Transcript henretta3e_ch21pt2

This 1898 lithograph portrays a highly romantic version of the Battle of San Juan Hill. The
famous charge was much less glamorous than pictured here. Theodore Roosevelt, whose Rough
Riders had taken nearby Kettle Hill, called to his men to charge the next line of Spanish trenches
in the San Juan hills. But in the excitement of the battle, they didn't hear him and Roosevelt found
himself charging virtually alone. He had to go back and rally the Rough Riders, who then charged
the hill on foot. The illustration does get one thing right: The nearsighted Theodore Roosevelt led
the charge wearing his spectacles. Fearing that he might lose his glasses in battle, Roosevelt
insisted that Brooks Brothers custom-make his uniforms to include a dozen pockets for extra
eyeglasses.
Hurrah for Imperialism!
Life, 1898, Newbury Library
Amid the patriotic frenzy
over Dewey's naval
victory, cooler heads
wondered whether the
United States knew what
it was getting into with
all the talk about creating
an American empire.
Here, Life magazine,
often a skeptical
commentator on
American public life,
pictures a blindfolded
Uncle Sam stepping off a
cliff.
Onto the World Stage
A Power among Powers
The Open Door in Asia
Wilson and Mexico
The Gathering Storm in Europe
World power status came with penalties, however,
and America paid the price: men were killed or
wounded in the war with Spain and the Philippine
insurrection, government spending increased, and
the newly acquired colonial territories far removed
from the Western Hemisphere were vulnerable to
unfriendly powers.
Suddenly, rivalries that had gone unnoticed
became significant to the American government,
as did the British move toward rapprochement.
The United States had become a world power just
as war was about to erupt in Europe.
Roosevelt justified American dominance in
the Caribbean by saying that it was
incumbent upon the civilized powers to
insist on the proper policing of the world
and the maintenance of the balance of
power.
The cornerstone of Roosevelt’s thinking
was Anglo-American friendship
Hay-Pauncefote Agreement of 1901
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Roosevelt's foreign policies, like his
colonial policies, were derived from his
assumption that it was "incumbent on all
civilized and orderly powers to insist on the
proper policing of the world."
Roosevelt stretched his constitutional
authority to its limits and intervened to
preserve stability and American domination
in the Caribbean, where, with Mahan, he
felt the United States could not afford a
rival.
Venezuela
England, Germany, and Italy, demanded
payment of debts
The President did not intend to permit
Germany or any other European power to
use the excuse of debt collection for
establishing a foothold in the Caribbean.
Panama
June 1902 Congress directed the President
to negotiate with Colombia for the
acquisition of a strip of land in Panama,
provided that the old French canal company,
which had begun work decades earlier,
agreed to sell the United States its titles and
equities in the area on reasonable terms.
Roosevelt pressed Colombia to surrender
control of the land in return for $10 million
and an annual rental of $250,000. A treaty
to that effect was rejected by the Colombian
government, which wanted more money
and greater rights of sovereignty in the
zone.
He did have a clear strategic purpose-the control
of the Caribbean as one essential part of national
defense. That purpose imbued his message to
Congress of December 1904, in which he
announced that the United States would not
interfere with Latin American nations that
conducted their affairs with decency, but that
"brutal wrongdoing" might require intervention by
some civilized power, and that the United States
could not "ignore this duty."
An enormous effort that took eight years,
the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers finished
the Panama Canal in 1914, giving the
United States a commanding commercial
and strategic position in the Western
Hemisphere.
the Boxers, an organization of fanatical
Chinese patriots, incited an uprising that
took the lives of 231 foreigners and many
Christian Chinese. In June the Boxers began
the siege of the legations in Peking and cut
the city off from the outside world for a
month. The Western powers and Japan then
sent in a military force, to which the United
States contributed five thousand troops.
This expeditionary force relieved the
besieged legations on August 4.
On July 3, 1900, Hay issued a circular
stating it to be the policy of the United
States "to seek a solution which may bring
about permanent safety and peace to China,
preserve Chinese territorial and
administrative entity," and protect all trade
rights mentioned in the Open Door notes in
all parts of the empire.
The “Gentlemen’s Agreement” of 1907, in
which Japan agreed to restrict immigration
to the United States, smoothed over Japan’s
fury over mistreatment of the Japanese, but
periodic racist slights by Americans made
for continuing tensions with the Japanese.
The Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908
confirmed the status quo in the Pacific as
well as the principles of free oceanic
commerce and equal trade opportunity in
China
Wilson followed a policy of "watchful
waiting" until October 1913, when Huerta,
supported by British oil interests,
proclaimed himself military dictator.
In Europe, there was rivalry between
Germany, France, and Britain; in the
Balkans, Austria-Hungary and Russia were
maneuvering for dominance.
The Open Door in Asia
(1) that no power would interfere with the
trading rights of other nations within its
sphere of influence,
(2) that Chinese tariff duties (which gave
America most-favored-nation rights) should
be collected on all merchandise by Chinese
officials, and
(3) that no power should levy
discriminatory harbor dues or railroad
charges against other powers within its
sphere.