Transcript Imperialism

Imperialism
Chapter 7 section 4
Reaching for Empire
Section Objectives
• Explain how the United States opened
new avenues for trade in foreign lands.
• Explain how the United States acquired
Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
• Understand how the idea of Manifest
Destiny related to the expansion of the
country’s boundaries.
The Monroe Doctrine
• President James Monroe’s address to Congress
in 1823.
• Message to the European powers was loud and
clear: no more European colonies in the
Western Hemisphere.
• Any military expeditions sent would be seen as a
threat to the U.S.
• 20 years later, President James K. Polk
implemented the so-called Monroe Doctrine and
laid a cornerstone for American foreign policy.
Sea to shining sea
• Expansionism- increase territory (take
over the of Oregon and Southwest)
• Manifest Destiny- the notion that the
United States was a superior country and
had a right to invade, conquer, and occupy
the North American continent and beyond.
• 1845, Polk declared no European colony
could occupy the North American
continent.
Gaining Oregon and Southwest
• Oregon—Britain controlled, but reached a
compromise with the U.S. in 1846. Britain
claimed the land above the 49th parallel. The
U.S. gets what is Oregon and Washington.
• Mexico not happy with the U.S. when we
annexed Texas in 1845.
• U.S. attempted to buy land from Mexico for $30
million, but war erupted and the two countries
fought for 2 years. The treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo gave the U.S. lands in the Southwest for
$15 million.
Worldwide Ambitions
• After Civil War, Americans felt patriotic
• United States a model country and felt a
moral obligation to expand.
– Spread ideals of democracy and Protestant
Christian values to people in other lands.
– Missionaries- convert natives to Christianity
• U.S. a world power through trade,
diplomacy, and conquest.
• Expansion due to the need of new markets
Opening Closed Doors
• Asia trade market—China in 1844
– Exchange cloth, iron, fur for tea, silk, porcelain, and
jade
• Japan had closed doors for 250 years
– Reports of Japans coal deposits were enticing
– Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854 opened Japan
• Korea trade opened in 1880s
• Growth of Asian markets increased U.S. desire
to become a world power.
Alaska
• Secretary of State William Seward had an
aggressive foreign policy after the Civil
War
– In 1867, tried to purchase Danish Islands in
Caribbean for $7.5 million
– 1867, the U.S. seized the Midway Islands
– Purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million
– “Seward’s folly”—but Alaska was rich in
resources. Gold, copper, and oil resources.
Moving into the Pacific
• 1878 the U.S. acquired rights to a naval
station in Samoa, which was strategic for
trade in Australia and New Zealand.
Britain and Germany also had claims to
Samoa, so they split the islands in 1889.
• Hawaiian Islands became important for
sugar growers and missionaries.
• 1881, “essentially a part of the American
system”
Hawaii takeover
• 1887, King Kalakaua granted U.S. rights to build
a naval base at Pearl Harbor
• 1893, American sugar planters in Hawaii staged
a rebellion, to take control of Hawaii from Queen
Liliuokalani.
• U.S. Marines surrounded the palace, and carried
out a coup, leaving American sugar planters and
missionaries in political control of the islands—5
years later annexed by Congress
War with Spain
• 1898- Spanish-American War
• Outcome—added significant new territory
to growing American overseas empire
• Origins of War lay in troubled island of
Cuba, which struggles for independence
from Spain since 1868.
• Some Americans identified Cuban struggle
as U.S.-Britain relations, others view Cuba
as a natural part of the U.S.
War with Spain
• 1895, Cuban rebels led by Jose Marti
renewed fighting for independence.
• William McKinley campaigned to gain
Hawaii and Virgin Islands and support for
Cuban independence, but had no desire to
fight a war with Spain.
• February 1898, an explosion blew up the
battleship Maine, killing 260 officers and
men.
Remember the Maine! To Hell with
Spain!
• Many Americans claimed Spain blew up
the ship and a naval investigation claimed
a Spanish mine caused the explosions.
• Declaration of war against Spain, 1898.
And Spain declared war on the U.S.
• Critics believed that the Headlines in the
papers caused the war to escalate.
• 78 years later, an accident, not a mine.
Philippines
• Philippines under Spanish rule as well
• U.S. protect Asian business connections
• T. Roosevelt ordered C. George Dewey to
attack Spanish fleet in Philippines
• Demolished fleet in Manila Bay, 1898
• July 7, 1898 American fleet secured Cuba
• By the end of the war, death toll exceeded
5,400, fewer than 400 died in combat
Spoils to the Victor
• Spain granted independence to Cuba and ceded
Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the
U.S. for $20 million
• American gov’t refused to grant Philippines
independent
• Business interests outweighed all other
considerations to control the islands
• 1899, the U.S. expanded its dominion to include
Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Pacific islands
including the Philippines.