Chapter 27 – Empire and
Expansion (1890-1909)
Global competition prompts the United States
to expand its influence and territory, engage
in conflicts around the globe, and build the
Panama Canal.
American Turns Outward
 American tradition of isolationism (Washington’s farewell
address)
 1890’s expansionism to market US goods overseas
 Yellow journalism of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph
Hearst
 Reverend Josiah Strong’s Our Country: It’s Possible Future
and Its Present Crisis
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Strong spoke for civilizing and Christianizing savages
 Social Darwinism: US the fittest and needed to take over
other nations to improve them
 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s 1890 book, The Influence of
Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783
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argued that every successful world power once held a great navy
motivated the U.S. to look to expanding overseas
Spanish-American War and Yellow Journalism
Hawaii
 Treaties guaranteed commercial trade and U.S.
rights to Pearl Harbor
 1890, the McKinley Tariff raised the prices on
profitable sugar trade
 Americans felt that the best way to offset this was to
annex Hawaii—a move opposed by its Queen
Liliuokalani—but in 1893, desperate Americans in
Hawaii revolted in a successful coup
 President Cleveland believed coup was wrong and
delayed annexation
On the Hawaiian
Islands, a group of
American sugar
planters under
Sanford Ballard Dole
overthrow Queen
Liliuokalani, the
Hawaiian monarch,
and establish a new
provincial
government with
Dole as president.
The coup occurred
with the
foreknowledge of
John L. Stevens, the
U.S. minister to
Hawaii, and 300
U.S. Marines from
the U.S. cruiser
Boston were called
to Hawaii, allegedly
to protect American
lives.
Americans overthrow Hawaiian
monarchy
Cubans Rise in Revolt
 1895, Cuba revolted against Spain, citing years of misrule; America
supported Cuba
 Spanish General Valeriano “Butcher” Weyler came to Cuba to crush the
revolt; ended up putting many civilians into concentration camps
 American public clamored for action, spurred on by yellow press
 Accidental Maine Explosion kills 260 US soldiers
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yellow presses competed against each other to come up with more sensational stories
War-mad Americans blame Spanish
President McKinley privately didn’t want war
 Reluctantly, McKinley sends war message to Congress
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war with Spain seemed inevitable
America had to defend democracy
opposing a war could split the Republican party and America
 Congress also adopted the Teller Amendment: US promises to give Cubans
their freedom after war with Spain
Concentration
camps of
Cuban
civilians
by the
Spanish
Spanish-American War
 Spanish-American War starts in 1898
 Assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt had
modernized the U.S. navy
 Roosevelt cabled Commodore George Dewey,
commanding the American Asiatic Squadron at Hong
Kong, and told him to take over the Philippines
 American troops arrived and captured Manila,
collaborating with Filipino insurgents, led by Emilio
Aguinaldo, to overthrow the Spanish rulers
 On July 7, 1898, the U.S. annexed Hawaii (so that it
could use the islands to support Dewey, supposedly), and
Hawaii received full territorial status in 1900
Victory against Spain
 American ground troops in Cuba ill-prepared for combat
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in the tropical environment
The Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers led by
Roosevelt, rushed to Cuba; stormed up San Juan Hill
US destroys Spanish fleet
Easily take over Puerto Rico
August 12, 1898, Spain signed an armistice; war lasts
only 113 days
Affirmed America’s presence as a world power
But its actions after the war would lead to European
jealousy and Latin American suspicion
The Battle of San Juan
Heights was fought on July
1, which Roosevelt called
"the great day of my life." He
led a series of charges up
Kettle Hill and San Juan
Heights on his horse, Texas,
while the Rough Riders
followed on foot. He rode up
and down the hill
encouraging his men with
the orders to "March!" He
killed one Spaniard with a
revolver salvaged from the
Maine. Other regiments
continued alongside him,
and the American flag was
raised over San Juan
Heights.
Roosevelt's political career
ignited as he returned a war
hero and national celebrity.
He charged on horseback to
victory at Kettle Hill and
San Juan Heights, and
continued riding that horse
all the way to the White
House just three years later.
Rough Riders
America and Empire
 In negotiations in Paris, America got Guam and Puerto Rico
and freed Cuba
 McKinley decided to keep the Philippines because of popular
public opinion and because it meshed well with business
interests (US paid $20 million)
 Actions in Philippines leads to an uproar
 The Anti-Imperialist League sprang into being, firmly
opposed to American imperialism

members: Mark Twain, Samuel Gompers, Andrew Carnegie
 Filipinos want freedom; denying that to them was un-
American
 British writer Rudyard Kipling wrote about “The White Man’s
Burden,” urging America to keep the Philippines and “civilize
them.”
The first Anti-Imperialist
League was established on
November 18, 1898.
Membership was open to all
citizens of the U.S.
irrespective of party. Antiimperialists were eager to
depict their movement as
one that went beyond party
politics. They courted
Democrats, Republicans and
independent mugwumps,
but, interestingly, restricted
membership to U.S. citizens.
The League excluded foreign
activists from joining. The
Constitution "emphasized
the purpose of the
organizers to found the
League primarily for the
good of the people of the
United States," and it
specifically excluded
Filipinos. League members
argued that excluding
foreigners was necessary to
entice broad membership.
Including foreigners among
the membership would
alienate those who held
deep racial prejudices.
