Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) set precedent for the United States to pursue a policy of isolationism.
Isolationism was the policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs.
Although in the Monroe Doctrine
(1824) the United States had declared itself the protector of the entire western hemisphere, isolationism continued to form the basis of
American foreign policy throughout most of the nineteenth century.
George Washington at the end of his presidency. Disturbed by the war between England and France and the attempts of both nations to draw the U.S. into it as an ally,
Washington issued a "Farewell
Address" in which he warned against permanent alliances with foreign nations.

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However, as the United States industrialized during the second half of the 1800s, businessmen and politicians increasingly looked longingly towards foreign markets as a potential source of
American corporate profits. The desire to gain this untapped wealth led the United States to expand its influence in the world during the late nineteenth century.
Some historians have called this period the age of American imperialism, because during this period the United States gained control over Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands.
Imperialism is the act of one nation gaining political or economic control over other countries.

 Many twentieth century American foreign policy issues have their origins in America’s emergence as a world power at the end of the nineteenth century.
 America’s eventual intervention (involvement) in World War I ensured its role as a world power for the remainder of the twentieth century.
 The growing role of the United States in international trade displayed the American urge to build, innovate, and explore new markets.
 In short, American businessmen believed they could make huge profits and bring the nation economic prosperity through international trade.

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American businessmen with the help of
American politicians tried to gain access
(entrance) to foreign markets in several ways.
During the presidency of William
McKinley, Secretary of State John Hay proposed the Open Door Policy. This policy wanted to give all nations equal trading rights in China. Its goal was to open to American businessmen the Chinese market from which they had previously been excluded

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President William Howard Taft expanded upon the Open Door Policy by advocating (calling for) Dollar Diplomacy. Through Dollar
Diplomacy President Taft aimed to encourage American investment in
Latin America (South and Central America).
Not only did Taft urge American banks and businesses to invest in Latin
America, but also promised that the United States military would intervene (step in), if local unrest threatened their investments.
Partially as a result of these two policies, growth in international trade occurred from the late 1800s to World War I. This period was the first era of a true “global economy.”

Secretary John Hay .
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Give all nations equal access to trade in
China.
It also urged all foreigners in
China to obey Chinese law and observe practices of fair competition.
Guaranteed that China would NOT be taken over by any one foreign power.

While both the Open Door Policy and Dollar Diplomacy were
American attempts to engage in economic imperialism, the United
States also embarked upon a limited policy of political imperialism.
In the early 1890s the United States marines helped American sugar planters depose (overthrow) the
Hawaiian monarch Queen
Liliuokalani. In 1898 Congress agreed to annex Hawaii or add it to
United States territory.
Queen Lilioukalani (1891-93). American planters, who had established sugar plantations in Hawaii beginning around 1820, became increasingly influential in the economy and government of Hawaii; Queen Lilioukalani's desire for a new constitution, restoring her royal powers, caused a revolt by the planters, and she was deposed in 1893. In 1894 a republic was established, headed by lawyer and missionary son Sanford B. Dole, and annexation by the U.S. followed in 1898.

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In June 1887 local businessmen, sugar planters and politicians backed by the Honolulu Rifles forced the dismissal of the cabinet and adoption of the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
It stripped voting rights from all Asians outright, and disenfranchised poor Native Hawaiians and other citizens by raising income and wealth requirements for voting, thus effectively consolidating power with the elite residents.
In addition, it minimized the power of the monarch in favor of more influential governance by the cabinet. Dole and other lawyers of American descent drafted this document, which became known as the "Bayonet Constitution".

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By the mid 1800’s, the largely agrarian Japan came under pressure by the US to open its markets to US goods.
President Fillmore sent
Commodore Matthew Perry to
Japan to convince the Japanese to open their ports.
 In 1854, the Japanese agree to a treaty that would allow trade between the US and Japan.

