1. Chapter 20 Seizing an American Empire, 1865-1913

2. Toward the New Imperialism
Imperialism in a Global Context
American Imperialists
Imperialist Theory
The Second Industrial Revolution had generated a desire for new markets in which American manufacturers could sell their wares. Added to this was renewed European competition to colonize, this time in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Many of these nations pursued these colonies for religious reasons, to bring Christianity to the new territories.
American agricultural products had long competed with other nations on the world market. Now the industrial base had expanded to a point where many believed that it could do so as well. In this age, sail power was dwindling and the steam-powered ship was rising. According to Admiral Alfred T. Mahan, a strong nation competing globally required a strong navy to protect its shipments. His book would spark a renaissance in how the world thought about their individual navies, and many countries began to modernize their fleet.
Many proponents for expansion used the concept of social Darwinism to bolster their claims on foreign lands, citing the superiority of the English-speaking races over the colonies’ inhabitants.

3. Expansion in the Pacific
Samoa
Hawaii
Although much of the imperialist expansion of the United States occurred around the start of the twentieth century, its roots begin farther back, when William H. Seward secured the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in From there, Samoa would grant the United States a naval base and request U.S. intervention to settle disputes if necessary.
Hawaiian royalty had, in 1875, entered into an agreement with the United States to import sugar duty free. This created a boom in the production of sugar, and soon American planters had flooded the island nation. Eventually, the royal family was ousted by these same planters and a new government was established requesting territory status. Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland refused to accept it, as they did not want to reward the dishonorable actions of the planters. President William McKinley had no such concerns and secured the ratification of the treaty.

4. “Our New Senators” “Our New Senators”
Mocking the Alaska purchase, this political cartoon shows President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State Seward welcoming two new senators from Alaska: an Eskimo and a penguin.

5. Queen Liliuokalani
The Hawaiian queen sought to preserve her nation’s independence.

6. The War of 1898 “Cuba Libre” Pressure for War
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Cubans had repeatedly revolted against their Spanish colonizers. Each time insurrection broke out, it was put down bloodily. When another attempt broke out in 1895, the Spanish commander placed all of the Cubans in detention centers to prevent more joining the cause. His actions would be luridly portrayed by Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal newspapers, then locked in a competition for the most readers. Cleveland, still president at this time, tried to protect American interests in Cuba, while the newspapers engaged in sensationalist stories about Cuba that were dubbed “yellow journalism.”
Once McKinley was inaugurated, issues in Cuba grew more tenuous, and the battleship Maine was sent to Havana harbor to protect American citizens and interests. Around the same time, a letter sent from the Spanish ambassador to a friend in Havana and published in American papers denounced McKinley as a weak politician. Shortly thereafter, the Maine exploded, killing 260 sailors. (At first, the explosion was blamed on a mine in the harbor, but a 1976 study revealed that it had been an internal explosion.) On these grounds McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war, which was granted. Shortly after, a Spanish official offered to give McKinley an official surrender.

7. “$50,000 Reward”
As if the news of the Maine were not disturbing enough, the New York Journal sought to sensationalize the incident by offering a $50,000 reward for the perpetrators, the equivalent of $1.3 million today.

8. The War of 1898, continued Manila The Cuban Campaign
“The Splendid Little War” lasted only 114 days and marked the finale of Spain’s overseas empire. On April 30, Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish flotilla in Manila Bay in the Philippines. Once done, Dewey had to rely on Filipino guerrillas to hold the islands until a contingent of American troops arrived.
The war in Cuba was almost as quick. The U.S. Navy blockaded the Spanish navy while the army was transported to the island. One regiment, led by former assistant secretary of the navy Theodore Roosevelt and dubbed, the Rough Riders became famous for their role in the Battle of San Juan Hill. The Spanish navy stationed at Havana was defeated and the peace treaty was signed on August 12, less than four months after it started. Spain was required to relinquish Cuba, Puerto Rica, and Manila.

9. The Spanish-American War in the Pacific (The War of 1898)
Why did Theodore Roosevelt order Commodore Dewey to take Manila? What role did Emilio Aguinaldo play? Why were many Americans opposed to the acquisition of the Philippines?

10. The Spanish-American War in the Caribbean (The War of 1898)
What started the War of 1898? What caused most of the casualties in the war?

11. The Debate over Annexation The Philippine-American War
Pacific Expansion
The Debate over Annexation
The Philippine-American War
Religion and Empire
The location of the Philippines next to Asia provoked an expansionist spirit in many Americans. The proximity of the island to China, the availability of vast quantities of natural resources, and the opportunity to “Christianize” its inhabitants marked it as a sure bet for colonization. Eventually, the peace treaty was ratified.
In 1899, an American solider outside Manila fired on a group of Filipino nationalists, and a new war erupted. It would take three years to suppress the nationalist uprising that followed. The same guerillas that Dewey had relied on to secure Manila before the army could arrive now turned against their American saviors.
Riding a wave of evangelism, many Protestant ministers promoted what they saw as a ripe opportunity to begin the evangelization of the world. Many unabashedly promoted the benefits of the Anglo-Saxon race and the Christian religion. Many Americans found themselves divided by religious affiliation concerning the annexation of the former Spanish colonies. Protestants favored annexation, while Catholics warned that trying to convert the colonies to Protestantism would only exacerbate the problems.

