Transcript The World in 1492 - Teaching American History in South Carolina

From the “Old” Diplomacy to
World War I
Dr. Kevin B. Witherspoon
Lander University
Diplomacy 1865-1918
 1890: Army 13th largest, 28,000
 1900: 100,000
 1884: Navy 12th
 Diplomacy to 1865:
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Isolation
Monroe Doctrine
Open Door
Diplomacy 1865-1918
 Diplomacy 1865-1889: the “Old Diplomacy”
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Lack of professionalism
Lack of clear policy
Themes:
 Growing US domination of Caribbean
 US interest in Far East
 Acquisition of empire
 Emergence as world power
Diplomacy 1865-1918
 Diplomacy 1865-1889: the “Old Diplomacy”
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Policy:
 Noninterventionist
 Passive, reactive
 Army and Navy poorly equipped
 Assumed US was safe
Diplomacy 1865-1918
 Diplomacy 1865-1889: the “Old Diplomacy”
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In general:
 Limited international activity
 No interest in Africa
 Non-involvement in Europe
 Narrowly focused on own sphere
 Lack of broad vision and policy
Diplomacy 1890s
 Changes, 1890s
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Malaise, anxiety
 Decline of “American stock”
 Cities, business, etc.
 1890s chaos
 1893 Turner, frontier
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Depression 1893
Threats to old markets
Division Africa 1880s, China 1890s
Diplomacy 1890s
 Other changes
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Growing international
influence
Technology
Pace of conflict
New generation
Patriotism
Imperialist thought
 Alfred T. Mahan
 Social darwinism
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Missionary zeal
Journalism
Diplomacy 1890s
 “New Diplomacy”
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System replaces spasm
New diplomats
Professionalism
The Spanish-Cuban-American War
 Cuban struggle for independence
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“Butcher” Weyler*
 Breakdown of Spanish-American relations
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Yellow journalism
Delome letter
The Maine*
The Spanish-CubanAmerican War
 “A Splendid Little War”
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Combat
 April-August
 San Juan Hill
 5400 Americans die
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The Treaty of Paris
(1898)*
 US annex Puerto Rico,
Guam, Wake Island
 US purchase Philippines
 Cuba independent

Platt Amendment
Meanings of the War
 Emergence of US as imperial power
 The Anti-Imperialist League: Why?
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Racism: strange and different people
Cheap labor
Violates self-determination
 Pro-imperialism:
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Stepping stone to Asia
White man’s burden, civilize
Islands = naval filling stations
Meanings of
the War
 The filipino
insurrection
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Emilio Aguinaldo
200,000 filipinos die
Brutal war, precursor
to Vietnam
 Strained relations of
imperialism
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Philippines
Cuba
Puerto Rico
Theodore Roosevelt
 Rise to the presidency
 The “bully pulpit”
 The “big stick”
 The Panama Canal
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Where to build it?
 Nicaragua?
 Panama
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The Panamanian Revolution, 1903
Building the Canal
 The “Great White Fleet”
The First World War
 Woodrow Wilson*, elected 1912
 Background
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b. VA 1856
Civil War
Education
President of Princeton
Inspired by T.R.
The press
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Cautious about war
Well-spoken and convincing
Concerned with will of the people
Anglophile
The First World War
 The war begins
 Europe at war, 1914
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1st year casualties:
 1.3 million French
 850,000 Germans
 300,000 British
 US neutrality
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Britain
Germany
The First World War
 Germans: unrestricted submarine warfare
 The Lusitania* and strained neutrality
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1200 passengers, 128 Americans
Carrying war goods
US favor the British
 Wilson re-elected, 1916
 US involvement
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Germans resume sub warfare
Zimmerman telegram
The United States at War
 The Ideological War
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The Committee on Public
Information*
 George Creel
 Propaganda
 “Four minute men”
 Super-patriotism
 Condemned all things German

Espionage Act 1917, Sedition Act
1918
 1500 Americans arrested
The United States at War
 Combat
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8 million soldiers killed
20 million civilians killed
4000 French towns destroyed
Trench warfare
Poison gasses
The United States at War
 Making the Peace
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US/Allied views
The 14 Points
The Bolshevik
Revolution
Wilson in France
 “Peace without
Victory”
The United States at War
 The Treaty of Versailles*
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Germans = war guilt
Reparations, $33 billion
League of Nations?
Wilson and the Treaty
 League of Nations
 Article 10
 Speaking tour
 Stroke
 Congress
The Meanings of the War
 Groundwork for the “Red Scare”
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The CPI and suspicion
 Groundwork for the Great Depression
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German war debt
 Groundwork for World War II
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German hostility