The Japanese View of
Commodore Perry

The United States continued its policy of imperialism under President Theodore Roosevelt. First, the United
States encouraged Panama’s independence from
Columbia. Then it negotiated a treaty with Panama to build the Panama Canal. Since this canal provided a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it benefited American trade and thereby also furthered economic imperialism.
A map showing the location of the Canal Zone.
To secure the U.S. control of the Caribbean, and to give readier access to trade with China and
Japan for eastern manufacturers, Roosevelt was an ardent supporter of the building of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. After using
"gunboat diplomacy" to help Panamanian rebel leaders achieve independence from Colombia,
Roosevelt signed a treaty with their new nation in 1903 awarding the U.S. control of a canal zone. Construction was from 1904 to 1914.

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In 1904, Roosevelt issued a statement that came to be known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Corollary means “what naturally follows from”.
South and Central American Countries were poor and often borrowed money from European countries then were unable to repay the loans.
To prevent European countries from attacking these countries in the Western Hemisphere and thereby violating the Monroe doctrine, Roosevelt announced that “chronic wrongdoing” by any
Latin American nation entitled the United States to intervene in its affairs.
This changed the Monroe doctrine by allowing one Western
Hemisphere nation the intervene in the affairs of another.

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Chronic wrongdoing… may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the
Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United
States to the Monroe
Doctrine may force the
United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power .

The Spanish-American War was the 1898 war between Spain and the United
States, which the United States won. As a result of the Spanish-American
War, the United States annexed both the Philippines and Puerto Rico and declared its right to intervene (become militarily involved) in Cuban affairs.
Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough
Riders on San Juan Hill in Cuba,
1898. When war was declared,
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Roosevelt resigned his post and recruited a volunteer cavalry regiment that nicknamed itself the
"Rough Riders." After the invasion of
Cuba in June, Roosevelt's unit marched overland to Santiago and, on July 1, mounted a heroic charge that allowed the Americans to capture the ridges above the city and force the Spanish fleet to evacuate and surrender the city. The Rough Riders suffered heavy casualties, but
Roosevelt became a national hero.

The wreck of the U.S.S. Maine , February 15,
1898. The war for Cuban independence coincided with a press war between William
Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer for the largest newspaper circulation in New York City.
Both papers emphasized similarities between
Cuba's independence war and the American
Revolution. Then Hearst sent the famous artist,
Frederic Remington (1861-1909), to Cuba.
Remington cabled Hearst that there was nothing to paint, to which the publisher supposedly replied, "You supply the pictures and I'll supply the war." On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana harbor.
An original investigation concluded that the ship was destroyed by an external explosion, probably a Spanish mine. This was refuted in a carefully documented
1976 study by Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, which demonstrated that an internal explosion caused the loss of the ship.

Platt Amendment (1903)
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Cuba was not to enter into any agreements with foreign powers that would endanger its independence.
The U.S. could intervene in Cuban affairs if necessary to maintain an efficient, independent govt.
Cuba must lease Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. for naval and coaling station.
Cuba must not build up an excessive public debt.

1900 Foraker Act .
 PR became an “unincorporated territory.”
 Citizens of PR, not of the US.
 Import duties on PR goods
1901-1903  the Insular Cases .
 Constitutional rights were not automatically extended to territorial possessions.
 Congress had the power to decide these rights.
 Import duties laid down by the Foraker Act were legal!

1917 – Jones Act .
 Gave full territorial status to PR.
 Removed tariff duties on PR goods coming into the
US.
 PRs elected their own legislators & governor to enforce local laws.
 PRs could NOT vote in US presidential elections.
 A resident commissioner was sent to Washington to vote for PR in the House.

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By June, U.S. and Filipino forces had taken control of most of the islands
On 12 June, the Philippines proclaimed the independence from Spain.
Later the Philippines declare war on the US to gain full independence.
Opposition to the war inspired Mark Twain to found the
Anti-Imperialist League on June 15, 1898.
In 1946, following World War II , the United States gave the territory independence through the Treaty of
Manila .

Founded in 1899.
Mark Twain, Andrew
Carnegie, William
James, and William
Jennings Bryan among the leaders.
Campaigned against the annexation of the
Philippines and other acts of imperialism.