An Emerging World Power
1890-1917
Chapter 11
The Roots of Imperialism
Chapter 11 section 1
Imperialism
• The policy by which strong nations extend
their political, military, and economic control
over weaker countries
– Extractive Economies:
• Imperial country extracted, or removed, raw materials
from weaker country
Imperialist Stirrings
• Americans started to think about
expanding overseas as a way to
expand US markets
• Other nations were expanding their
empires
– America felt they needed to keep up
• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan
– The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
1660-1783 was written in 1890
– Argued control of sea’s was essential to
world domination
– Also needed naval bases around the world
• USA began making a modern, steel/steam
powered Navy
National Superiority
• Social Darwinism helped justify imperialism
– Religion as well
• Manifest Destiny
• Frederick Jackson Turner
– The Significance of the Frontier in American
History
• Said frontier was closed
• America needed frontier as a “safety valve”
• Colonies would provide this new safety valve
Spreading Over the Pacific
• Japan had been closed off to the world for a
couple hundred years
• 1853 USA sent Matthew C. Perry to Japan
with a fleet of warships
– 1854 Perry got Japan to sign a treaty to open
commercial ties with USA
Alaska
• By 1867 Russia was looking to sell Alaska
• 1867 Secretary of State William Seward
bought Alaska for US for $7.2 million
• People thought he was crazy
– Called it “Seward’s Folly”
• Government hoped it would pay off in the
future
– It did!
– Rich in resources
– Oil, lumber…
Spurning the Hawaiian Pear
• Hawaii was used as a re-supply station in the
early 1800’s
• Most land owned by White sugar plantation
owners
• 1887 treaty signed allowing US naval base at
Pearl Harbor
• 1890 McKinley Tariff hurt the American sugar
planters
– Thought best way to avoid tariff was to have
Hawaii annexed
• Queen Liliuokalani didn’t want Hawaii
annexed
• 1893 whites in Hawaii revolted and
overthrew the Queen
• Treaty for annexation submitted to Senate
during Harrison’s presidency
• Cleveland removed treaty when he took back
over
– Investigated situation
– Found most Hawaiians didn’t want to be annexed
• Hawaii wouldn’t be annexed until 1898
The Spanish-American War
Chapter 11 section 2
Cubans Rise in Revolt
• 1895 Cubans began a
scorched-earth campaign to
try to get the Spanish to leave
• Spanish started putting
Cubans into concentration
camps
– Horrible conditions
• American public outraged
– On Cubans side
• President Cleveland refused
to help Cuba
The Maine
•
Joseph Pulitzer and William R. Hurst
– Yellow Journalism
• Reported atrocities and made them up if they didn't exist
• “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war”
•
•
•
1898 US sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbor
Feb 15, 1898 Maine blew up killing 260 men
Americans blamed a Spanish mine
– Most likely an accidental internal explosion
•
Yellow press went nuts
– Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!
•
Americans very upset
“Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of
War”
• Americans wanted war, President
McKinley didn’t
• McKinley came to realize war would
come sooner or later, so he might as
well give the people what they wanted
– Good for his party (Republicans)
• April 11, 1898 McKinley asked
Congress to declare war
– They do
• Begins the Spanish-American War
– They also passed the Teller Amendment
• Said after Spanish were defeated they
would give Cuba independence
Philippines and War in Cuba
• Americans excited to go off to war
– An adventure
• Europeans thought we were over
confident
– US Army ~30,000 men
• Spanish had 200,000 in Cuba
– US Navy appeared weaker than
Spain’s
• Actually Spain’s navy was in bad
condition
• Commodore George Dewey was
instructed to attack the Spanish
Philippines in the event of war
• May 1, 1898 Dewey steamed into
Manila harbor and destroyed the
entire Spanish fleet
– 400 Spanish casualties
– 0 US casualties
• Dewey became a war hero and
was promoted to Admiral
• Dewey had no troops to land in
Manila
– Was forced to wait for troops to
arrive from US
• August 13, 1898 US troops took
Manila, working with Filipino
insurgents led by Emilio
Aguinaldo
• July 7, 1898 Hawaii annexed by
US
Invasion of Cuba
•
America not prepared to fight a war in the tropics
– Soldiers provided thick woolen uniforms
– Rotten food
•
The Rough Riders
– A volunteer cavalry regiment
– One of its commanders was Theodore Roosevelt
• Resigned from Naval Department to get into action
•
•
17,000 men left Tampa, Florida in June of 1898
Battle of San Juan Hill
– Rough Riders and two Black regiments charged up the hill
– Took heavy casualties, but they took the hill
End of the War
•
July 3, 1898 Spanish fleet around Cuba destroyed
–
–
•
America quickly moved to invade Puerto Rico before the war ended
–
•
•
500 Spanish killed
1 US killed
Greeted as liberators
August 12, 1898 US and Spain signed an armistice
US Army devastated by disease
–
–
–
Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, yellow fever
400 US killed in combat
5,000 killed by disease
After the War
• Delegates met in Paris to
discuss the peace treaty
• Americans given Guam,
Puerto Rico, Cuba, and
Philippines (for $20 million)
• The real question was what
to do with the Philippines?
