America’s New Empire, 1890-1900
Modern Imperialism – Characteristics
– Global scale
– Industrial technology and economy
– Extensive economic exchange
– Not primarily settlement-driven
– Colonial rule by foreign minority
– Some collaboration with indigenous majority
– Informal and formal empire
– Highly interdependent colonies
Modern Imperialism – U.S. Variants
Formal or direct empire:
– Annexation – Hawai’i, 1898-present
– Semi-annexation – Puerto Rico, 1898-present
– “Protectorate” – Philippines, 1899-46
Informal or indirect empire:
– Client state – Cuba, 1901-34 (or -59)
– Colonial economic relationship –
• Caribbean nations, 1898-?
– Regular military intervention –
• Central America, Caribbean, 1904-?
America’s “New Empire”
• U.S. a latecomer to overseas expansion
• Even later than newly-industrialized Japan
• Expansion as economic opportunity
– 1893: “The Great Depression”
• One factor: saturated national markets
– Expansion to solve overproduction problem?
– Overseas trade  national security
“New Empire”
• “End of frontier” anxiety
– Rest of world as the frontier?
– Manifest Destiny redefined to include overseas
– Teddy Roosevelt and cultural/gender anxiety:
War, empire (and the outdoors) to restore “manly vigor”
• Humanitarian impulse
– Colonies = missionaries = progress = civilization
– Sincere, not just a smoke screen
• Nationalism/national unity
“Politics end at the water’s edge.”
America’s “New Empire”
“Great Power” idea
• U.S. to join an exclusive club
• Maturity, “manly” responsibility from empire
–Kipling, “White Man’s Burden,” 1899
• National pride  overseas empire
• International status for U.S. foreign policy
–First “Ambassador” rank: 1893
–Previously: “Minister”
–First professional American diplomats
America’s “New Empire”
Overseas expansion NOT by accident
Ex.: U.S. Navy wish list starting in 1840’s:
good natural harbors in weak hands:
Puget Sound
San Francisco
San Diego
Pearl Harbor (Hawai’i)
Pago Pago (Samoa)
Manila Bay (Philippines)
Caribbean island port, e.g., Guantánamo Bay
[By 1900: all under U.S. control]
America’s “New Empire”
New strategic viewpoints – U.S. Navy
• Alfred Thayer Mahan,
The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1890
• Professionalization within military
–Naval War College, est. 1882
Contingency plans, war games, class projects
Annual question:
“Who is the most likely enemy in next 10 years?”
Annual answer, 1890-97: Spain
Response: plan for war with Spain
“Liberty Calls Cuba,” 1897
Spanish-American War, 1898
• Overwhelming U.S. victory over Spain
– “Splendid little war” – 6 months
– Battle of Manila Bay
• Sunk entire Spanish Pacific fleet
• U.S. Navy w/ one fatality
–From heat stroke
– Battles in Cuba
• High casualties, lack of preparedness
• Spanish w/ better ammunition
• Teddy Roosevelt’s fame machine – Rough Riders
• 9th and 10th Cavalry (“Buffalo Soldiers”)
Spanish American War
Result: Spain lost all major colonies
• U.S. occupies Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam
• Cuba  client state
–Congress decided during war NOT to annex Cuba
–Cuba’s Constitutional convention supervised by U.S.
Army general
–Platt Amendment to Cuban Constitution
• U.S. w/ the right to intervene in Cuba
–U.S. acquires Guantánamo Bay (by exclusive lease)
Allegorical
photograph
“Cuba Reconciling
North and South”
1898