Transcript The Path of Empire 1890-1899

Imperialism
1890-1899
Imperialist Stirrings
• As America bustled with a new sense of power generated by the strong
growth in population, wealth, and productive capacity, labor violence and
agrarian unrest increased. It was felt that overseas markets might provide a
safety valve to relieve these pressures.
• Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present
Crisis inspired missionaries to travel to foreign nations.
• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's book of 1890, The Influence of Sea Power
upon History, 1660-1783, argued that control of the sea was the key to
world dominance; it stimulated the naval race among the great powers.
• James G. Blaine published his "Big Sister" policy which aimed to rally the
Latin American nations behind America's leadership and to open Latin
American markets to American traders.
• The willingness of America to risk war over such distance and minor
disputes with Italy, Chile, and Canada demonstrated the aggressive new
national mood.
Monroe's Doctrine and the
Venezuelan Squall
• The area between British Guiana and Venezuela had been in dispute for
over 50 years. When gold was discovered in the contested area, the
prospect of a peaceful resolution faded.
• Secretary of State to President Cleveland, Richard Olney, claimed that if
Britain attempted to dominate Venezuela in the quarrel and gain more
territory, then it would be violating the Monroe Doctrine. When Britain
flatly rejected the relevance of the Monroe doctrine, President Cleveland
stated that the United States would fight for it.
• Although somewhat annoyed by the weaker United States, Britain chose to
not to fight a war. Britain's rich merchant marine was vulnerable to
American commerce raiders, Russia and France were unfriendly, and
Germany was about to challenge the British naval supremacy.
• With their eyes open to the European peril, Britain was determined to
cultivate an American friendship. The Great Rapprochement, or
reconciliation, between the United States and Britain became a cornerstone
of both nations' foreign policies.
•
Spurning the Hawaiian Pear
• The first New England missionaries reached Hawaii in 1820.
• Beginning in the 1840s, the State Department began to warn other nations
to keep their hands off Hawaii. In 1887, a treaty with the native
government guaranteed naval-base rights at Pearl Harbor.
• The profits of sugar cultivation in Hawaii became less profitable with the
McKinley Tariff of 1890. American planters decided that the best way to
overcome the tariff would be to annex Hawaii. Queen Liliuokalani insisted
that native Hawaiian should control the islands.
• A desperate minority of whites organized a successful revolt in 1893. The
Queen was overthrown and white revolutionists gained control of
Hawaii. When a treaty to annex Hawaii was presented to the Senate,
President Grover Cleveland promptly withdrew it.
Cubans Rise in Revolt
• Sugar production of Cuba became less profitable when the
America passed the tariff of 1894.
• Cubans began to revolt against their Spanish captors in 1895
after the Spanish began to place Cubans in reconcentration
camps and treat them very poorly. Cuban revolutionaries
began to reason that if they destroyed enough of Cuba and did
enough damage, then Spain might abandon Cuba or the United
States might move in and help the Cubans with their
independence.
• America had a large investment as well as annual trade stake
in Cuba.
• Congress passed a resolution in 1896 that recognized the
belligerence of the revolted Cubans. President Cleveland
refused to budge and fight for Cuba's independence.
The Mystery of the Maine Explosion
• William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer led the fabricated
atrocities of Cuba apart of the new "yellow journalism." The
two men caused the American people to believe that conditions
in Cuba were worse then they actually were.
• Hearst's Journal published a private letter written by the
Spanish minister in Washington, Dupuy de Lome in 1898. The
letter, which degraded President McKinley, forced Dupuy de
Lome to resign.
• On February 15, 1898, the American ship, Maine blew up in
the Havana port. The Spanish investigators deduced that it
was an accident (spontaneous combustion in one of the coal
bunkers) while the American investigators claimed that Spain
had sunk it. The American people were convinced by the
American investigators and war with Spain became imminent.
McKinley Unleashes the Dogs of
War
• American diplomats had already gained Madrid's
agreement to Washington's 2 basic demands: an end
to the reconstruction camps and an armistice with
Cuban rebels.
• Although President McKinley did not want a war
with Spain, the American people did. He felt that the
people should rule so he sent his war message to
Congress on April 11, 1898. Congress declared war
and adopted the Teller Amendment. It proclaimed to
the world that when the United States had overthrown
the Spanish misrule, it would give the Cubans their
freedom.