Anti-Imperialism
Puerto Rico and Cuba
 The Foraker Act of 1900 gave Puerto Ricans a limited
degree of popular government, and in 1917, Congress
granted Puerto Ricans full American citizenship

U.S. help also transformed Puerto Rico and worked wonders in
sanitation, transportation, beauty, and education
 In the Insular Cases, the Supreme Court said the island
residents don’t share the same rights as Americans;
allows Congress to do what it pleases
 In 1902, the U.S. walked away from Cuba, but it also
encouraged Cuba to write and pass the Platt
Amendment:
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the U.S. could intervene and restore order in case of anarchy
the U.S. could trade freely with Cuba
the U.S. could get two bays for naval bases, notably Guantanamo Bay
Filipino Insurgency
 Filipinos had assumed that they would receive freedom after
the Spanish-American War, but when they didn’t they
revolted against the U.S in 1899
 Aguinaldo took his troops into guerrilla warfare after open
combat proved to be useless
 Stories of atrocities abounded (100s of thousands of civilians
killed); the rebellion was broken in 1901 when U.S. soldiers
invaded Aguinaldo’s headquarters and captured him
 The Americans tried to assimilate the Filipinos, but the
islanders resisted; they finally got their independence on July
4, 1946
Personifying the United
States, "Uncle Sam"
chases a bee
representing Emilio
Aguinaldo, the President
of the Philippine
Republic on the Islands
from March 22, 1897 to
April 1, 1901. In 1901,
two years after this
cartoon's publication in
America, Aguinaldo
would surrender control
of the Philippines to the
United States.
For the rest of his life,
Emilio Aguinaldo wore a
black bow in public to
mourn his lost republic.
On July 4, 1946, the
United States granted
the Philippines its
independence and
Aguinaldo removed his
bow.
Filipino Insurgency
The Open Door in China
 Following its defeat by Japan in 1894-1895, China had been carved
into spheres of influence by the European powers
 Americans alarmed…churches worried about their missionary
strongholds…businesses feared they wouldn’t be able to export their
products to China
 Secretary of State John Hay dispatched his Open Door Policy: urged
European nations to keep fair competition open to all nations
wanting to participate…saves China from being carved up like Africa
 In 1900, a super-patriotic group known as the “Boxers” started the
Boxer Rebellion where they revolted and took over the capital of
China, Beijing, taking all foreigners hostage, including diplomats
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After a multi-national force broke the rebellion, the powers made China pay $333
million for damages
A French political
cartoon depicting
China as a pie
about to be carved
up by Queen
Victoria (Britain),
Kaiser Wilhelm II
(Germany), Tsar
Nicholas II
(Russia), Marianne
(France) and a
samurai (Japan),
while a Chinese
mandarin
helplessly looks on.
China – Spheres of Influence
Election of 1900
 McKinley vs. Bryan again
 TR named McKinley’s VP running
mate…Roosevelt’s active campaigning took a lot
of the momentum away from Bryan’s
 Bryan’s supporters concentrated on
imperialism—a bad move, considering that
Americans were tired of the subject
 McKinley’s supporters claimed that if Bryan
became president, he would shake up the
prosperity that was in America at the time;
McKinley won easily
President Roosevelt
 6 months after election, an anarchist Leon
Czolgosz shot and killed McKinley
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Theodore Roosevelt the youngest president ever at age 42
TR promises to carry out McKinley’s policies
 TR’s motto: “Speak softly and carry a big stick”
 “The first modern president”
Building the Panama Canal
 TR focuses on the creation of a canal connecting Atlantic
and Pacific in Central America
 Canal would ease economic trade and defense of recent
island acquisitions
 A Nicaraguan route was one possible place for a canal, but
it was opposed by the old French Canal Company that was
eager to build in Panama and salvage something from their
costly failure there
 The U.S. negotiated a deal that would buy a 6-mile-wide
strip of land in Panama for $10 million and a $250,000
annual payment
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but this treaty was retracted by the Colombian government, which
owned Panama
Building the Panama Canal (cont.)
 Revolution in Panama against Colombia begins; US fleet
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prevents Colombians from stopping it
Panama was thus recognized by the U.S.
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty: gave a widened (6x10 mi.)
Panamanian zone to the U.S. for $15 million
TR didn’t actively plot to tear Panama away from Colombia,
but it seemed like it to the public, and to Latin America, and
his actions in this incident saw him suffer a political black eye
In 1904, construction began on the Panama Canal; problems
with landslides, sanitation, and disease
The canal was finally finished and opened in 1914, at a cost of
$400 million
The Roosevelt Corollary
 Latin American countries falling behind on their
European debt; Brit and Ger to send forces to
make them pay
 TR saw this as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine
 Roosevelt Corollary
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no one could bully Latin America except the U.S
caused resentment in L. Amer
 When U.S. Marines landed in Cuba to bring back
order to the island in 1906, this seemed like an
extension of the “Bad Neighbor” policy
“Of course the best that
can happen to any
people that has not
already a high
civilization of its own is
to assimilate and profit
by American or
European ideas, the
ideas of civilization and
Christianity, without
submitting to alien
control; but such
control, in spite of all its
defects, is in a very large
number of cases the
prerequisite condition
to the moral and
material advance of the
peoples who dwell in
the darker corners of
the earth”.
--Theodore Roosevelt
(1909)
Roosevelt and Imperialism
Japanese Laborers in California
 After the war, many Japanese immigrants poured
into California; fears of a “yellow peril” arose again
 1906 San Fran earthquake…city claims a lack of
space to place Asian children in separate schools
(***connection to Jim Crow in the South)
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Becomes an international issue
San Fran agrees not displace students if Japan would keep
its laborers in Japan
 To impress the Japanese, Roosevelt sent his entire
battleship fleet, The Great White Fleet, around the
world for a tour