12. Turmoil in the Philippines
Emilio Aguinaldo (seated third from right) and other leaders of the Filipino insurgence

13. “The Water Cure”
A prisoner of war being tortured during the Philippine-American War

14. U.S. Interests in the Pacific
Why was President McKinley eager to acquire territory in the Pacific and the Caribbean? What kind of political system did the U.S. government create in Hawaii and in the Philippines? How did Filipinos and Hawaiians resist the Americans?

15. Organizing the Acquisitions
Administration
Organizing the Acquisitions
The Philippines eventually would be added as a territory of the United States and future president William Howard Taft would be named the first governor. Succeeding legislation would provide for greater Filipino control of the islands, culminating in their independence in Puerto Rico had come under U.S. control in the peace treaty, and it was organized to provide a bastion from future European aggression and as a guard post for a future isthmus canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Cuba would be allowed to craft its own constitution but was limited in its freedom by the Platt Amendment, which placed restrictions on its rights.

16. “Well, I Hardly Know Which to Take First!”
At the end of the nineteenth century, it seemed that Uncle Sam had developed a considerable appetite for foreign territory.

17. Imperial Rivalries in East Asia
The “Open Door”
The Boxer Rebellion
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry had sailed to Japan to force its acceptance of items from Western markets. By 1895, Japan had begun to expand by defeating China in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), taking several islands and, more importantly, revealing China’s weakness against aggression.
Acting on this new revelation, Germany, France, Russia, and Great Britain began dividing China into markets for their expansion. Unwilling to accept a China that was divided so many ways, the United States issued the Open Door Note, which proposed leaving China open to trade by all nations.
A group of Chinese nationalists known as the Boxers would rebel against the foreign encroachments into their country, but they were eventually put down by intervention from a joint assault of British, German, Russian, Japanese, and American forces.

18. Intervention in China Intervention in China
After quelling the Boxer Rebellion, U.S. troops marching in the Forbidden Palace, the imperial palace in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

19. Big-Stick Diplomacy Roosevelt’s Rise The Panama Canal
Theodore Roosevelt was the first modern president. In fact, it can be argued that he, more than any other president, shaped what Americans’ expect of the president in this era. After his role in the Spanish-American War, he became governor of New York, and in 1900, he was elected vice-president under McKinley. Then, in 1901, McKinley was assassinated, making Roosevelt the youngest president ever to hold the office.
The Spanish American War once again revealed the need for a canal between the two seas. The United States now set out to build one, but where should it be located? Two paths were proposed, one through Panama, a province of Columbia, and one through Nicaragua. Eventually Panama was chosen, and when Columbia refused to go along, the Panamanians declared their independence, and Columbia was unable to respond due to U.S. warships “conveniently” located in the way. The canal would eventually open in 1914.

20. Digging the Canal
President Theodore Roosevelt operating a steam shovel during his 1906 visit to the Panama Canal.

21. U.S. Interests in the Caribbean
Why did America want to build the Panama Canal? How did the U.S. government interfere with Colombian politics in an effort to gain control of the canal? What was the Roosevelt Corollary?

22. The Roosevelt Corollary The Russo-Japanese War
Theodore Roosevelt
The Roosevelt Corollary
The Russo-Japanese War
The Caribbean was ripe for armed intervention from European powers on the premise of collecting debts owed them by those nations. In 1904, Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that if a foreign nation had an issue with a Western nation, it should come to the United States for redress of its grievances and the United States would take care of it.
Japan attacked Russia in 1904, when Japan felt that Russia’s ambitions counteracted its own. In a brilliant attack on the Russian navy, Japan destroyed its fleet. Roosevelt sponsored a meeting between the two nations, and the result was the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905.

23. “Big-Stick Diplomacy”
President Theodore Roosevelt wields “the big stick,” symbolizing his aggressive diplomacy.

24. Big-Stick Diplomacy, continued
Relations with Japan
The United States and Europe
While Roosevelt met with Russian and Japanese leaders to secure the peace, he sent William Howard Taft to Tokyo to secure an agreement with Japan in which Japan disavowed any claim to the Philippines in return for U.S. recognition of Japanese control of the Korean peninsula. However, distrust reigned on both sides, and when the city of San Francisco ordered Asian students to attend separate schools, Japan protested the action vigorously. Roosevelt would force the city to change its policy while at the same time securing an agreement that Japan would no longer issue visas for its citizens to visit the United States.
Africa was the last continent to face colonization. In 1905, the German kaiser, Wilhelm II, brought the world to the precipice of war with his remarks. Roosevelt intervened and secured a peace between the aggrieved nations. The capstone of Roosevelt’s successes as president came in 1907 when he sent the entire navy, dubbed the Great White Fleet (which had been painted white in time of peace) across the globe. It landed at every major port, illustrating the might of the United States.

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