Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Filipino Prisoners During Philippine-American War, 1899–1901
Philippine “Insurgents” Captured by U.S. IRC, 2005. Discovery Education. Web.
Investigation Question:
In this Document-Based Investigation, you will analyze source materials and investigate
this question:
Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign affairs outweigh the
benefits?
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Once you complete your investigation, you will select one of the following
products:
• You are in charge of a special exhibit room at the U.S. Capitol and have been
asked to create an exhibit on imperialism that will inform senators and members
of Congress about the costs and benefits of U.S. foreign policy at the beginning of
the 1900s. How will you present the material? What lessons should be learned
from the past?
• You are a historian who has been asked to write an introduction to a series of
essays titled “The Benefits and Costs of Imperialism.” Your introduction will
address the question: “Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in
foreign affairs in the early 1900s outweigh the benefits?”
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
1. Excerpt from “The March of the Flag,” a speech by Albert Beveridge,
September 16, 1898
Albert Beveridge, a U.S. senator from Illinois, gave this speech during an 1898 campaign. It is a noble land that God has given us; a land that can feed and clothe the world; a
land whose coastlines would inclose half the countries of Europe; a land set like a
sentinel between the two imperial oceans of the globe, a greater England with a
nobler destiny. . . .
Therefore, in this campaign, the question is larger than a party question. It is an
American question. It is a world question. Shall the American people continue their
march toward the commercial supremacy of the world? . . .
Have we no mission to perform no duty to discharge to our fellow man? Has God
endowed us with gifts beyond our deserts and marked us as the people of His peculiar
favor, merely to rot in our own selfishness, as men and nations must, who take
cowardice for their companion and self for their deity-as China has, as India has, as
Egypt has?
Shall we be as the man who had one talent and hid it, or as he who had ten talents
and used them until they grew to riches? And shall we reap the reward that waits on
our discharge of our high duty; shall we occupy new markets for what our farmers
raise, our factories make, our merchants sell-aye, and please God, new markets for
what our ships shall carry?
Hawaii is ours; Porto Rico is to be ours; at the prayer of her people Cuba finally will
be ours; in the islands of the East, even to the gates of Asia, coaling stations are to be
ours at the very least; the flag of a liberal government is to float over the Philippines,
and may it be the banner that Taylor unfurled in Texas and Fremont carried to the
coast.
The Opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I
answer, The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the
consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government We
govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their
consent, we govern our children without their consent. How do they know what our
government would be without their consent? Would not the people of the Philippines
prefer the just, humane, civilizing government of this Republic to the savage, bloody
rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued them? . . .
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
They ask us how we shall govern these new possessions. I answer: Out of local
conditions and the necessities of the case methods of government will grow. If
England can govern foreign lands, so can America. If Germany can govern foreign
lands, so can America. If they can supervise protectorates, so can America. Why is it
more difficult to administer Hawaii than New Mexico or California? Both had a
savage and an alien population: both were more remote from the seat of government
when they came under our dominion than the Philippines are today.
Will you say by your vote that American ability to govern has decayed, that a century’s
experience in self-rule has failed of a result? Will you affirm by your vote that you are
an infidel to American power and practical sense? Or will you say that ours is the
blood of government; ours the heart of dominion; ours the brain and genius of
administration? Will you remember that we do but what our fathers did-we but pitch
the tents of liberty farther westward, farther southward-we only continue the march
of the flag?
Werner’s Readings and Recitations. New York, NY: E. S. Werner. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
2. Excerpt from “The March of the Flag,” a speech by Albert Beveridge,
September 16, 1898
This is another excerpt from the same speech by Albert Beveridge, a U.S. senator
from Illinois, during an 1898 campaign.
The march of the flag! In 1789 the flag of the Republic waved over 4,000,000 souls in
thirteen states, and their savage territory which stretched to the Mississippi, to
Canada, to the Floridas. The timid minds of that day said that no new territory was
needed, and, for the hour, they were right. But Jefferson, through whose intellect the
centuries marched; Jefferson, who dreamed of Cuba as an American state, Jefferson,
the first Imperialist of the Republic-Jefferson acquired that imperial territory which
swept from the Mississippi to the mountains, from Texas to the British possessions,
and the march of the flag began! . . .
