APUSH Lecture 6A
(covers Ch. 20)
Ms. Kray
• A “New Manifest Destiny”  Imperialism
• Foreign Policy Before 1890s
– Focused on westward expansion
– Protecting U.S. interests abroad (free trade)
– Limiting Foreign Influences in the Americas
• Key Foreign Policy Items
– Washington’s Farewell Address
– Monroe Doctrine
– Isolationism
• Industrial Revolution  #1 cause
– Seeking access to raw materials and new
markets
• Turner’s Frontier Thesis
• The Popular Press
– Newspaper and magazine editors increased
circulation by printing adventure stories about
distant and exotic places
– These stories increased public interest &
stimulated demands for a larger U.S. role in
world affairs
• Reaction to social unrest of the 1890s
• Influence of European Imperialism
• Nations underwent a constant
struggle for existence
• Domination of weak nations by
strong ones was a fixed law of
nature
• Josiah Strong
– Leading proponent of imperialism
– “Our Country,” 1885
• Argued that the Anglo-Saxon Christian
race was divinely ordained to spread its
institutions and values through the
world
• Poem by
Rudyard
Kipling
• Satire or
serious?
• The Influence of Sea Power upon History,
1890
– Argued a strong navy was crucial to a country’s
ambition of securing foreign markets and
becoming a world power
– Urged creation of isthmusian canal, acquisition
of defensive bases, possession of overseas
bases, and program of naval expansion
• Influenced U.S. politicians
– Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt
– Republicans in general were more proimperialism
– By 1900, U.S. had 3rd largest navy in the world
• Secretary of State under Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
– Strong expansionist
• The French in Mexico
– French Leader Napoleon III had
taken advantage of U.S.
involvement in the Civil War by
occupying Mexico
– Seward invoked the Monroe
Doctrine and threatened military
action unless the French withdrew
– Cinco de Mayo
• Purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2
million
• Nicknamed Seward’s Folly or Seward’s Icebox
• U.S. viewed itself as protector of Latin
America (Monroe Doctrine)
• The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute,
1895
– U.S. supported Venezuela in a boundary
dispute with Great Britain
– Claimed Britain was violating the
Monroe Doctrine and Britain must
submit to U.S. led arbitration
– The Great Rapprochement Occurs
• Turning point in U.S. – British relations
•
• Pacific served as another area subject
to the U.S.’s growing global
influence
• American missionaries and planters
had gradually built up heavy
influence over Hawaii beginning in
the 1820s
– 1887 – U.S. negotiated a treaty which
allowed a naval base at Pearl Harbor
• 1890 – McKinley Tariff
– Hawaiian sugar no longer allowed to
enter U.S. duty-free
Sugar Cane
Plantation in Hawaii
• 1893  Sugar planters back
uprising
• 1894  Sanford B. Dole named
president of the Republic of Hawaii
• 1894  Republic petitions the U.S.
for annexation
– Democratic-controlled Senate refused
to support annexation agreement
– Annexation finally occurred in 1898
b/c of the Spanish American War
In the 1890s due to:
• Large American investments in Cuban sugar
• Spanish misrule
• Monroe Doctrine
• 1880s  Cuban began fight to
overthrow Spanish colonial rule
• 1895  Cubans adopted scorched-earth
policy
– Strategy of sabotaging & laying waste to
Cuban plantations
– Hoped to force Spain’s withdrawal or
involve the United States in their revolution
• Spain responds  sent Gen. Valeriano
Weyler & over 100,000 troops to
suppress the revolt
• Definition: an intense form of
nationalism calling for an aggressive
foreign policy
• Some opponents of jingoism
– Presidents Cleveland
– President McKinley
• Thought military action abroad was both morally
wrong and economically unsound
Joseph
Pulitzer
William
Randolph
Hearst
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war!!!”
– Hearst to Frederick Remington
Printed in Hearst’s
New York Journal
Highly critical of
President McKinley
Many considered it an
official Spanish insult
against the U.S.
national honor
• February 15, 1898 260 Americans killed
• McKinley issued an
ultimatum to Spain
demanding a ceasefire
in Cuba
• Spain agreed but
McKinley yielded to
public pressure in April
1. “Put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and
horrible miseries” in Cuba
2. Protect the lives and property of U.S. citizens living in Cuba
3. End the “very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and
business of our people”
4. End “the constant menace to our peace” arising from disorders
in Cuba
U.S. had no intention of taking
political control of Cuba
• TR anticipated
w/Spain war
Commodore
Dewey,
Commander
of the U.S.
Pacific Fleet
• Recognized the
strategic value of
Spain’s territories in
the Pacific
• TR ordered Com.
Dewey’s fleet to the
Philippines
Theodore
Roosevelt,
Under-Sec.
of Navy
• Leader of the Filipino
rebels
• U.S. allied with his
forces
• With his help the U.S.
captured Manila on
August 13, 1898
• An ill-prepared,
largely volunteer force
landed in Cuba by the
end of June
• More than 5,000
Americans died of
malaria, typhoid, and
dysentery, while less
than 500 died in battle.
•
•
•
Cuba gets independence
U.S. acquired Spanish
islands of Puerto Rico and
Guam
U.S. paid Spain $20
million to acquire the
Philippines
• U.S. was recognized as a 1st class power with
a strong navy and a new willingness to take
an active role in international affairs
• American pride increased
• Healed rift between North and South that had
existed since the Civil War
• Imperialism remained a
major issue even after
ratification of the Treaty
of Paris
• Anti-Imperialist League
– Founded in 1899
– Led by William Jennings
Bryan
– Rallied opposition to
further acts of expansion
in the Pacific
• U.S. troops occupied Cuba until 1902 helping to
build Cuban infrastructure and paving the way for
U.S. domination of the Cuban economy
– Problem: Teller Amendment, 1898
• 1901  Platt Amendment
– Forbade Cuba from making treaties with other nations
– Allowed the U.S. to intervene to protect Cuban
independence
– Allowed U.S. to maintain naval bases on Cuban
territory
• Congress & the Public Opinion divided
– Imperialist vs. Anti-Imperialist
– Philippines = heavily
populated area whose
people were a different
race & culture
• 2/3 vote required to ratify
Treaty of Paris
– Ratified  57 to 27
• Filipinos had wanted
independence
– Outraged by Treaty of Paris
• Aguinaldo led uprising
against U.S. “occupation”
• The Philippine War
– Lasted 3 years
– Cost thousands of lives
• Are people living in U.S. territories or
protectorates entitled to the same rights
and protections as U.S. citizens?
– Bryan and anti-imperialists say yes
– Imperialists say no
• Court ruled that constitutional rights
were not automatically extended to
territorial possessions
• China weakened by political
corruption & failure to modernize
– Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France &
Germany est. spheres of influence
• 1899 – Open Door Notes
– Sec. of State John Hay asked those
nations to allow all nations equal
trading privileges in China
• 1900 – Boxer Rebellion
• 1901 – Open Door Policy
– Preserve China’s territorial integrity
– Safeguard U.S. trade