AMERICAN IMPERIALISM “The New Manifest Destiny”

Causes of American Imperialism  End of the frontier, 1890 –Expand or explode –Natural resources –Panic of 1893 –Labor violence and agricultural discontent  Foreign trade important to economy –Expansion of markets  Competition with European powers –International prestige –Europeans = 1/5 land, 1/10 population of the globe –“Place in the Sun” for Germany and Italy

Proponents of American Imperialism  Alfred Mahan –“The Influence of Sea Power on History”  Canal Zone  Josiah Strong –“Our Country”  Superiority of Anglo-Saxon  TR and Henry Cabot Lodge –Social Darwinism  Albert Beveridge –“Ordained by God”  “Yellow Journalism” –Hearst and Pulitzer

Pan-Americanism  James G. Blaine –“Big Brother” policy –Pan American Conference, 1889  Rejected “inter-American” customs  Fear of US dominance

Samoan Islands Crisis  Pago Pago –US versus the Germans (and British)  Naval skirmish, 1889  American Samoa, included Pago Pago –“coaling stations”

Venezuelan Boundary Dispute,  Gold between British Guiana and Venezuela –Disputed territory  Violation of Monroe Doctrine? –Cleveland mediation rejected  Boer War forces Great Britain to arbitration –South Africa

Acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, 1898  Biggest imperialist debate in Congress –American planters vs. Queen Liliukalani, 1893  Sugar Tariffs –Cleveland opposes  Use force to unseat Americans?  Public opinion against Cleveland –Need harbor for Spanish American War

Cuban Insurrectos, 1890s  Atrocities in Cuba by Spanish –Cuban workers bore the brunt of Wilson –Gorman Tariff, 1894  Reconcentrado camps –100,000 dead between –“Butcher” Wyler  Yellow Journalism –Hearst and Pulitzer  “You supply the pictures, I’ll supply the war”  Battleship USS Maine –de Lome letter –Explosion of Maine in Havana Harbor –“To Hell with Spain, remember the Maine”!

Spanish-American War, 1898  McKinley reluctant to go to war –Pushed by public opinion (Yellow Journalism) –Spain agrees to Cuban independence –Teller Amendment  Admiral Dewey victorious at Manila Bay –TR involved as Secretary of Navy –Spanish fleet “hollow” –Emilio Aguinaldo, freedom fighter  Pearl Harbor needed for military use –Annexation of Hawaiian islands  Treaty of Paris, 1898 –Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Platt Amendment in Cuba –Insular Cases ****

American Imperialism in Asia  Open Door Policy in China, 1899 –“spheres of influence” –Open trade between European powers  Box Rebellion, 1900 –“Foreign Devils” –American indemnity  Russo-Japanese War, 1905 –TR receives Nobel Prize (Treaty of Portsmouth)  San Francisco Schoolboard Incident –Gentlemen’s Agreement  American-Japanese Relations –Root-Takahira Agreement, 1908 –“Great White Fleet” –Lansing-Ishii Agreement, 1917  “Dollar Diplomacy” (Taft)

The Great War Begins!!!! 1914  What do ya know about The Great War? –Remember your World History…?