-stay out of foreign affairs
-Washington’s advice
-had been policy of government (since
Monroe Doctrine)
•Do not get involved in the affairs of other nations
“We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the
United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
- The Monroe Doctrine -

“Fate has written our policy for us; the trade of the world must and shall be ours…We will establish trading posts throughout the world as distributing points for American products…Great colonies governing themselves, flying our flag and trading with us, will grow about our posts of trade.”
- Senator Albert Beveridge -
• Build an empire beyond U.S.
• Strong dominates weak
-Policy of taking colonies for economic interests
• Raw goods, new markets
-other world powers were building empires
- jingoism
• Extreme nationalism marked by aggressive foreign policy
• Europe in Africa and Asia
• Japan in China
-U.S. also needed new markets for our products (overproduction)
- spheres of influence
Areas of economic or political control

Building an Empire
-Alaska, 1867
Seward’s Folly
Purchased from Russia
•Congress believed there was nothing in Alaska
-Hawaii, 1898 overthrew the Queen of
Hawaii
•Led by American sugar planters in Hawaii
“I, Liliuokalani,…do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional government of the
Hawaiian Kingdom…Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do under this protest…yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall…undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian islands.”

Building an Empire
-Alfred Mahan
“Influence of Sea Power upon History” discussed need for strong
Navy
•Built 9 new battleships
•Transformed the country into the world’s 3 rd largest naval power
Alfred Mahan believed the US needed a large gravy to protect its merchant ships and to defend its right to trade with other nations. Building a modern Navy would also mean that the US would have to acquire land overseas for naval bases. With the assistance of senator Henry Cabot Lodge and assistant secretary of the navy
Theodore Roosevelt, Congress authorized the construction of a modern navy.

-Spanish rule of Africa
•90 miles south of Florida
-Spanish ruled harshly
•Cubans rebel and ask for US help; want independence
The rebellious Cubans appealed to America for help against Spain. Many Americans agreed with their need, yet many still did not want to fight. The yellow journalists, led by Hearst and Pulitzer, spurred war fever by printing sensationalized war stories to spark American sympathy.
-yellow journalism
•Hearst and Pulitzer
•Exaggerated news for public sympathy and increased circulation

This drawing of male Spanish officials strip search an American woman tourist in Cuba looking for messages from rebels appeared on the front page of Hearst’s paper.
The press played a tremendous part in leading the charge toward America's involvement in
Cuba. Two publishers, William Randolph
Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, stood out among these opportunists. They perceived the conflict with Spain as their chance to increase circulation of their newspapers. Seizing upon the opportunity to capitalize on the growing spirit of American patriotism, Hearst and
Pulitzer printed sensational anti-Spanish stories. Graphic illustrations commissioned from some of the country's most-talented artists and stories written by premiere authors and journalists of the day were fodder for fueling the flames of war. Together, Hearst and Pulitzer created a frenzy among the American people by reporting the alleged brutality of the Spanish toward the Cuban rebels. (However, acts of outrage committed by the Cubans were seldom mentioned.) By the time the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, the pro-war press had roused national sentiment to the point that
President McKinley feared his political party would suffer if he did not engage in war with
Spain.

“No man’s life, no man’s property is safe in Cuba. American citizens are imprisoned or slain without cause. American property is destroyed on all sides… Wounded soldiers can be found begging in the streets of Havana…The horrors of a barbarous struggle for the extermination of the native population are witnessed in all parts of the country.
Blood on the roadsides, blood in the fields, blood on the doorsteps, blood, blood, blood!...Is there no nation wise enough, brave enough to aid this bloodsmitten land?”
Pulitzer’s New York World, 1896-

“You furnish the sprinkles, I’ll furnish the war.”
~William Randolph Hearst, yellow journalist newspaper producer
Spanish-American
-De Lome Letter
•Spanish ambassador insulting
American President
•Printed in newspapers
-U.S. sends ship to observe
-USS Maine explodes in
Havana
•260 dead
•Newspapers all blame Spain
•Probably a fire that started inside ship
-”Remember the Maine”
•Battle cry for war against
Spain
•U.S. declares war in April
1898

“The deafening roar was such a burst of thunder as perhaps one never heard before.
And off to the right, out over the bay, the air filled with a blaze of light, and this in turn filled with black specks flying in all directions.”
“The sailors’ wounds were all over them – heads and faces terribly cut, internal wounds, arms, legs, feet, and hands burned to the live flesh.”
- Clara Barton from Havana Harbor -

Philippines
-U.S. attacks Spanish colony when war starts
-George Dewey captures the islands
•Destroys all Spanish ships
•Helps Filipino rebels
-Why did we capture the
Philippines???
•Raw goods, markets
•Close to Asia
In the Battle of Manila Bay, Spain lost over 381 men, while American lost only one sailor.

Philippines
-Imperialistic Foreign Policy
•Jingoism
•Josiah Strong (preacher)
•Educate, Civilize, and
Christianize foreign nations
•Build democracies
-Anti-Imperialistic Feelings
-Anti-Imperialist League
-Andrew Carnegie
•Believed Imperialism went against American ideals of democracy and freedom
“It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxons for an hour sure to come in the world's future... the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled... .Whether the extinction of inferior races... seems to the reader sad or otherwise, it certainly appears probable.”
- Josiah Strong, Imperialist
“The exports of the United States this year are greater than those of any other nation in the world. Even
Britain’s exports are less, yet Britain ‘possesses’ a hundred ‘colonies’ scattered all over the world. The fact that the U.S. has none does not prevent her products and manufactures from invading…all parts of the world in competition with those of Britain.”
~Andrew Careygie, Anti-Imperialist

Fighting in Cuba
-Cuba will be independent
•U.S. army goes to Cuba to put down Spanish
-Rough Riders (rag-tag group of volunteers)
Theodore Roosevelt
(Leader)
San Juan Hill
•U.S. cavalry defeats Spanish,
Spanish lose
-”Splendid Little War”
•Fighting is short lived (15 wks)
•More died of disease than battle
•Cuba is free

"The war of the United States with Spain was very brief.
Its results were many, startling, and of world-wide meaning."
--Henry Cabot Lodge
Fighting in Cuba
-Treaty of Paris, 1898
Puerto Rico is part of U.S.
U.S. buys Philippines ($20 million)
•Spain gives up Guam to the U.S.
•U.S. now has an empire