The ocean does not separate us from lands of our duty and desire—the oceans join us,
rivers never to be dredged, canals never to be repaired. Steam joins us; electricity
joins us—the very elements are in league with our destiny. Cuba not contiguous?
Porto Rico not contiguous! Hawaii and the Philippines no contiguous! The oceans
make them contiguous. And our navy will make them contiguous.
But the Opposition is right—there is a difference. We did not need the western
Mississippi Valley when we acquired it, nor Florida! nor Texas, nor California, nor the
royal provinces of the far northwest We had no emigrants to people this imperial
wilderness, no money to develop it, even no highways to cover it. . . . But, today, we
are raising more than we can consume, making more than we can use. Therefore we
must find new markets for our produce.
And so, while we did not need the territory taken during the past century at the time
it was acquired, we do need what we have taken in 1898 and we need it now. The
resource and the commerce of the immensely rich dominions will be increased as
much as American energy is greater than Spanish sloth.
In Cuba, alone, there are 15,000,000 acres of forest unacquainted with the ax,
exhaustless mines of iron, priceless deposits of manganese, millions 0f dollars’ worth
of which we must buy, today, from the Black Sea districts There are millions of acres
yet unexplored.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
The resources of Porto Rico have only been trifled with. The riches of the Philippines
have hardly been touched by the fingertips of modern methods. And they produce
what we consume, and consume what we produce—the very predestination of
reciprocity. . . . They sell hemp, sugar, cocoanuts, fruits of the tropics, timber of price
like mahogany; they buy flour, clothing, tools, implements, machinery and all that we
can raise and make. Their trade will be ours in time. . . .
Cuba is as large as Pennsylvania, and is the richest spot on the globe. Hawaii is as
large as New Jersey; Porto Rico half as large as Hawaii; the Philippines larger than all
New England, New York, New Jersey and Delaware combined. Together they are
larger than the British Isles, larger than France, larger than Germany, larger than
Japan.
If any man tells you that trade depends on cheapness and not on government
influence, ask him why England does not abandon South Africa, Egypt, India. Why
does France seize South China, Germany the vast region whose port is Kaouchou?
Our trade with Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines must be as free as between the
states of the Union, because they are American territory, while every other nation on
earth must pay our tariff before they can compete with us. Until Cuba shall ask for
annexation, our trade with her will, at the very least, be like the preferential trade of
Canada with England. That, and the excellence of our goods and products; that, and
the convenience of traffic; that, and the kinship of interests and destiny, will give the
monopoly of these markets to the American people. . . .
So Hawaii furnishes us a naval base in the heart of the Pacific; the Ladrones another,
a voyage further on; Manila another, at the gates of Asia—Asia, to the trade of whose
hundreds of millions American merchants, manufacturers, farmers, have as good
right as those of Germany or France or Russia or England; Asia, whose commerce
with the United Kingdom alone amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars every
year; Asia, to whom Germany looks to take her surplus products; Asia, whose doors
must not be shut against American trade. Within five decades the bulk of Oriental
commerce will be ours. . . .
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
There are so many real things to be done-canals to be dug, railways to be laid, forests
to be felled, cities to be builded, fields to be tilled, markets to be won, ships to be
launched, peoples to be saved, civilization to be proclaimed and the Rag of liberty
Hung to the eager air of every sea. Is this an hour to waste upon triflers with nature’s
laws? Is this a season to give our destiny over to wordmongers and prosperitywreckers? No! It is an hour to remember our duty to our homes. It is a moment to
realize the opportunities fate has opened to us. And so is all hour for us to stand by
the Government.
Werner’s Readings and Recitations. New York, NY: E. S. WernerWeb.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
3. “Halt!” 1900
In this political cartoon, William Jennings Bryan is trying to tear down U.S. flags
in Cuba and the Philippines. A U.S. general who was killed in the war tells Bryan to
stop. The stripes on the flag are labeled: Honor, Patriotism, Commercial Progress,
National Dignity, Glory, Duty to Humanity, and National Self-Respect.
Dalrymple, Louis, artist. Halt! 1900. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
4. Deaths and costs associated with wars and the Panama Canal, late
1800s–early 1900s
Fischer, Hannah. American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics. United States Congressional
Research Service. 13 July 2005. Web
Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs. Milestones 1899–1913: The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902. U.S
Department of State. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
5. Excerpt from remarks by Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation
of Labor, 1899
We cannot annex the Philippines without a large increase in our standing army. A
large standing army is repugnant to republican institutions and a menace to the
liberty of our own people.