– McKinley decided to keep
them for the US
American Imperialism?
• Not everyone in America liked the idea of
imperialism
– 1899 the American Anti-Imperialist League formed
• Said imperialism was “open disloyalty to the distinctive
principles of our government”
The United States and East Asia
Chapter 11 section 3
War in the Philippines
• Filipinos were hoping for independence like the
Cubans
– They didn’t get it
• Feb 4, 1899 Emilio Aguinaldo started an
insurrection (rebellion) against the Americans
– Turned into guerrilla warfare
• Fighting was brutal
– Jungle warfare
– Torture used
– Concentration camps
• Aguinaldo captured in 1901
– Fighting slowed down after
1901, but didn’t stop
– US sent 100,000 men
• 5,000 Americans died
• 200,000 Filipinos died
• USA poured millions of dollars
into the Philippines
– Built roads, sanitation, hospitals
– American teachers set up
schools making English a
second language
• 1916 Jones Act passed
– Filipinos would get
independence eventually
• Filipinos wouldn’t get
independence until July 4,
1946
Open Door in China
• 1894-1895 Japan defeated China in the
First Sino-Japanese War
• European powers began to move into
China and set up economic spheres of
influence
• 1899 US Sec of State John Hay sent a
note around to all the major powers
– Open Door note
• Asked everyone to respect Chinese rights
and fair competition
– The major powers accepted and Open
Door was in effect
• Patriotic Chinese didn’t like this, felt it was too much
foreign influence
– 1900 Boxer Rebellion (Righteous and Harmonious Fists)
• 200 missionaries and other whites killed
• Foreign diplomats besieged in capital
– A multinational force of 18,000 arrived to put rebellion down
• 2,500 US soldiers
– The victorious invaders charged China $333 million in
reparations
• $24.5 million for USA
– We gave back $18 million (Scholarships)
• After rebellion John Hay sent around a new letter stating
that the Open Door would not just recognize the economic
integrity of China, but also the territorial integrity of China
– Kept China from being conquered and partitioned into colonies
American Relations Worsen
• 1904 Russo-Japanese War broke out
• Russia occupied parts of Manchuria,
China
• Close to Japan
– Japan was winning but running out of
money
– Secretly asked TR to arbitrate peace
• Delegates met in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire in 1905
– Peace agreed upon
• TR given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906
• Both Russia and Japan felt robbed by
peace treaty
– Hurt American relations with both
countries
American Relations Worsen Cont…
• 1884 Japanese immigrants started going to Hawaii and then Cali
• 1906 San Francisco school board segregated Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean students
– Japan outraged
• 1907-1908 US diplomats worked out a “Gentlemen’s Agreement”
with Japan
– Japan would stop the flow of laborers to US
– Cali would not segregate schools
• TR wanted to make sure Japan didn’t think the US was weak
• 1907 16 white battleships left Virginia and sailed
around the world
– Known as the “Great White Fleet”
• Japan was impressed with the US’ “big stick”
• Root-Takahira agreement signed in 1908
– US and Japan would respect each other’s territorial
possessions in the Pacific and uphold the Open Door
in China
The United States and Latin
America
Chapter 11 section 4
Cuba
• US withdrew from Cuba in 1902, honoring the
Teller Amendment
• Cuban’s had to write the Platt Amendment
into their constitution in 1901
– Could not go into debt beyond their resources
– US could use troops to keep order
– Cuban’s would sell or lease 2 (then 1) military
bases
• Guantanamo Bay
“Big Stick” Diplomacy
• Teddy Roosevelt
– “Big Stick” Diplomacy
• America’s foreign policy with regard to Latin America
• Had to have a strong military
• America had a special responsibility to “civilize” weaker
nations
Trying to Build a Canal
• TR wanted a canal built through the Central American Isthmus
– Would make US fleets more powerful
– Would increase trade
• Torn between a Nicaraguan route and a Panamanian route
• France had begun a canal in Panama and had given up
– Offered to sell the New Panama Canal Company to US for $40 million
• US agreed
• Panama was under the control of Colombia
• US and Colombians agent worked out a treaty
– US would lease a six mile wide zone for $10
million and $250,000 annually
• Colombian government said they wanted
more money
– TR outraged
How About a Revolution?
