the Republic
of Hawaii in 1894.
President Grover Cleveland opposes
new government, unless Hawaiians
have the right to vote to become part
of US
However, when President McKinley
takes over the US makes Hawaii a
territory without allowing the
Hawaiians to vote.
Hawaiian
Annexation
Ceremony, 1898