Foreign Expansion
I. U.S. Looks Outward
Reasons For Expansion
 Late
1800s: Many Americans began to
support imperialism – looking beyond your
borders and acquiring territory
 European countries had been participating
in imperialism for years
-Much of Africa and Asia under European control
by the late 1800s
-”The sun never sets on the British Empire”
►
Imperialists believed the U.S. should
expand…Why???
1)
It would provide new markets to sell
goods
-Americans could not consume all the food and
goods that they produced
-Needed to look elsewhere to sell their goods
2)
It would increase national security
(because we would have to build naval
ships)
-Alfred T. Mahan…The Influence of Sea Power
Upon History – said the U.S. needed a powerful
navy to protect its new markets
3)
It would give the U.S. the ability to teach
“less-civilized” people
-Josiah Strong argued that Anglo-Saxon people
were superior to other people in the world
4)
It would allow the U.S. to spread
Christianity and democracy
-Social Darwinists used this reason to justify
imperialism
Isolationism
 Other
Americans supported isolationism –
separating from the rest of the world
 Isolationists believed the U.S. should not
expand…Why???
1)
2)
3)
It would pull the U.S. into foreign conflicts
It would take the focus off domestic (at
home) problems
It goes against the idea of “self-government”
and freedom we were founded upon
The Pacific
 Most
imperialists turned their attention
toward the Pacific…Pacific Expansion
 Businessmen wanted to trade with China
and other Asian countries
 Two examples of expansion in the Pacific…
1)
Alaska
-bought from Russia in 1867 by Sec. of State
William Seward
-most Americans ridiculed the purchase saying
we bought “walrus-covered icebergs” in a
“barren, worthless, God-forsaken region
-nicknamed “Seward’s Folly”
2)
Pacific Islands
-1853: An American fleet led by Matthew C.
Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and convinced Japan
to open trade relations with the U.S. (they were
impressed with American technology)
-1860s: U.S. and several European nations
signed treaties that allowed for expanded trade
with China
-Later, Sec. of State John Hay proposed that
all countries should have the right to trade with
China (Open Door Policy)
-Now the U.S. needed refueling stations in the
Pacific for their ships
-1867: Seward annexed the uninhabited Midway
Islands
-1875: U.S. signed a treaty with Hawaii to allow
Hawaiians to sell sugar in the U.S. tax free…the
U.S. got the right to build a naval base in Pearl
Harbor
-1893: A group of planters, led by Sanford Dole,
with the help of the U.S. Marines, removed Queen
Liliuokalani from power (she had tried to rid
Hawaii of all foreign influence)
The Spanish-American War (1898)
 Late
1800s: Cuba still under Spanish control
 1895: Cuba rebelled and Spain sent 1000s of
troops to restore order
 Spanish sent 1000s of Cubans to concentration
camps (many died)
► Competing
newspapers in the U.S. printed
stories about Spanish abuses of Cubans
► Often exaggerated and untrue, these stories
were meant to sell papers rather than to
accurately report the facts…this is called
“yellow journalism”
► Yellow
journalists like Joseph Pulitzer and
William Randolph Hearst ignited the
emotions of the American public and
contributed to calls for war against Spain
► Asst. Sec. of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt
was one of the many voices calling for war
► When the war began, Roosevelt resigned
his position and led a group of volunteers
known as the “Rough Riders”
“A Splendid Little War”
 Feb. 1898: U.S.S. Maine exploded in a
Cuban harbor
 Newspapers immediately blamed the
Spanish and U.S. citizens demanded war
 April 1898: U.S. declared war on Spain
► U.S.
