Week 8 Seminar Presentation
Ollie Steeple
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Definitions
Extension of the continental frontier, 17831890
The American Empire, 1890-1914
Historiography: reasons and theories
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From Here to Eternity
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Conclusion
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William Appleman Williams
Empire, two separate relationships:
◦ ‘union of initially separate … units of population
under one central authority’
◦ ‘forcible subjugation of formerly independent
peoples by a wholly external power’
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Colonialism: more formal, ‘administrative
colonialism’ and settlement
Imperialism: ‘the loss of sovereignty – control
– over essential decisions’
Way of Life idea
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1783: Treaty of Paris
1803: Louisiana Purchase
1810: West Florida
1818: Red River
1819: East Florida, Adams-Onis Treaty
1842: Canadian border finalised, WebsterAshurton Treaty
1845: Annexation of Texas
1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1853: Gadsen Purchase (NM, AZ)
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Interest in Cuba
since 1850s.
Ostend Manifesto.
1842 Chinese ports
open after First
Opium War.
1853, Commodore
Matthew Perry’s
mission to Japan.
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1867: Alaska Purchase from the Russian Empire
(Territory, 1912; State, 1959)
1893: Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdon
1898: Congressional resolution allowed Hawaii to
join the US (Territory, 1900; State, 1959)
1898: Treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Puerto Rico,
Guam, and the Philippines. USA a protectorate of
Cuba, though keeps Guantanamo Bay.
This was foreign policy as distinct from Westward
expansion – redefinition of national identity.
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Bayonet
Constitution, 1887
McKinley Tariff,
1890
Overthrow, January
1893
Annexation, 1898
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Cuban War of
Independence,
1895-1898
USS Maine,
February 1898
Philippines
Guam
Cuba
Puerto Rico
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Frederick Jackson
Turner
Theodore Roosevelt
Alfred Thayer Mahan
John Hay – the ‘Open
Door’ of China
Continuity: Monroe
Doctrine and Manifest
Destiny
Contemporary Ideas
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High Imperialism
McKinley’s
administration
Navy
Economic
Panic of 1893
Context 1890-1914
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Key debate: Did Americans consciously intend to follow
the expansionist policies after 1896?
Albert K. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny: A Study of
Nationalist Expansionism in American History (Chicago,
1963)
Ernest R. May, Imperial Democracy: The Emergence of
America as a Great Power (London, 1983)
Walter LaFeber, The New Empire: An Interpretation of
American Expansion, 1860-1898 (London, 1963)
William Appleman Williams, Empire as a Way of Life (New
York, 1980)
Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues (New York,
2000)
John Kennedy, Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (London,
1988)
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Born and raised in
Robinson, IL and enlisted
in the US Army in 1939.
Served in the 25th
Infantry Division, 27th
Infantry Regiment before
and during WW2.
Moved from Hickam Field
to Schofield Barracks on
Oahu and then in combat
on Guadalcanal
He witnessed the Pearl
Harbour attack and was
wounded.
Vietnam as a journalist
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Inspired by his military
experience to write a
trilogy.
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From Here to Eternity
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The Thin Red Line
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Whistle (posthumous,
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(1951).
(1962).
1978).
Set up the Handy
Writers’ Colony.
Lived as an expatriate
artist in Paris.
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Set in 1941 at the Schofield Barracks which is
garrisoned by G Company of the 27th Infantry
Regiment – the ‘Pineapple Army’.
Narrative follows Robert E. Lee Prewitt in his
struggle against his superiors.
His life as a “thirty-year-man” and the irony
of the perfect soldier fighting the army.
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Key conflict and theme: individual
(represented by Prewitt) fighting the system
created by the conditions of Empire
(represented by Army institutions, notably
Holmes and boxing faction)
The Army: continuities and changes
Believers
Sex and sexuality
http://youtu.be/cOeeIgqfo5g?t=7m33s
http://youtu.be/XHo6dSZQQCg?t=4m23s
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Robert E. Lee
Prewitt – civil war
reference
Chapter 19 focus;
Kolekole Pass
march – height of
The Treatment
Fight with Bloom
and aftermath
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Holmes and
Punchies
Chapter 5: Holmes
and the Army
Chapter 23 focus:
party with the
officers – Sam
Slater’s world view
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Pfc Bloom: exploited and destroyed by the
system
Alma / Lorene: the dream, small town
America
Karen Holmes and Milt Warden: forced into
secrecy by the system - officer
The Stockade: the biggest dreamer is the
biggest destroyer of the individuals, The
Malloy.
Continuities in the Army: institutional racism,
Culpepper
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Was the American empire an extension of the
frontier or something new? Continuity or
change?
What was the impact of the American empire
on the American people and nation and how
significant was it?
How accurate is Jones’s critique?
Are historians’ ideas and reasons around the
American empire feasible?