If we annex the Philippines we shall have to conquer the Filipinos by force of arms,
and thereby deny to them what we claim for ourselves—the right of self-government.
The attempt to divert the attention of our people from the ills from which we suffer
at home to foreign questions will fall. The principles of liberty and justice have been
imbibed by our people too many years to permit them to be cheated out of their
birthright. The institutions of our republic have taken root too deeply in the minds
and hearts of our people to permit us to become a nation of conquerors, or to
dominate by force of arms a people struggling for liberty and independence.
The flag of our republic should float over a free people, and must never form a cloak
to hide slavery, barbarism, despotism or tyranny. America, as we know it, with its
blessings of peace and stability, must not be hazarded for a new era.
In Freedom’s Name: Anti Imperialists League Leaflet No. 2. Anti-Imperialist League. Washington, DC. 1899. Library of
Congress. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
6. British, American, and Japanese forces attack Beijing during the Boxer
Rebellion, 1900
American, Japanese, and British Storming Beijing. IRC, 2005. Discovery Education. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
7. “The World’s Constable,” a political cartoon illustrating results of the
Roosevelt Corollary, 1905
Fotosearch/Stringer. The World’s Constable. 1905. Archive Photos. Getty Images. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
8. Excerpt from a letter to the New York Herald by Mark Twain, published
October 15, 1900
I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle
to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself
with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? And
I thought it would be a real good thing to do.
I said to myself, here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can
make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own,
put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new
republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great
task to which had addressed ourselves.
But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of
Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of
the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. . . .
It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let
them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an antiimperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.
Twain, Mark. “From the New York Herald, October 15, 1900.” The World of 1898. Hispanic Division. Library of Congress. Web.
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Document-Based Investigation
9. Excerpt from “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” by Mark Twain,
published February, 1901
There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a
once-captive’s new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with
nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land. . . .
True, we have crushed a deceived and confiding people; we have turned against the
weak and the friendless who trusted us; we have stamped out a just and intelligent
and well-ordered republic; we have stabbed an ally in the back and slapped the face
of a guest; we have bought a Shadow from an enemy that hadn’t it to sell; we have
robbed a trusting friend of his land and his liberty; we have invited clean young men
to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit’s work under a flag which bandits
have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America’s honor
and blackened her face before the world. . . .
And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a
special one—our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes
painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.
Twain, Mark. “To the Person Sitting in Darkness.” The World of 1898. Hispanic Division. Library of Congress. Web.
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Document-Based Investigation
10. U.S. naval ships at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, 1923
Lewis, R. G. United States Fleet in Panama Bay (Pacific Entrance to the Panama Canal), March 1, 1923. 1923. Prints and
Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Web.
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Already Know/Need to Know
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign
affairs outweigh the benefits?
Information I Already Know
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Document-Based Investigation Resource Sheet
Directions: As you analyze the sources in your packet, complete the organizer below.
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign affairs outweigh the benefits?
Basic Information
About the Source
- What type of document?
- Who created it? When?
- What was its purpose?
- Who was the intended audience?
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The Source’s
Overall Message
- How would I summarize the content
or overall message of this primary
source?
- Which parts of the source are facts?
Which are opinions? What biases
does the source reveal?
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The Source and the
Investigation Question
- Does this source help me address
the investigation questions? If so,
how? If not, why not?
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign affairs outweigh the benefits?
Basic Information
About the Source
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Overall Message
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The Source and the
Investigation Question
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign affairs outweigh the benefits?
Basic Information
About the Source
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Overall Message
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign affairs outweigh the benefits?
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About the Source
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
Putting It All Together
Investigation Question: Did the costs of U.S. imperialism and involvement in foreign
affairs outweigh the benefits?
Use the space below to respond directly to the investigation question.
FIRST POINT OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:
Why is this point important?
Which sources demonstrate this point?
SECOND POINT OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:
Why is this point important?
Which sources demonstrate this point?
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Benefits and Costs of Imperialism
Document-Based Investigation
THIRD POINT OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:
Why is this point important?
Which sources demonstrate this point?
COUNTERPOINTS:
What will people who disagree with your position argue?
Why is your argument more convincing?
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