Commodore George Dewey set sail for
the Philippines in the Pacific – another
Spanish colony
► Dewey quickly destroyed the Spanish fleet
and took control of the Philippines
► In Cuba, the Rough Riders made bold
charges up Kettle and San Juan hills (most
famous incident of the war) and helped the
U.S. defeat Spain in Cuba
► In
less than 3 months, the U.S. had
defeated Spain in Cuba and in the
Philippines
► John Hay, future Sec. of State, captured
what most Americans felt about the war
when he referred to the taking of the
Philippines as a “splendid little war”
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam
 Treaty
of Paris (1898) officially ended the
Spanish-American War
 But the Teller Amendment, passed when the
war began, had promised Cuba their
independence following the war
► However,
to protect American businesses in
Cuba, President McKinley installed a U.S.
military government for 3 years to restore
stability
► 1900: Cuba began to draft their own
constitution
-Forced to include the Platt Amendment which
gave the U.S. two naval bases in Cuba and
allowed the U.S. to intervene if we believed it was
necessary
► Meanwhile,
former Spanish colonies Puerto
Rico and Guam both became U.S. territories
The Philippines
 Some
supported annexing the Philippines
following the war…new markets for goods
and refueling stations
 Many opposed…may increase the chances
of future wars in the Pacific
► Many
joined the Anti-Imperialist League
-led by Andrew Carnegie
-an organization that strongly opposed U.S.
expansion
 Emilio
Aguinaldo led a revolt by the Filipinos
against U.S. occupation
-used guerilla warfare tactics – attack and retreat
-the revolt lasted more than two years until
Aguinaldo was captured in 1901
► 1902:
the Philippines became an
“unorganized territory” of the U.S. with the
promise of eventual independence
► 1946: the Philippines became an
independent nation
II. U.S. Involvement in Latin America
The Panama Canal
 1901:
President McKinley was assassinated
– replaced by VP Theodore Roosevelt
 Roosevelt wanted to build a canal across
Latin America to enable ships to move more
quickly between the Atlantic and the Pacific
oceans
► This
canal would be useful for both the U.S.
military and for trade ships
► Problem: Colombia controlled much of the
region and refused to sell or lease land to
the U.S. necessary for the project
► 1903: Panama revolted against Colombia
and won their independence with U.S. naval
support
► In
return, Panama allowed the U.S. to lease
the land needed for the canal
► Construction on the Panama Canal began in
1905 and was completed in 1914
► Thousands died from accidents and disease
(more Americans actually died working on
the canal than died during the SpanishAmerican War)
► 1977:
President Jimmy Carter agreed to
give control of the canal to Panama
► 1999: Panama finally took control of the
Panama Canal
Roosevelt Corollary (“Big Stick Diplomacy”)
 1904:
Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt
Corollary which expanded on the Monroe
Doctrine (had forbidden European countries
from further colonization in Latin America)
-The Roosevelt Corollary said the U.S. had the
right to intervene in the region if a nation had
trouble paying its debt
► Roosevelt
wanted to be sure that imperialist
nations did not use debt collection as an
excuse to occupy territories in the
Caribbean or Latin America
► This doctrine became known as Roosevelt’s
“big stick diplomacy”
-the name came from an African proverb which
said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”
-It meant two things…
1) the U.S. did not intend to be a threatening
presence in the Western Hemisphere
2) neither would the U.S. hesitate to forcefully
protect its own interest
William Taft and “Dollar Diplomacy”
 Following
Roosevelt, new President William
Taft sought to “substitute money for bullets”
by promoting his foreign policy known as
“dollar diplomacy”
-encouraged bankers to invest into Latin America
and the Caribbean
-the U.S. government helped build railroads in
China
► Problem:
created enemies in some Latin
American countries who opposed U.S.
involvement and resented U.S. efforts to
“buy influence” in the region
Woodrow Wilson’s “Moral / Missionary
Diplomacy”
 1913:
Woodrow Wilson becomes President
and renounced “dollar diplomacy”
 He supported “moral diplomacy” instead
-this was the idea that the U.S. should promote
democracy and moral progress in the world
► Wilson
actually opposed imperialism and
said the U.S. would not “…seek one
additional foot of territory or conquest”
► Unfortunately events abroad soon tested his
convictions
► Sent the U.S. Marines to Haiti to protect
American businesses when a revolution
began there
-Many Haitians revolted against the U.S. and a
series of bloody battles occurred
► Haiti
eventually signed a treaty that made
them a protectorate…but not a territory…of
the U.S.