Dewey's May Day Victory at Manila
• The American people plunged into the war with jubilation,
which seemed premature to Europeans. The American army
numbered 2,100 officers and 28,000 men compared to the
200,000 Spanish troops in Cuba.
• The readiness of the navy (ranked 5th world-wide) owed much
to the navy secretary John D. Long and his assistant secretary
Theodore Roosevelt.
• Roosevelt called upon Commodore George Dewey's 6-ship
fleet to descend upon Spain's Philippines in the event of
war. On May 1, 1898, Dewey slipped by detection at night
and attacked and destroyed the 10-ship Spanish fleet at
Manila.
Unexpected Imperialistic Plums
• Foreign ships began to gather in the Manila harbor,
protecting their nationals. After several incidents, the
potential for battles with other nations blew over.
• On August 13, 1898, American troops captured
Manila.
• The victory in the Philippines prompted the idea that
Hawaii was needed as a supply base for Dewey in the
Philippines. Therefore, Congress passed a joint
resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii on July 7,
1898.
The Confused Invasion of Cuba
• Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the Spanish government
sent a fleet of warships to Cuba, led by Admiral Cervera. He
was blockaded in the Santiago harbor in Cuba by American
ships.
• Leading the invasion force from the rear to drive out Cervera
was General William R. Shafter.
• The "Rough Riders," apart of the invading army, was a
regiment of volunteers consisting of cowboys and exathletes. Commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood, the group
was organized principally by Theodore Roosevelt.
• William Shafter's landing near Santiago, Cuba was made
without serious opposition.
• On July 1st, fighting broke out at El Caney and San Juan Hill,
up which Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charged.
Curtains for Spain in America
• Admiral Cervera's fleet was entirely destroyed on
July 3, 1898 and shortly thereafter Santiago
surrendered. General Nelson A. Miles met little
resistance when he took over Puerto Rico.
• On August 12, 1898, Spain signed an armistice.
• Before the war's end, much of the American army
was stricken with malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever.
McKinley Heeds Duty, Destiny, and
Dollars
• In late 1898, Spanish and American negotiators met in Paris to
begin heated discussions. The Americans secured Guam and
Puerto Rico, but the Philippines presented President
McKinley with a problem: he didn't feel he could give the
island back to Spanish misrule, and America would be turning
its back upon responsibilities if it simply left the Philippines.
• McKinley finally decided to Christianize and to civilize all of
the Filipinos. Disputes broke out with the Spanish negotiators
over control of the Philippines because Manila had been
captured the day after the war, and the island could not be
listed among the spoils of the war. America therefore agreed
to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines.
America's Course (Curse?) of
Empire
• The Anti-Imperialistic League sprang up and fought
the McKinley administration's expansionist moves.
• In the Senate, the Spanish treaty ran into such
opposition that is seemed doomed to
defeat. Democratic presidential candidate for the
election of 1900, William J. Bryan used his influence
on Democratic senators to get the treaty approved on
February 6, 1899. Bryan argued that the sooner the
treaty was passed, the sooner the Filipinos could gain
their independence.
Perplexities in Puerto Rico and
Cuba
• By the Foraker Act of 1900, Congress gave the Puerto Ricans
a limited degree of popular government and, in 1917, granted
them U.S. citizenship. The American regime in Puerto Rico
worked wonders in education, sanitation, transportation, and
other improvements.
• Beginning in 1901 with the Insular Cases, the Supreme Court
declared that the Constitution did not extend to the Philippines
and Puerto Rico.
• The United States, honoring the Teller Amendment of 1898,
withdrew from Cuba in 1902. The U.S. forced the Cubans to
write their own constitution of 1901 (the Platt
Amendment). The constitution decreed that the United States
might intervene with troops in Cuba in order to restore order
and to provide mutual protection. The Cubans also promised
to sell or lease needed coaling or naval stations to the U.S.
New Horizons in Two Hemispheres
• Although the Spanish-American War only
lasted 113 days, American prestige as a world
power increased.
• One of the greatest results of the war was the
bonding between the North and the South.