• Panamanians feared US would now go to
Nicaragua
• France feared losing their $40 million
• A small Panamanian army revolted on
November 3, 1903
• TR sent US Navy down to Panama
• Colombia raised their army to crush the
rebellion
– US Navy would not allow them to cross the
Isthmus into Panama
• 3 days after uprising TR recognized the new
Panamanian country
• 15 days later Panama signed a treaty for canal
– Same price, but a 10 mile wide canal zone
• US looked down upon by other countries for
this “Cowboy Diplomacy”
Completing the Canal
•
Canal hurt US Latin American relations
– Look what happens when you defy the US
•
Construction was very difficult
– Disease, landslides, labor problems
– Col George Washington Goethals put in charge
•
Construction completed in 1914 and cost $400 million
TR and the Monroe Doctrine
• Latin American countries were having problems paying their debts to
Europeans
• 1903 Germany bombarded a Venezuelan town for not paying
• TR feared Europeans trying to collect debt would bring them into Latin
America
• Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
– In the future, if a L.A. Country could not pay debt, US would take over that
countries customs houses and pay the debt
– No one could interfere in L.A. except the US
• L.A. didn’t like this “bad neighbor” policy
Dollar Diplomacy
• Taft tried a different tactic to deal
with Latin America after he became
President
• Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy”
– Bankers would invest their surplus
money in foreign areas of strategic
concern to the US
– US would try to prevent economic and
political instability by pumping dollars
into a troublesome country
• Especially used in China and Caribbean
New Directions in Foreign Policy
• Wilson hated the “big stick” and Dollar Diplomacy
– He ended Dollar Diplomacy during the first week of his administration
– Replaced it with “Moral Diplomacy”
– Would be friends to Latin America and help them, but never force them to do
what we wanted
• Wilson did not like imperialism
• Wilson was forced to enforce the Roosevelt Corollary
– Sent Marines to Haiti in 1916
– Sent Marines to Dominican-Republic in 1916
Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico
• Mexicans revolted in early
1900’s
– Killed their president and
installed General Victoriano
Huerta as President
• US had invested ~$1 billion in
Mexico
– Investors wanted Wilson to
send troops into Mexico
• Wilson refused to send troops
– Also refused to recognize Huerta’s government
– Started sending supplies to Huerta’s rivals; Carranza and Pancho
Villa
• 1914 Wilson sent US Navy to capture the port at Vera Cruz
to help bring down Huerta
– Mexicans did not like that
• Huerta lost power and Carranza became
President
– Pancho Villa then began fighting Carranza
• Villa wanted to start a war between US and
Carranza’s government
• 1916 Villa killed 16 US mining engineers in
Mexico
• 1916 Villa crossed the border into New Mexico
and killed 19 Americans
• Wilson sent General John J. Pershing into Mexico
to capture Villa
– Never did
• January 1917 Pershing withdrawn to prepare for
war in Europe
Thunder Across the Sea
• WWI begins…